Huge congratulations to our alumnus and HKU Mentor Felix Kwok 郭東杰 (BA 2008) for being listed as one of Observer‘s ‘The Most Influential People in Art’. Observer’s Business of Art Power List spotlights the bold innovators steering today’s art world through shifting markets, new collector dynamics and cultural reinvention.
Felix Kwok has become Sotheby’s ace in Asia, making waves that crash far beyond the gallery walls. After over a decade at the auction house, Kwok’s name has practically become shorthand for breaking records: the highest price ever achieved for Picasso in Asia, the top spots for Vietnamese art and even an NFT collaboration with Wong Kar Wai that introduced the world’s first Asian film NFT auction. Yet Kwok isn’t content to simply shatter records; he’s here to reshape the whole landscape, promoting a high-stakes blend of Chinese and Western masters with the zeal of someone who knows that prestige and price tags are hardly mutually exclusive. His philosophy? High art should be backed by “solid academic research,” he tells Observer, and, as he puts it, “creative curation”—a winning line that’s a lot more charming than ‘big money.’
Kwok’s influence is about more than sales; his strategic fusion of Western-Asian art exchange positions him as the one to watch. With his hand on the pulse of the Asia market, he’s behind seven of the eight highest Asian records for Picasso. Not one to shy away from theatrics, Kwok even teamed up with iconic Hong Kong pop singer Aaron Kwok for an abstract painting project—proof that high culture and pop culture can mingle so long as Felix Kwok is steering the ship.
And when he’s not setting auction records or making history with NFTs, Kwok is lecturing at elite universities and slipping art business savvy into the syllabi of Asia’s future power players. In 2025, he’ll be teaching in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei, and he even put together the first art market credit course for MBA students in Hong Kong—a not-so-subtle indication that he’s building an empire for the art market from the ground up. He somehow also finds time to write for Mingpao Monthly, Hong Kong and Contemporary Art News, Taiwan, and not too long ago produced a mini-documentary series with Hong Kong Economic Journal about the Hong Kong art market. Kwok is passionate not just about today’s auctions but also about priming the buyers, sellers and strategists who’ll carry his brand of high-stakes dealmaking into the next decade. And if he continues at this pace, they’ll all be speaking the language of art and commerce with Kwok’s signature flair.
Observer 2024 – The Most Influential People in Art | Felix Kwok