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‘It was just so cool’: how London Royal Academy of Arts’ 1997 Sensation exhibition changed UK’s views on art, and inspired a Hong Kong art adviser

Groundbreaking at the time, Sensation contemporary art show featured works by the Young British Artists and brought art to the masses in the mid-’90s

Hong Kong-based art adviser Yuki Terase reveals how attending the exhibition changed her life, and inspired her to pursue the ‘commercial aspect’ of art

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Inverse Reverse Perverse (1996) by Cerith Wyn Evans, at the “Sensation” exhibition. The show changed the UK’s relationship with art. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 5:45pm, 13 Jan 2023

The exhibition “Sensation”, at London’s Royal Academy of Arts in 1997, marked a sea change in Britain’s relationship with contemporary art.

Featuring works from the collection of Charles Saatchi by the so-called Young British Artists, including Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Chris Ofili, Jenny Saville, Rachel Whiteread and Marc Quinn, it was controversial for several of its exhibits.

Yuki Terase, founding partner of Hong Kong-based art advisory company Art Intelligence Global and the former head of contemporary art in Asia for Sotheby’s, opens up about how it changed her life.

Up until university, I was educated in the UK. In 1997, I was a teenager. This was before the Tate Modern museum opened. London always had great art works, but they were great classics; it wasn’t known for being a contemporary art city. Then “Sensation” happened.

Yuki Terase, founding partner at Hong Kong-based art advisory company Art Intelligence Global, had her views of art turned on their head by the 1997 ‘Sensation’ exhibition. Photo: Yuki Terase

Our art teacher half reluctantly said, “There’s this show …” All the students who were doing A-level art went on a school trip. It was my very first experience of interacting with contemporary art.

If you go to the National (Gallery, in London), there’s a consensus about the works. This show was completely divisive: some people thought it was brilliant; some thought it was trash. There was no teacher telling you that you should feel this way or that way. It was completely different from anything I was used to. I was shocked.