Gallery of Hope

Text: Hong Kong Tatler Jan 2011
Photos: Galerie Ora-Ora

Galerie Ora-Ora opens doors to a more artistic future

Over the four years that Henrietta Tsui has been operating Galerie Ora-Ora, her goal has never been to generate big profits. The real dream, she says, was to educate the Hong Kong public and create a haven for emerging artists. By exhibiting contemporary sculptures and Asian new ink, which can be difficult to find in the city, Tsui’s gallery in Shin Hing Street, Central, strives to broadcast hidden talents from around the world.

“We want to be unique. We want to open up the narrow art horizon that is dominating Hong Kong,” says Tsui. “And with the booming Asian art scene, Chinese art is getting a lot more international recognition. So we thought, we not? We’re already based in China.”

Located in the heart of Hong Kong’s art district, Galerie Ora-Ora—meaning from one era to another, or eternity—currently houses a collection by renowned American sculptor, Will Clift. A mastery of gravity and balance, the playful wooden figures are suspended by the podiums like waves of rising smoke, casting interesting shadows on the gallery’s beige walls.

Like Clift’s, other impressive collections frequently gracing Galerie Ora-Ora, include the rarely publicized personal collection of Josep Maria Subirach, father to Passion Façade on the basilica of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, as well as the works of contemporary new ink artist, Hao Liang, whose works have sparked a revolution in the use of the traditional Chinese medium.

“We discover artists when they’re green and young,” Tsui says. “Then through collaborations at the gallery, we grown with them, we learn from them, we share their thoughts.”

Tsui’s biggest frustration is the lack of art recognition in Hong Kong’s education system.

On the mainland, comparatively, children with artistic talent are showered with scholarships, government funds and loans so they can pursue their dreams.

“Artists in China don’t have to work part-time jobs to survive,” she explains. “Four-year-old children in China make real art in kindergarten, not macaroni faces on plastic plates. And I want Hong Kong to be like that.”

Despite Tsui’s familiarity with Hong Kong’s art realm, she is surprisingly new in the market. Before the opening of Galerie Ora-Ora, she was a well-known financial adviser for one of the city’s biggest banks—a result of family pressure to pursue business in her university studies instead of her passion for fine arts.

The tipping point that made her give up her high-paying job for a gallery, was the coming of her 30th birthday.

“An increase in age comes with an increased fear of risk,” Tsui says. “I gave up the luxurious and expensive lunches, but I can honestly say I am much happier now. Even if we fail, we’ve at least won the process, and that’s all that matters to me.”

Ideals aside, Tsui also understands the challenging art environment in Hong Kong is not going to change anytime soon, so she hopes to achieve her dreams one step at a time by bringing in quality pieces, and in turn, gradually stretching the city’s constricting ideas of art.

“We are not after commercial things,” she says. “But we are slowly getting the recognition from both private and public corporations who are willing to do collaborations and events with us.”