Gallery in Fo Tan

Last Sunday the first gallery was inaugurated in Fo Tan, where artists have gathered for studio spaces since a few years ago. It's been common theory that galleries, shops and restaurants always follow artists in the west. And finally artists have to move out again because of high rent. The famous example is SoHo in New York. I'm not sure if the end of Fo Tan will be like this but first wonder if it would actually happen in the beginning too. I'm unsure if there will be more galleries opening here. Hanart got a space last year but it remains a warehouse after the open studio. The new Blue Lotus is operated as weekend gallery before customers or visitors would travel up here to see art during the week. Not even talking about the general mindset on contemporary art here, the preconception of distance of a lot of people in Hong Kong is super conservative. It's always the comfort zone for art from Wan Chai to Sheung Wan. Going beyond that can be "far away" for a lot of art hoppers, although it might be 20 more min in the MTR/KCR, that length of time has so often killed by all sorts of silly activities.

Anyway, there's a community in Fo Tan but not all the time invisible. While hoping things will be flourishing, there may be more substantial to have a place like cha chan tang (local cafe) where artists can have more chance to bump into each other. There are getting more "private" spaces for individuals and "open" space for public during the open studio events but that kind of communal space among artists are still missing.