Before I hopped on the plane back the US, I made a point to go to this year's Fotanian Open Studios, where you got to visit the studios of local artists. It was quite reminiscent of Shanghai's Tianzifang. On the whole, the Fotanian event was spread over several industrial buildings that made it harder to navigate around than the much more tourist friendly Tianzifang, however it much more of an underground feel as a result.
From all the massive promotions throughout the city while I was there, I can tell there is a definite effort to further promote homegrown artistic talent. You should check out their posters because I love the graphic design done on the promotion materials. There was a decent turn out too on the random Sunday afternoon that I went, judging by the traffic of people and the long lines for elevators. To be honest, I wasn't too impressed by the kind of art shown here. None of the works felt fully developed. Nothing took my breath away. Yet I feel, given time, the kind of art produced in Hong Kong today may someday (hopefully) rival those produced at Beijing's 798 or at least on the a commercial front, closer to that of Shanghai's.
On a slightly different note, if you have time take a look at a local art magazine, TrendsOn, that I've seen distributed for free across the city in many cafés that I have come to enjoy reading.
For my dad who tagged along with me, we stopped by this shop selling antique Chinese tea ware. How awesome is that table?!
