Mainland artist Shen Shaomin's sculpture exhibition in 2006 caused a stir among local art lovers. It wasn't just that it featured giant figures assembled from animal bone; at 7,000 sq ft, the new gallery hosting the show was huge, especially by Hong Kong standards.
Its founder, Agnes Lin Yin, has since moved her Osage Kwun Tong gallery from its original premises in an industrial building to a site down the road with more than twice the space, and its shows have become important dates on the art calendar, providing a much-needed venue for large-scale experimental work.
But such attention was by no means assured at first.
'When I first opened the space, people told me I was crazy and that nobody would come,' says Lin. 'Even when we held an experimental music evening there recently, I thought only a handful of people would turn up. But we ran out of chairs.'
Lin's bold ventures have astounded many art aficionados. A successful entrepreneur with no art training and few contacts in the local scene, she established the first Osage gallery in SoHo four years ago to showcase Asian artists with an experimental bent. Then followed in quick succession a foundation to promote art education and avant-garde work and five other Osage galleries in Asia.
'Lin is something of a mythical figure in the Hong Kong art community,' says Kurt Chan Yuk-keung, associate professor of fine art at Chinese University. 'When Osage opened it was like a bomb dropping out of nowhere. Everyone was curious about who Lin was and why she was interested in experimental art, which is generally considered the most difficult.'
