Meet the innovative figures behind Asia’s best museums, galleries and fairs

Apart from being the chairman of IBF Financial Holdings, San Xiong Hong is also the founder of Hung’s Arts Foundation, which he established in 1999 to promote and preserve art and cultural relics. His passion for antiquities led him to amass a diverse collection focusing on six main areas: wenwan, Chinese sculpture, lacquerware, bamboo carving, thangka and Himalayan Buddhist art.

The foundation has long supported research, publishing scholarly works on historical artefacts such as a Chaoshou-type Tahoe inkstone or the limestone figure of Buddha Sakyamuni. In 2024, Hung’s Arts Foundation hosted visits from prominent figures such as Bonhams’ global head of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Edward Wilkinson, and Nepalese contemporary artist Tsherin Sherpa, underscoring the foundation’s role in the preservation of Asian art.

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As the co-founder and CEO of Galerie Quynh, one of Vietnam’s leading contemporary art galleries, Quynh Pham provides a platform to both the emerging and established art voices of the country. Since the gallery’s establishment in 2003, the arts leader has shown her commitment to promoting critical dialogue around contemporary art in Southeast Asia, elevating Vietnamese artists onto the global stage.

In 2024, the gallery received the prestigious Frieze Seoul Stand Prize for its solo presentation of Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s work. The exhibition showcased sculptures made from brass artillery shell casings, linked to The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon (2022), the artist’s film that examines the lasting impact of unexploded ordnance in Vietnam.

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Trickie Colayco-Lopa’s commitment to Filipino artists continues to shape the local art landscape. In 2013, she co-founded Art Fair Philippines alongside Lisa Ongpin-Periquet and Geraldine Araneta. Since then, it has grown into the country’s premier contemporary art event, attracting both local and international participation.

In February 2025, the fair relocated to the Ayala Triangle Gardens, introducing a more immersive and accessible experience. The event showcased a diverse range of artistic expressions, including talks, film exhibitions, photography and digital art, alongside its core gallery presentations. Highlights included daily tours, discussions with esteemed artist Manuel Ocampo and Larry’s List co-founder Christophe Noe and film screenings of Kono Basho and The Fat Boys: Each One Teach One.

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To bring art to a wider audience, Prof Thavorn Ko-udomvit founded the Ardel Gallery of Modern Art in 2016. His Bangkok gallery presents diverse ideas from established and emerging artists, hosting, for example, Thai:Mex:Printmaking, a double show with monochrome prints from Pongdej Chaiyakut of Thailand and Victor Manuel Hernandez Castillo of Mexico. Nurturing the community further, the gallery also holds learning activities such as acrylic painting workshops and academic seminars, as well as gives scholarships to art students.

Outside of being Ardel’s curator and director, Thavorn is one of Thailand’s premier artists, whose works, from photographs to paintings, have received recognition from art communities in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, England, Norway and Poland.

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Art master Paul Chiang has a special connection with Taitung, the seaside city that he credits with giving him “a second creative life”. When he moved to Taitung in 2008, the abstractionist, who previously created monochromatic works, began to express himself with colour. Now, he hopes to share the tranquil magic of its environment through the Paul Chiang Art Centre. Challenging conventional notions of galleries and museums, the art hub has been designed to highlight Taitung’s landscapes, with its collection of small spaces arranged harmoniously among its mountains.

While working on the art centre, which is set to open in March 2025, Chiang also presented a solo exhibition featuring over 100 of his works from his time in Paris and New York and his return to Taiwan.

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As co-chairman and global director of The Art Assembly, Magnus Renfrew organises six major art fairs, including Photofairs Shanghai, Sydney Contemporary, India Art Fair, Taipei Dangdai and the recently concluded Art SG, which was held in January 2025.

Featuring 105 galleries from 30 countries, and attracting more than 41,000 visitors, this year’s Art SG fulfilled its greater mission of fostering cultural dialogue in the region, as well as strengthening Southeast Asia’s connection to the international art world. “The successful conclusion of the third edition of Art SG reflects the solid foundations that the fair has laid to date and the exciting prospects for Singapore’s emergence as a key cultural and art market destination,” said its co-founder. The next edition of the art fair is already set—Art SG will return from January 23 to 25, 2026.

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In 2022, Silverlens Gallery opened its first international location, a 2,500-square-foot space in New York that continues the work started by founder Isa Lorenzo almost two decades ago. The renowned Manila gallery, which is managed by Lorenzo and co-director Rachel Rillo, has trained the spotlight on Filipino contemporary artists, including Pacita Abad, Maria Taniguchi and Wawi Navarroza.

