I grew up in colonial Hong Kong, where we were not taught about Chinese culture. When I went back to China, I thought the art in the West was superior to the Chinese, not understanding the Chinese culture. I remember when I first went to China, I told people I'm a Hong Kongese. I'm not Chinese. It took me ten years to go back and tell people that I'm Chinese because then I started to be very proud of Chinese culture.
I think when I went back to Hong Kong at that point, my ideal job at that time, while I was living in the UK and studying, was to be a perpetual professional student. I never wanted to return to Hong Kong to become the daughter of my father. So, when I saw art and I saw a gallery, I realized that this was a way to escape my father's and my parents' control, because in the art industry, they knew nothing. They had no control. They had no influence. I felt it was all in my own hands.
That is why I chose to do art. The first exhibition I mounted, during the process, made me feel completely alive again. Every cell in my body became so exhilarated. I knew this is what I should be doing, and this is what I want. I was very lucky because I then realized my passion. Before that, I didn't know what I wanted to do. At that moment, I knew this is what I wanted to do in my life. I think art is about communication; it's about exchange. I believe it's very important that we have different voices that talk about different things.
My guest today is Pearl Lam, and if you follow the international art market, you know her name. She is a collector-turned-gallerist who has made it her life's mission to challenge our assumptions about what constitutes contemporary art, especially between Asia and the West. But her journey began in a very personal place: a fierce independence that saw her defying her family to pursue art and immersing herself in Shanghai in the early 90s, where she had to shed her own 'West is Best' colonial mindset. She became captivated by abstract art and artists whose work was embedded in ancient philosophies like Daoism and Buddhism—a tradition extending back thousands of years. Now, through Pearl Lam Galleries and her own podcast. where she expands her dialogue on creativity, the art market and the world. She continues to champion her belief in art that transcends borders. We're going to talk about what it takes to have the instinct of a visionary in a constantly changing market, and why she believes the art of real conversation is so critical today.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
You’ve had a varied career path, but I think that these all flow into the gallerist you are today. I don’t want to say gallerist because that's just one aspect of the things that you do. I think that your adaptability serves you well, obviously through your galleries now in Hong Kong and Shanghai, but also through your ability to have these ephemeral events, the pop-up shows you began in 1993. A lot of us are thinking about what the future of the art world is. What do galleries need to be, future-proof, in these uncertain times?
PEARL LAM
In these uncertain times, everyone knows that there's a lot of instability in our world today. We do not see the end of the tunnel yet, but we also know that there is a big shift. There is a shift because of technology. There is a generational shift, and I also believe there is a geographical shift.
People have been talking about the impact of technology and the change of pace of Gen Z, but I think this Gen Z change of pace is only limited to Northern America and Western Europe. When you see Gen Z in Asia, especially in China or the Middle East, they behave very differently from their Northern American and Western European counterparts.
I feel that the Gen Z of Asia and the Gen Z of the Middle East will still continue to collect, instead of just looking for experiences, as we have always been discussing and talking about.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I think you’re right that people are wanting to go back to experiences, ephemeral things. There's also mimetic desire—by which I mean, everybody wants what everybody else wants. They want an individual experience; they don’t know what they want themselves. So they start following a path, thinking, "Well, this is what everyone else wants."
PEARL LAM
This is not just limited to Gen Z. I think the whole world is like this. We always say that there are 99.9% followers, like a herd of sheep, right? Only 0.1% are leaders. The leaders can be anything—taste leaders, political leaders, whatever. Generally, because people want to be accepted by their social group, they want to be like others. They want to dress like others, live like others, and have the same artwork. It’s the same philosophy.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
But you are the opposite of that. I mean, you're a very strong character, and you've honed this.
PEARL LAM
I'm the opposite. I never wanted to follow anything because being different is also tough. When I was young, being different was not easy. Sometimes it meant being boycotted because I was not like other people, unless I was strong enough to not care about what others said. Just being very stubborn and following your own direction means that you have to have a lot of means, and you need to ignore everyone else.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I’m glad that you mentioned when you were young because just before I went into this interview, I saw that, I guess, a former nanny of yours is writing a book titled Portrait of Pearl Lam as a Young Girl.
PEARL LAM
Really!?
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
No, I'm joking. I just thought that was a roundabout way of asking what you were like as a young girl.
PEARL LAM
But my nanny passed away. My nanny was my mother's nanny, so that was my heartbreak over time. She passed away when she was 92.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Oh, wow. What were some of the lessons that you learned, the intergenerational wisdom?
PEARL LAM
My nanny was a great personality who inspired me because I grew up seeing her much more than I saw my parents. She was a tough lady. She always said to ignore whatever other people say if you feel it is right. But who knows whether you’re right or not? You're young. Right? But she instilled confidence in me. I think confidence is the most important thing for any young person—from children to young adulthood.
