About Us - History of Schoeni Art Gallery
Updated December 2010
Publications by SAG play a significant role in archiving primary source material for the history of contemporary Chinese art. To date, SAG has published over 70 catalogues.
The Founder’s, the late Manfred Schoeni’s, greatest achievement was to devote his life to art.
1991 Manfred Schoeni travelled to Shanghai with Gerard Bregnard, a well-known Swiss artist. Having visited a local art fair, it was apparent to him that various art organisations were exhibiting different styles of painters without any system or proper representation. From this moment, his idea to open a gallery in Hong Kong was born and research was done to see if such a possibility existed. An artist himself, becoming a gallerist had always been his greatest ambition.
1992 Schoeni’s first exhibition was a showcase of Liu Da Hong’s works, 1986 – 1992 Paintings by Liu Da Hong, at the China Club in Hong Kong. This exhibition was the starting point for growing interest in and media exposure of the gallery’s artistic vision. Encouraged by such a positive start, the Schoeni namesake went on to issue some of the first professional publications in this overlooked field of Chinese contemporary art and orchestrated an array of traveling international exhibitions. For more information on Liu Da Hong's catalogue please click here.
" One recalls with great fondness Manfred’s groundbreaking exhibition of Liu Da Hong’s work… Liu’s work spoke of the past, and through his unique visual style, of the confusion of China’s rapidly changing society through its content. For those who saw this exhibition, any notions of a bland representation of contemporary China were quickly dispelled.”
- Ian Findlay-Brown, Editor, Asian Art News (2007)
1993 Schoeni Art Gallery (SAG), opened its doors of its gallery site to the public at its On Hing Terrace space, with its Inaugural Opening Exhibition, featuring paintings by 18 Chinese, Russian and Swiss artists, including Jiang Guo Fang, Liu Xiao Dong and Xia Xing.
1994 The first debut exhibition abroad for artists, Yue Min Jin and his wide smiling characters, and Yang Shao Bin, entitled Faces Behind the Bamboo Curtain, Paintings by Yue Min Jun & Yang Shao Bin, was held at SAG. Due partly to the founder’s vision ahead of his time, these artists have since become iconic symbols of the Chinese Avant-Garde. A catalogue was also published in conjunction with this event. Many of the works from this exhibition were sold in the 90s and have since been put up for auction recently, breaking record prices.
The catalogue which was published in conjunction with Jiang Guo Fang’s first solo with SAG, Jiang Guo Fang: The Forbidden City, was awarded with the Best Produced English Language Art Books in Hong Kong by the Urban Council of Hong Kong.
1995 The first serial exhibition, Images of Women, which explores the different interpretations of the female form by various established artists, was held, and from herein, almost every year thereafter. Many of China’s most celebrated contemporary artists, whether from the Realism or Avant-Garde school have exhibited in these serial exhibitions at some point in their career.
SAG published a catalogue and curated an exhibition entitled History of Chinese Oil Painting – from Realism to Post-Modernism, which exhibited at SAG in Hong Kong and Galerie Theoremes, Brussels, Belgium. This book was the first of its kind at the time and has become an important introductory text for the reference of Chinese Oil Paintings.
1996 SAG was instrumental in the orchestration and assistance of curators for the touring exhibition of contemporary Chinese art China!, which was exhibited at major museums in Germany, Austria, Singapore and Amsterdam. SAG was also one of the official sponsors of this museum show.
In order to strengthen the identity of the gallery’s collection, SAG’s initial interest in the mixed talents of countries spanning Russia, China and Europe was pared down to focus on contemporary Chinese art.
1997 At the remarkably young age of 29, Zhong Biao, had his first solo exhibition abroad at SAG, The Fable of Life – Oil Paintings by Zhong Biao. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalgoue as well. He later became the representative artist for Dragon Air in 2006.
One of SAG’s highlight events include the exhibition entitled 8+8-1: Selected paintings by 15 Contemporary, yet another innovative idea of the late-founder’s, where he supplied all the artists with a number of small panels and asked them to paint figuratively, in line with the gallery’s aesthetic focus on figurative art.
This exhibition was showcased at five different venues around the world: Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong; Chicago Art Fair; Connaught Brown, London; Vierte Etage Galerie, Berlin; and Paris. The book published in conjunction with this project won the Excellent Award for Book Design in the HKDA Design 1998 Show, by the Hong Kong Designers Association. Paintings from this project are held in private collections globally and are frequently found in leading international auction houses.
