Hong Kong’s most expensive artists, ranked: a Matthew Wong painting sold for US$4.9 million in 2020, while Stephen Wong, Wucius Wong and Luis Chan all made six-figure sums

Prices paid for some Hong Kong artists’ works have skyrocketed in recent years. The figures cannot compare with the eye-watering sums paid for the works of top international artists – Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior (1982) became the most expensive Western work of art to be sold at auction in Asia when it went for HK$280 million (including fees) at Christie’s Hong Kong in March 2021. Still, the impressive figures that the below works have garnered are cold, hard proof of the increased attention on, and appreciation of, home-grown talents.

1. Matthew Wong: The Night Watcher (2018)

In an unprecedented sale for a Hong Kong artist, The Night Watcher sold for US$5.9 million in May 2022, far in excess of its US$2 million estimate. The sale of the oil on canvas painting was held by Sotheby’s, and the figure was a record for the artist, who ended his life, aged just 35, in 2019.

Wong, who was born in Toronto in 1984 and lived in Hong Kong, Canada and the US throughout his life, had been painting and drawing seriously only since 2013. He suffered from Tourette’s syndrome and depression, and, according to his mother, spoke about his struggles.

Although his paintings are full of glorious colour, critics have pointed to a haunting melancholy within them. Wong’s first breakthrough was in 2015, when he had a small solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. But it was after his debut show in New York in 2018 that his works first increased dramatically in price. Since his death, sums paid for his works have shown a meteoric rise.

Wong’s paintings have a history of fetching high prices at auction. River at Dusk (2018) sold for US $4.9 million in December 2020 at a Phillips auction, achieving nearly four times its estimate. Previous to that, The Realm of Appearances (2018) sold for more than 22 times its estimate, reaching US$1.8 million at a Sotheby’s sale.

2. Stephen Wong Chun-hei: Tai Tung Shan (From Pak Kung Au to Mui Wo Pier) (2018)

Taking his auction debut by storm, Hong Kong artist Stephen Wong Chun-hei surpassed expectations with a sale price of more than four times the upper estimate for his oil on canvas diptych, Tai Tung Shan (From Pak Kung Au to Mui Wo Pier). The painting sold for US$128,100 (HK$1 million) in a sale by Christie’s Hong Kong in December 2022.

Set across two panels measuring 200cm by 150cm each, the work is a vivid and detailed portrayal of Hong Kong’s third-highest peak, Tai Tung Shan.

Hailed as “Hong Kong’s David Hockney”, Stephen Wong is known for his landscape paintings, which combine realism with imagination, giving a sense of mystery to the scenes. His works often seem familiar, but out of place, with perspectives tilted or a dazzling palette of colours that suggest the unreal.

Born in 1986, Wong graduated in fine art from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008. He takes long hiking trips out into the countryside with a sketchbook, capturing scenes en route. He then recreates the scenes in paint back in his studio, exploring themes around nature and our place in it, and human perception and representation.