Ahead of Art Basel and the slew of buzzy satellite events that made up Hong Kong art week in March, many international art enthusiasts headed to the He Art Museum in Shunde, over the border in mainland China’s Guangdong province.
The private museum was opened in 2020 by the He family, who own Midea Group, the world’s biggest home appliance maker. Housed inside an elegant building designed by Japanese architect
Tadao Ando that resembles a stack of discs, the museum has become a regular stop for visitors to the area.
Despite a wave of high-profile museums planned for the nearby economic powerhouse of Shenzhen in the coming years, the He Art Museum (HEM) looks set to remain a force in the Greater Bay Area’s art scene.
But the museum’s journey has not been straightforward, says its director Shao Shu, who has been with the institution from the start.
HEM is the brainchild of He Jianfeng, the eldest son of Midea Group’s founder. It initially followed the typical playbook for Chinese private museums backed by great wealth: it hosted exhibitions by celebrated international names – including a Roni Horn retrospective in 2023 – to put itself on the contemporary art map.