"So often, when I asked about these paintings, did the name of Schoeni gallery come up that I decided to visit the space in Hollywood road and, although this was not my field of expertise, I realised immediately that Manfred had an extraordinary eye, and his taste seemed to be forming the collections of a generation of collectors in Hong Kong. His charming enthusiasm for the works and easy friendship with artists and collectors alike led that influence to become pervasive. Read an auction catalogue of contemporary Chinese art today and an astonishing number of lots will list Schoeni gallery as a Provenance, either as the source of the art or as a gallery where the work has been exhibited. Visit many an apartment or home in Hong Kong, or, increasingly around the world where collectors who had lived in Hong Kong for a while have returned home, and there is a high chance you will see a recent purchase from the gallery, a shelf, or coffee table of exhibition catalogues and an invitation to yet another exhibition.”
- Henry Howard-Sneyd, Sotheby's Managing Director for China (2007)
1998 SAG was the art consultant for the Grand Hyatt Hotel Group, for their Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, which is an important site that reflects the future of China bringing Shanghai into the 21st Century.
1999 SAG moved its gallery to Old Bailey Street, centrally located in the heart of Hong Kong’s highly popular SOHO district, and occupies an impressive 3,000 square feet. The new space was opened with its popular annual exhibition, Images of Woman V, a group exhibition with works by artists such as Ai Xuan, Jiang Guo Fang, Li Gui Jun, Qi Zhi Long, Shuai Mei, Wang Yi Dong, W
ang Yi Guang, Xia Xing, Zhang Li, Zhu Yi Yong.
2000 The Wang Yi Dong catalogue, which was published by SAG in conjunction with Wang Yi Dong’s second solo exhibition with SAG (1999), won the Excellent Award for Book Design in the HKDA Design 2000 Show, by the Hong Kong Designers Association.
The catalogue that was published in conjunction with Manfred Schoeni’s solo exhibition (1999), The Art of Manfred Schoeni, received the Excellent Award for Book Design in The HKDA Design 2000 Show, by the Hong Kong Designers Association.
The Asia Art Archive (AAA) was founded, as the first ever non-profit research centre in Hong Kong dedicated to documenting the recent history of visual art from the region within an international context. SAG has donated paintings for their fund raisers annually.
2001 SAG’s new gallery extension on 27 Hollywood Road in Central, Hong Kong, opened and it returned to representing contemporary Asian and European paintings.
2002 – 2004 SAG was instrumental in the orchestration and assistance of curators in the touring exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, Chinart, which included 40 of China’s most celebrated artists and was exhibited over a two-year period at major museums in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland and Spain.
2002 SAG opened its gallery doors in Beijing, China. Highlight exhibitions held there include: Liu Ye’s solo exhibition, Red-Yellow-Blue (2003); and SAG’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition (2003). It closed in 2004 due to ironical, and unforeseen market inconsistencies.
2003 SAG’s expertise was required by the China Club in Berlin to build their contemporary Chinese art collection.
The Sovereign Art Foundation Ltd was founded; it is a registered charity in Hong Kong whose goal is to promote awareness and offer support towards the development of Asian art and artists. SAG has been on the advisory board from the beginning, and has nominated several artists every year; all were selected as Top 30 Artists.
2004 Manfred Schoeni was tragically murdered in Boracay, Philippines on 3rd of May.
SAG’s current Director, Manfred Schoeni’s daughter Nicole, returned immediately from her studies in London and resumed leadership of the gallery. Nicole Schoeni oversaw and coordinated, Through the Artist’s Eyes – A Tribute to Manfred Schoeni, an exhibition of 43 artists. This memorial exhibited the visual legacy of Manfred Schoeni’s wide-reaching and formative influence in Chinese Contemporary Art and included works by the gallery’s major artists through its 12-year history.
The Sovereign Art Foundation Ltd named their public prize after the late Manfred Schoeni.
SAG’s was the art consultant for the VIP rooms at the Venetian Hotel in Macau; they purchased works Cao Jing Ping and other artists.
The China Realism Group, which was created in reaction to, what they believed was, an adverse emphasis of the Avant-Garde movement domestically and internationally, held their first annual exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing. This group is now recognised as an influential amalgamation of the Chinese tradition in oil painting that is spearheaded by leaders such as Wang Yi Dong and Ai Xuan, who have both exhibited frequently at SAG. Other artists from the Realism Group that SAG has supported over the years include: Zhang Li, Li Gui Jun, Zhang Yi Bo, Weng Wei and Xia Xing. Wang Yi Dong was part of the inspiration that led Manfred Schoeni’s founding of SAG.