With the New York gallery, the pair presents more of the region’s talents on a larger stage, hosting shows for Malaysian photographer Yee I-Lann and Filipino multi-media artist Martha Atienza, as well as group shows of contemporary artists from around the world. For Rillo, the New York exhibitions are “focused on an audience that is seeing ‘us’ for the first time, for institutions and academies, and a very diverse and exciting community of Asian-Americans”.

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Liza Ho’s love for the arts has resulted in various cultural projects, including the consultancy platform OUR ArtProjects, the art hub The Zhongshan Building and the gallery The Back Room. For Zhongshan, Ho and her partners transformed a ’50s-era building, which in its previous life was a frozen food distributor, residential and commercial spaces and a hostel, into a creative centre that supports artists, designers, musicians and researchers. Today, the hub is home to Malaysia Design Archive, Tandang Record Store, Tommy Le Baker and Ho’s consultancy and gallery.

For The Back Room, Ho, who has over a decade of experience in curatorial processes and gallery operations in Southeast Asia, champions art as something that can be enjoyed by all, presenting, for example, the topics of Chinese diaspora or interactions with the urban environment, as seen through the lens of Asian artists.

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Suhanya Raffel is the museum director of M+, Hong Kong’s groundbreaking museum of visual culture. Since joining in 2016, she has been instrumental in shaping M+ into a globally recognised institution, overseeing its 2021 opening and expanding its world-class collection of contemporary visual art, design and moving images, all of which are housed in 33 galleries spread across 17,000 square feet of exhibition space.

Under her leadership, M+ continues to foster cultural dialogue and innovation, reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as a leading hub for visual culture. In 2025, M+ signed a memorandum of agreement with New York’s Museum of Modern Art to collaborate on artwork loans and more. “We are excited to embark on this partnership, which will not only deepen mutual understanding and strengthen our exchange, but also set the stage for collaboration on curatorial affairs, collection development, exhibition research and museum operations,” she said.

Read Suhanya Raffel’s full profile here on Asia’s Most Influential

Dr Joven Cuanang established the Pinto Art Museum on a two-hectare botanical garden to share his collection of contemporary art with the public. Furthering his connection with the art community, the neurosurgeon has also been a patron of young Filipino artists since the 1980s when he started supporting the local artist group Salingpusa. Today, his museum highlights surrealist, expressionist, minimalist and conceptual art, including pieces from the original members of Salingpusa, most of whom have become stars of the art world.

To promote Filipino artists around the world, Cuanang also co-founded Pinto International, which has championed artists such as Leeroy New, Maia Cruz Palileo, Sara Jimenez and Eric Zamuco.

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For eight years, Kennie Ting led the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), one of the foremost museums in Asia that specialises in pan-Asian cultures and civilisations. Through its collection of antiquities and decorative art, ACM highlights the connections among the peoples of Asia and beyond, notably presenting the exchange of ideas and faith through the lens of Singapore’s history as an international port.

In 2021, Ting was conferred the rank of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. The honour recognised his work in strengthening the cultural ties between Singapore and France through ACM, specifically its Angkor: Exploring Cambodia’s Sacred City exhibition, which inspired the signing of a cultural agreement with France. In 2024, the writer published The Great Port Cities of Asia: In History, exploring the region’s history through the perspective of its major trade hubs.

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Maggie Weng is making art accessible to more people through the Fubon Art Foundation, which organises and supports exhibitions, performances, lectures and research. One of its most interesting projects, The Very Fun Park, is a “museum without walls” that displays paintings, sculptures and art installation pieces in public spaces all over Taipei, including alleyways, bridges and even the busy intersection of Zhongxiao E and Dun Hua S Roads. Further extending its reach, the foundation launched the Fubon Art App, a digital calendar that carries information about art and cultural activities in Taiwan and beyond.

The CEO is also one of Asia’s top collectors and has built a collection of more than 600 pieces without guidance from advisors. In 2024, after nearly a decade of preparation, the Renzo Piano-designed Fubon Art Museum opened in the Xinyi District of Taipei City.

Read Maggie Weng’s full profile on Asia’s Most Influential

Tatler Asia’s Most Influential is the definitive list of people shaping our world today. Asia’s Most Influential brings together the region's most innovative changemakers, industry titans and thought leaders who are driving positive impact in Asia and beyond. View the full list here.

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