Confidence cannot turn into arrogance; there is a very fine line between arrogance and confidence. I noticed that my generation of friends grew up without as much confidence as the younger generation today. I especially think that in Hong Kong, the younger generation has a lot of confidence, love, and support.
When we were growing up, I was just comparing this with my friends, and we were saying that, wow, our parents never told us they loved us. I mean, they're Chinese, right? Why would they say that? If they didn't criticize you, you were lucky. In our era, not criticizing meant it was a compliment. It is very different from the generation of parents today. They keep on complimenting their children and encouraging them, while we never had that.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I think that love is just there, and being there is just nourishing you.
PEARL LAM
Yeah, exactly. But we never saw any problem with this because every one of us had parents like that, so it wasn't a problem for us. We didn't feel that we were actually different or discriminated against or unloved. No. We thought that was just how families were.
Until we all went abroad, when we saw our foreign friends' parents, especially in America—they were very different from how we grew up. Nowadays, there's so much discussion about mental health and parental responsibility. I’ve seen my friends in England turning up to parents. They turn up for everything, while we were just saying that when we were in boarding school, we never saw our parents there. So I think there's a generational change. The younger generation today is much more confident than our generation was.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Confident, but maybe also confused because we're drowning in data and starved of knowledge.
PEARL LAM
They are confronting something very different from what we faced. It's a completely different world—a technology world filled with data. When you talk about the Gen Z of today, they also have short attention spans. When you see this short attention span, you question how conceptual art can last. How can we ensure that conceptual art is still prominent in the next generation when it requires reading before appreciating it?
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
There are so many different ways of looking at the world. If there were only one way, what would be the point of living? So, it’s important to always be learning and passing that knowledge onto others. You know, I work a lot with students in universities.
PEARL LAM
That's great. These are the young minds. Young minds have a lot of ideals. I think every student has so many ideals during university; it’s when they fight for their beliefs. Those are the most impressive times because they’re not diluted by desire, money, or great careers. Those ideals are the most precious.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
We talked a little bit about your instinct, but I'd like to go a little deeper into it. As you say, when you're selecting an artist or telling a story, sometimes an artist is not the best teller of their own story. Sometimes they're so caught up in it that you become their storyteller. I think you must be born with it, but how do you feel you developed your intuitive intelligence?
PEARL LAM
I don't know. You know, I always advise people who collect art that they have to do research and everything. I never did. When I see a piece of work, I look at it and feel a connection. If I go to art fairs, I usually buy the work first before studying the artist.
Last year, when I was in South Africa, I looked at eighty-something artists, and there was one artist who connected with me. I found one or two artists there who I thought were really interesting. After I saw the artwork, I started to ask questions, study them, and get my curator to send me essays and everything about them.
Then I got to know them better. In the second meeting, I'd talk to them and find out more about them. That’s how I connect with artists. There's one Nigerian artist now, Alimi Adewale, whom we're representing globally. I went to his place, his house, and his studio. I first went to the gallery and loved his work. That was in Lagos. So I started going to his house and studio, talking to him, and finally clicked. I liked the way he approaches art. We're working together to create a career path for him internationally. He's known in Lagos, but he's not known internationally. My job is to find opportunities and create a different path for him to make him internationally known.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Developing relationships also with museums?
PEARL LAM
Yes, developing relationships and inviting different curators to talk to him to create a show for him. Currently, we are talking to a curator who will be curating a show in Shanghai next March for him. I'm just creating this international recognition relationship for the artist. I think that's very important, especially if they are in a place where they are quite secluded because Lagos is not a really international place that people go all the time.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Regarding traditional Chinese culture, there is an erudite collecting tradition, one of deep learning. I don't know how people are experiencing art now if it's just flashing by. Everything with real value, in my opinion, needs time.
PEARL LAM
You know how people appreciate art now? Because there are so many art fairs, people just browse. They walk away; they browse and walk away. Very few people have the attention span to understand an artist's intention or the background of an artist—why they are doing what they do. I don't think people are actually interested in that.
It really takes, you know, when I show a new artist, especially at an art fair, to find people who truly have confidence—not knowing the artist but buying from their hearts. They come in, acquire the work, and try to learn about the artist. Most people want to buy what others have, especially brand names. However, we have to celebrate many collectors who feel from their hearts and want to learn and acquire something new, not just follow trends.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Is the Pearl Lam podcast part of introducing these different voices, extending the long-form contemplation of art and the biography that goes into art? You are interviewing a lot of different people. It's not primarily artists; it's cultural thinkers and creative practitioners of all kinds.
PEARL LAM
At the beginning of the Pearl Lam Podcast, I wanted to have a podcast to talk about culture. Culture can embrace all forms and disciplines. But the most important thing is I like disruptors. I was always looking for disruptors—people who do not follow the mainstream, who disrupt the normal stream but create something new.
