Mega Gallery To Shutter Hong Kong Space
By Annette Meier
Exterior of Levy Gorvy’s Hong Kong gallery before its opening in March 2019. Courtesy HS2 Architecture and Bill Katz Studios.
Blue-chip dealership Lévy Gorvy Dayan (LGD) will close the physical location of its Hong Kong gallery (known as Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei) at the end of 2024, according to a July 4 report in the Financial Times. With operations in London and New York, the international gallery’s third space in Hong Kong’s Central district has served as its gateway into the Asian art market since 2019.
Speaking to the FT, LGD’s head of Asian operations Rebecca Wei cited a change in client behavior since the Covid-19 pandemic as “long-distance purchasing” has become preferable to in-person dealings. Wei, the former Asia chairperson of Christie’s, joined LGD at the height of Covid-19 restrictions in 2020. While details on how her position will develop are yet to be revealed, the FT has reported that Wei plans to stay in Hong Kong and continue her work with LGD, emphasizing more interpersonal relationships with clients. According to co-founder Brett Gorvy, there are no plans to open elsewhere in the region.
LGD is the union of three well-known commercial heavyweights: Swiss art dealer Dominique Lévy, former Christie’s chairman Brett Gorvy, and gallerist Amalia Dayan. Previously the partnership of LGDR included Salon 94 gallery founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn from 2021 to 2023. Following a successful participation at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2018, the gallery (then Lévy Gorvy) expanded its operations to Asia, opening their Hong Kong branch in March 2019 in a 232-square-meter space in the St. George’s Building, with 3.5-meter ceilings, private viewing rooms, an exhibition space, and a research center for the advisory office.
LGD has worked with prominent artists such as Chinese-French abstract painter Zao Wou-Ki, Korean avant-gardist Seung-taek Lee, Gutai member Tsuyoshi Maekawa, and Korean Dansaekhwa artist Chung Sang-Hwa. Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei’s recent exhibition “Color Form” featured Lucio Fontana, Pat Steir, Pierre Soulages, and other postwar abstract artists.
Annette Meier is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.
