One day, in early 2022, Wong Chi-hang was lying in a hospital bed, about to undergo treatment for a rare form of cancer.
“I had all kinds of flashbacks, thinking about what I’d done with my life,” says the Hong Kong-based art collector, known to his friends as “B”.
Now in remission, Wong is working to remedy that.
This January, he launched Nexx Asia, a 10,000 sq ft (930 square metre) exhibition space in the heart of Taipei, in Taiwan. Wong wants to develop Nexx Asia into a continent-spanning organisation that will bring together art, food, hospitality and more.
Also in the pipeline are a resort in Southeast Asia, which will include an artist residency component, and a restaurant in Hong Kong.
For the latter, Wong is planning to create an immersive dining experience built around contemporary art.
Wong did not discover his passion for art until he was in his late 20s, although he was collecting well before that.
Wong spent his early childhood in the city, then studied in the United Kingdom and Canada. He returned to Hong Kong in 2012 – by which time he had started collecting vintage cameras, before turning to watches.
In 2018, he bought a painting by the Los Angeles-based artist Cleon Peterson, which sparked an interest in contemporary art.
I like having the chance to talk to artists. When I talk to someone and their attitude and personality inspires me, then I start collecting their art
“With watches and cameras, I was very interested in the technical, mechanical side – how something was made. It started like that with art, but then I became interested in all the conceptual ideas in contemporary art,” says Wong.
He is particularly interested in art that is categorised as “ultra-contemporary”, which typically means it has been made by living artists born after 1975.
“I like having the chance to talk to artists,” says Wong. “When I talk to someone and their attitude and personality inspires me, then I start collecting their art.”
The ultra-contemporary segment of the market has boomed in recent years, with auction sales nearly tripling between 2019 and 2021, from roughly US$180 million to more than US$740 million, according to art market website Artnet.
“A lot of the artists I support have a huge market in Asia, but they have never come to Asia or experienced Asian cultures,” says Wong. Through Nexx Asia, he wants to change that.
By bringing artists to the region, Wong hopes to inspire them and also enrich local art scenes.
“The key idea is cultural exchange. I want to start a dialogue between artists and audiences around Asia,” he says.
I’m proud of hosting inspiring exhibitions that anyone can come and see.
Wong launched Nexx Asia in Taipei for two main reasons.
The first was that a close friend of his in the city, artist and gallerist Kea Tsai, agreed to partner with Wong on the project and manage the gallery’s day-to-day operations.
The second is that Wong knows that Taiwan has a large art collector community and a museum-going culture, but few galleries there showcase the kind of ultra-contemporary art he loves.
Most of the exhibitions at Nexx Asia in Taipei will not have works for sale. “Sales will never be the main purpose. The main goal is always education,” says Wong. Occasionally, however, an artist or their gallery might choose to sell works that they are exhibiting at Nexx Asia, he adds
When this happens, Wong will work with the artists and galleries on a project basis – he is not signing contracts to represent artists, or acting as a salesperson for any one gallery.
Wong hopes that, once other Nexx Asia ventures are up and running, these will subsidise the exhibitions and other non-profit initiatives so that Nexx Asia becomes self-financing. Until then, Wong is funding Nexx Asia for the love of it.
He is particularly excited to see how visitors will respond to its newest exhibition, a two-person show featuring the work of Los Angeles-based Korean-American artist Meeson Jessica Pae and Korean painter Keunmin Lee, which opened on September 3.
Pae began making art while grieving the loss of her brother, who died of cancer at the age of 15. She is now best known for her abstract paintings featuring biomorphic forms.
“Her art comes from a very personal place, but asks big questions about the human body, the environment, society,” says Wong.
He adds: “I think some people think I’m most proud of my collections of fancy watches and cameras, but now I’ve started Nexx Asia, this is what I’m most proud of: hosting inspiring exhibitions that anyone can come and see.”