As time went by, I met different people and evolved. I thought, you don’t just need to interview disruptors; maybe you should interview people who are interesting and can inspire others. They don't necessarily need to be typical art world figures. It could be someone very different who can come out and say unique things. What is our contemporary lifestyle? What is contemporary culture?
Recently, I even invited a numerologist because, in our world and daily life, we look at a lot of our spirituality. So why not? I decided to invite a numerologist. It’s been evolving, and as the art world changes, I like to include different voices—artists, art journalists, art critics, or people from outside altogether.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I was really surprised because I don't know much about the contemporary collecting market in China, but you've said this doesn't surprise me. Based on what I know from our different Chinese colleagues, they're very curious internationally. Previously, collecting was dominated by Chinese individuals supporting their own, but in the contemporary market, you identify that in China, the collectors are very international and curious. What do you attribute that to?
PEARL LAM
Actually, I think there is a problem. The younger generation collecting art all study abroad, mainly collectors of international artists. This is phenomenal because if you look at every country, you’ll find that, for example, people from Taiwan primarily collect Taiwan artists. In Africa, collectors begin with African artists. In every country, the priority is to collect their own artists first.
In China, if you examine the auction market today, 70% is international artists. The contemporary artist market among Chinese collectors is very small. Most collectors, especially those studying abroad, want to be on par with international collectors. If America collects American or African artists, you will find Chinese collectors doing the same with renowned international artists in the auction market. They will collect whatever is hot.
I don't want to say whether this is right or wrong; I think it’s phenomenal because it has never happened in other countries, except in China. I honestly think it’s a bit sad because for younger artists, without a group of younger collectors supporting them, it’s very tough. Especially now, in a challenging art market, there are younger Chinese artists who have more international collectors than collectors from their own country.
I grew up in Hong Kong where we were not taught about Chinese culture, but these kids come from very traditional Chinese families and attend Chinese schools. Even if they study in international schools in China, their Chinese culture is not like ours, so I was a little lost about it. Hopefully, when they become more confident, they will come back and find themselves, like I did.
I’m not saying that they should be limited. I am saying, yes, it’s great that you're collecting international artists, but please also look at some Chinese artists. You have to look at both the Chinese and the international, and then you can understand this cross-cultural dialogue. Just having a collection of international artists living in China is meaningless if you don't root yourself in your own culture.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I was interested to learn that you meditate and chant every day.
PEARL LAM
Today, I didn’t meditate. I had to dash to the cathedral, so I didn’t, but usually, yes, I do it every day. It calms me down.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I think it also helps reconnect with the natural world and our inner world.
PEARL LAM
I met a Rinpoche, a living Buddha, in 2008, and then I converted. I wouldn’t say converted; I would say I became a Buddhist, but I still go to church because I went to a French convent school, and I like the philosophy of Buddhism. The main thing is they ask you to find yourself and be yourself.
That has always been my practice—to find myself and to be myself. I never realized that it was a Buddhist philosophy. Since then, I started reading about Eastern spirituality and talking to spiritual people. What is amazing is that when I speak to Chinese abstract artists, they all talk about Taoism and Buddhism, and how they practice in their artwork. That realization has inspired me to research more.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
You also studied art, not as your main focus, but you painted watercolors in your youth. You learned the old techniques?
PEARL LAM
Yes, I was forced when I was young, back when there was nothing called ADHD. I was jumping up and down, and my father forced me, at age four, to do calligraphy so that I would sit down and learn to focus and be patient. I focused intensely on calligraphy. From calligraphy, I was also forced to do Chinese brush painting, which I did until I was eleven.
Then, when I was in the UK doing my A levels, I was lazy and thought I could do art, so while doing art, I started to implement my Chinese ink brush techniques into watercolors. I did start painting in watercolors to pass exams—not just because I was interested in it, but I have to say that when I started painting, it also calmed me down and helped me focus.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
What do you think instilled that sense of urgency and taking in all that the world has to offer?
PEARL LAM
Because I always try to do too much every day. If I did three things less, then I’d be punctual. But no, I want to squeeze everything in. I always say to myself, if I'm alive, I want to live fully in every single moment of my life, so I have to utilize my time. I never seem to have enough sleep.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Who has been important in honing your vision and who you are today? What do you think some of those important lessons are that they passed on to you that maybe you’ve passed on to others?
PEARL LAM
Never be fearful of failures. Failures are good, especially when they happen at a young age. Failure means you have to learn from it, not to commit the same mistake repeatedly. I always say that. Also, take a positive view on everything you do, even if you are wrong—learn from it.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
As you think about the future and the kind of world we're leaving for the next generation, especially regarding the importance of the arts amidst all our imbalances, ecological crises, and challenges ahead, what would you like young people to know, preserve, and remember?
PEARL LAM
Today, the world is very divided, lots of fractures. It is the time for art and culture to come into play because art is about soft power. If we want to resolve misunderstandings, art is the best, best, best way to communicate. So use this.