" Schoeni Art Gallery’s remarkable vision and sharp artistic insight have won them great respect in the art world. In the early 90s, two polarised styles of Chinese oil painting emerged, namely scholasticism in its neo-classical sense and the avant-garde as represented by cynical realism. The former of the two fell within the mainstream while the latter was repelled. Artists of these two poles were drawn to their respective circles and never mixed with each other. Schoeni broke down the boundaries from the beginning, holding exhibitions for artists of various styles and different theoretical aspirations, and promoting their work”
- Dr Yu Ding, Vice-Dean of Humanities College,
CAFA Director & Professor of Arts Administration Department, 
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 2007
2005 An SAG international exhibition was held, in joint vision, with the distinguished MKM Museum Kuppersmuhle, Germany, where the gallery's exclusive artists Wang Yi Dong and Zhang Lin Hai were invited to artistically support their contemporaneous leader in Chinese Contemporary Art, Cai Guo Qiang in a three manned show named, Light and Shadow.
SAG extended its field of expert services to include the conservation and restoration of works, through its collaboration with the renowned Renate Kant, Director of Renate Kant Studio for Conservation and Restoration Pte Ltd.
2006 A joint collaboration with the international prestigious boutique, Shanghai Tang, brought contemporary Chinese art and fashion together in their limited edition Spring Collection, 2006. SAG’s contribution to this project took place in the form of an exhibition, as well as a line of limited edition products entitled Beyond the Canvas, which showcased a specially commissioned collection of works by 5 artists and incorporated some of Shanghai Tang's trademark items of sophistication and comfort.
SAG was invited to attend the Miart Fair in Milan which was held during 29th March – 2nd April.
SAG’s current director, Nicole Schoeni, discovers young talented artist Shen Hua. For the first time in SAG history, SAG officially sponsors an artist, subsidising Shen Hua’s master degree at the Sichuan Academy as well as his living expenses.
2007 SAG donated a piece by their exclusive artist, Yu Chen, to the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation, which was auctioned off at their Dinner gala held on the 4th of May in Hong Kong at a hammer price of HK$240,000.
SAG donated a painting by one of its younger exclusive artists, Shen Hua, to MOCA, China, Museum of Contemporary Art, which was auctioned off at a hammer price of HK$260,000.
SAG was one of the major sponsors of the Green Idea, Green Hope Project, a youth competition organised by the Today Art Museum, Beijing, China. This project's guiding principals include helping young artists to realise their dream. 
Schoeni Art Gallery is delighted to present its 15th anniversary celebratory exhibition, RE-collection, A Retrospective Look at 15 years of Art and Vision. Since the inception of SAG, we've seen tremendous growth and dynamism in the contemporary Chinese art market. RE-collection is an exhibition that celebrates the art and life that lives on in our gallery, it is a recollection of past achievements, just as it is a tribute to the collective progress that continues.
2008 SAG hosted the first ever Banksy solo exhibition in Hong Kong in collaboration with Fabrik Contemporary and Helium Foundation UK, from 29th April to 14th May 2008. The gallery is delighted to have the opportunity to present the world’s most famous and controversial street and stencil artist in Hong Kong. This groundbreaking urban art show hosted by Schoeni marks a new chapter for our gallery into the next generation while fortifying our position in the cutting-edge art world. As a result, the public response was overwhelming, attracting more than 400 art enthusiasts to attend the opening cocktail party.
The Niubi Newbie Kids exhibition opened on 18th September as a result of two years preparation and effort. The show features 6 young talents from China born in the 80’s, aiming to explore the characteristics of their generation, hence the “Me’ generation. In representing this controversial and new genre, SAG continues its role as pioneer in introducing new faces to the artistic arena.
