How new cultural salon Gold will reflect Hong Kong’s changing art scene
Gold will open in Hong Kong’s Wong Chuk Hang during Art Basel in 2026. Its founders talk about the changing face of art in the city
There is a large commercial space at street level in the heart of Hong Kong Island’s southern Wong Chuk Hang neighbourhood whose interesting and rather random history lends it a somewhat mysterious air.
The high-ceilinged, 3,500 sq ft (325 square metre) unit on the ground floor of the Remex Centre, a large industrial building just in front of an MTR station, was previously occupied by a gold and jewellery shop that was almost exclusively patronised by tour groups from mainland China. Before that, it was a bank.
Now, a new cultural institution is giving the ground-floor space a massive makeover before its scheduled opening in March 2026 during Art Basel Hong Kong.
Called Gold in reference to the previous tenants, the new salon is being planned by Tobias Berger and Benjamin Cha – the former a curator, the latter a property developer. The pair were brought together by their love for the arts and of Hong Kong as an international art hub.
Inspired by Europe’s intellectual and interdisciplinary “salon” gatherings between the 16th and 19th centuries, the new space aims to combine contemporary art, design, music and other kinds of culture, bringing a breath of fresh air to the typically siloed creative ecosystem in Asia.