The Wow Factor

Following the opening of Woaw Gallery in Singapore, founder Kevin Poon talks about the importance of access to art, and why the relationship between the Lion City and Hong Kong should be complementary rather than competitive

- Coco Marett

You can say that Hong Kong‑based entrepreneur Kevin Poon is one of the original multi‑hyphenates, before being one was really even a thing. After interning at Interscope Records in California in the early 2000s, Poon returned to Hong Kong, where he would go on to build an empire as the co‑founder of streetwear label Clot, streetwear retailer Juice and distributor District, and finally, the founder of Woaw Gallery.

“I think art has always been in the system of what I do. Early on, we were hanging out with Futura, Stash, José Parlá, Kaws … people who were in the mix doing cool stuff,” says Poon. “And as our culture started growing up, a lot of these artists were being celebrated in fine art spaces. That’s when we transitioned into becoming more serious about art.”

In 2019, Poon opened the first Woaw Gallery on Sun Street in Hong Kong’s cultural pocket of Wan Chai. Teaming up with New York‑based Ross + Kramer Gallery and Miami‑based Bill Brady Gallery, Woaw opened with an exclusive series of paintings by Japanese artist Koichi Sato. “At first, it was a creative outlet; I wanted to have a space that could be multifunctional,” says Poon. “But when [the exhibition] did well, it gave me the confidence to do more. I recognised that there were a lot of people looking at this similar emerging space, but no one was really doing it.”