SAG has collaborated with the U.K. Adapta, a unique London-based web magazine devoted to the progress of the urban movement, since 2008 to establish a satellite project that facilitates awareness of urban art in Asia. The joint effort has yielded Hong Kong’s Adapta Projects for contemporary art, which aims to ‘bridge the gap between the understanding of the Urban Art movement in the European and Asian art markets’ and start a sorely-needed dialogue regarding public art in Hong Kong. Adapta strives to demonstrate, educate and provide a wealth of inspiration especially for the youth of today, through exhibiting works from the vast talent-pool that street art is able to offer. The launch exhibition titled Attention Spam features 5 UK-based ‘urban’ artists, Cyclops, DFace, David Bray, Vesna Parchet and Word To Mother. The exceptional opening of the Attention Spam exhibition attracted over 300 urban art enthusiasts. A special thanks to all our sponsors, Diesel, Alive not Dead, Invasian Magazine and 42Below, whose generous support has made this unique and memorable show possible.
As a continuation to the Light and Shadow – Three Manned Exhibition at MKM Museum Küppersmühle in Germany in 2005, SAG will be sponsoring Stunned Speechless - Zhang Lin Hai’s solo exhibition at Today Art Museum in Beijing in November. This large scale exhibition presents both a body of new works previously unseen by Zhang Lin Hai, as well as a collection of his older works brought back from private collections worldwide. In conjunction to the show, a comprehensive and retrospective book on Zhang Lin Hai will be published by Today Art Museum’s publishing house. SAG would like to thank our co-presenting sponsor, Lane Crawford and media sponsors Asian Art News, Art Asia Pacific and Tatler HK for facilitating this special event.
2009 SAG generously donated a limited edition print by Yue Min Jun, titled Water, to SCMP’s Homes for Hope Project, which was auctioned at the Gala Dinner in Hong Kong on 12th of May with a hammer price of HK$130,000.00. The proceeds will contribute in helping to rebuild homes and bring new hope for the many Sichuanese families who have been affected by the devastating earthquake in 2008.
SAG is proud to sponsor the New trend 2009 exhibition organised by Artist Commune, in contribution to the promotion and support of Hong Kong’s art education and its development. The exhibition features fresh art graduates from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Department of Fine Arts), Hong Kong Baptist University (Academy of Visual Arts) and the Hong Kong Art School.
Schoeni Art Gallery generously donated Yu Chen’s Red Baby V-2007 to Asia Art Archive’s Annual Fundraiser 2009. Raised funds will contribute towards AAA’s operations and the major digitization reform project of their entire archive.
SAG is privileged to be one of the few galleries selected for Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s visit around the Central creative cluster on 25 November 2009, followed by a tea gathering where gallerists exchanged views on how to enhance the city’s competitive edge in creative industry development.
Fifty-seven catalogues published by Schoeni Art Gallery between 1992 to present were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as an important took for the archiving of the history and development of Chinese contemporary art within international art institutions.
2010 SAG has donated a collection of catalogues to the Art Publication exhibition hosted by Hong Kong’s non-profit contemporary visual art organization, 1a Space. The exhibition showcases art publications published by art spaces and to raise awareness of their importance in relation to research, archival purposes and need for a system of collection/exhibition.
All proceeds from the sales of Shuai Mei’s limited edition print, Bridge Verandah, showcased at the gallery’s Wo.Men – We Are Our Own Women exhibition was donated to The Women’s Foundation in benefit of the Foundation’s research and community programmes promoting the advancement of women and girls in Hong Kong.
Schoeni Art Gallery generously donated Mok Wai Hong’s Hail to Van Gogh, from the Schoeni Collection, towards Hands On Hong Kong’s A Celebration of Art charity auction dinner, which took place on 18 March 2010. Hands On Hong Kong is a non-profit organisation that actively recruits and manages volunteers to participate in volunteer activities operated by local charities, acting as an intermediary between volunteers and charity organisations.
In support of the local Hong Kong art scene and arts education, Schoeni is honoured to contribute towards the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Fine Art Graduation Exhibition, by sponsoring the show.
Schoeni generously donated Xin Hai Zhou’s, Playful Magic Square No. 9 towards Para/Site Fundraising Auction 2010. The event raised over HK$ 1 million on 9 November 2010, making it the most successful fundraiser in the history of Para/Site. Funds raised go directly to enhance Para/Site’s programmes, including their International Projects that contribute to the visibility of Hong Kong artists around the world and their in-house exhibitions at Para/Site Art Space in Sheung Wan.
In continuous support of Asia Art Archive’s mission, Schoeni donates a limited edition mixed media photography by Zhou Jin Hua, January 2008 Series No. 2, towards AAA Fundraiser 2010. The event raised HK$14 million and year 2010 also marks the 10th anniversary of the organisation.