Choosing art for the home is about mixing things up – the right way
- Art has become more affordable – portraits, photographs, sculptures and paintings can liven up a living space, but selecting carefully is key
Art may still be a luxury, but it is no longer just for the uber-rich, thanks to a rising number of international fairs and festivals that cater to low- and mid-range collectors. Consider the Affordable Art Fair (next Hong Kong edition in May 2019), where one can easily snap up a quality painting or ink drawing for under HK$5,000 (US$640). Art Central in Hong Kong, a waterfront art affair, while offering works in higher price brackets, also caters to low- to mid-range buyers.
It isn’t just the prices that are keeping Hongkongers away, though. In this city, art simply isn’t a priority when you are worrying about whether your three-seater sofa can fit in your living room.
“Space is an issue, but so is the temptation to crowd homes with furniture,” says Helen Smeaton, founder of Art House Asia in Clear Water Bay. “Whenever I walk into a Hong Kong client’s home, there is always too much furniture. I’d ask, what is that huge side table for? And they’d say, ‘Hmm, to put stuff there?’.
“If you streamline your furniture and steal back wall space, you can use it to display art,” points out Smeaton, who sources artworks from Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and South Africa, all ranging from US$1,000 to US$35,000. Rather than crowding a wall space with multiple, smaller works, Smeaton suggests one large painting that fills up an entire wall.
“The art becomes the focal point and you derive more pleasure from it. If you miniaturise things in a small space, everything looks really small.”
One important question to ask when picking art for the home is: do you like it?
As Angela Li, founder of Contemporary by Angela Li, puts it: “It needs to fit your lifestyle. You really need to consider something that you’d want to look at for a long period of time.”