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Vanessa Lee

I spent my early childhood in mainland China. My mother took me to different parts of China because of her job – she worked between journalism, trading and publishing. I don’t know the exact order of what she was doing, but I remember going between Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanning, near the border with Vietnam. Around the age of 12, I was sent to England. Like many young people at the time, I was part of the wave of kids sent to study abroad.
Luck of the draw

In elementary school, we were encouraged to keep a diary. I remember my teacher said, “You don’t have to start the diary with ‘jintian’ [today]. You can start by drawing your day, something a bit more creative.” I was eight or nine. I definitely liked painting my days better than just recording what was happening.
Finding a forte
In mainland China back then, art or anything outside literature and science wasn’t considered a real subject. So I didn’t know I was fond of art and design until I moved to England. It wasn’t until I received a scholarship for my A-level art that I realised, “Oh, perhaps [art] could be considered as a career path.”
Express permission

When I was 15 or 16, my teacher introduced me to Alberto Giacometti’s work. His work isn’t particularly easy to receive – it’s not the most “beautiful” aesthetically; it’s not the most colourful. But I was drawn to the history, the background and why this artist was producing works that were so dark. There was so much heaviness in his painting and sculpture. To me, that symbolised the contrast of what art could be. It’s not just pretty things in your life. That was when I opened myself to art as an expression, art as an archival piece of history.
Master plan
My mother didn’t believe in me doing a fine art degree. She agreed I could do something close to art, but (in a field) where I could also find a job. So I did urban design and planning at University College London, where I received an unconditional offer to continue my master’s. I negotiated with my mother again to do art history for my master’s because I had architectural history as a foundation.
Goodbye, Gagosian
I did some gallery work during my master’s and interned at the Pinta Art Fair. Then I got an offer from the Gagosian to be a registrar. But I decided to follow my then boyfriend, who lived in Dubai, and I turned down the Gagosian offer to move there with him.
Hello, Dubai

When I first visited Dubai, around 2008-09, the city was at the beginning of building its contemporary art scene. I looked for galleries but found only one or two. I interned at Art Dubai and explored opportunities, until I met this private collector, Rami Farook. He offered me a job. That’s when I told my mother, “I got a job in Dubai.”
Moving on up
I applied to Art Basel because I knew it was planning to open a new fair in Hong Kong. That was in 2012. I basically applied without thinking I would ever get the job, but I got a call the next day. And before I knew it, three weeks later, I moved to Hong Kong.
Community spirit

When I arrived in Hong Kong, the art scene was already much bigger than when I’d first arrived in Dubai, but the tight sense of community, with people looking out for each other, felt very familiar, and so the transition was easy. I’d learned from Rami how important community is, and I always carry that with me. Throughout these 13 years, I feel I’ve grown with Hong Kong’s art community.
In the family
I have two children. Art is part of their life. I think that’s a privilege, because art wasn’t part of my life. My children grew up going to Art Basel. I gave birth to my firstborn in the February and the fair was in March. He went to his first Art Basel when he was a month old. He’s come to every one since. My children are very expressive with the way they paint. I never tell them what’s right and wrong in art. They express however they want. Art is definitely embedded in their DNA.


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Angelle Siyang-Le, the director of Art Basel Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy Art Basel

Angelle Siyang-Le and her mother, in Shenzhen. Photo: courtesy Angelle Siyang-Le

Angelle Siyang-Le with then boyfriend, now husband, Grégoire Daudé at Art Basel Hong Kong 2015. Photo: courtesy Angelle Siyang-Le

Angelle Siyang-Le when she was living in Dubai. Photo: courtesy Angelle Siyang-Le

Angelle Siyang-Le, moved to Hong Kong in 2012. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

This museum director’s adventurous journey from Sri Lanka to Hong Kong

Suhanya Raffel, museum director of M+ in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, photographed in M+. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

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Suhanya Raffel and Michael Snelling with their sons, Jai (left) and Rahul, in their Brisbane home, in 2003. Photo: courtesy Suhanya Raffel

Suhanya Raffel and husband Michael Snelling at the Queensland Art Gallery, in Brisbane, Australia, in 2011. Photo: courtesy Suhanya Raffel

M+, in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Photo: Martin Chan

Michael Snelling and Suhanya Raffel at M+. Photo: courtesy Suhanya Raffel

Skill, passion and derring-do: the art of the rodeo in Montana

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The rodeo arena at Lone Mountain Ranch. Photo: Courtesy of Lone Mountain Ranch

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Artist Pedro Wonaeamirri, a senior cultural leader on Australia’s Tiwi Islands, is photographed at the Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association, an indigenous arts centre in Milikapiti, Melville Island, on February 13, 2025. Photo: Kylie Knott

Wonaeamirri sources ochre from cliffs in Milikapiti on Melville Island. Photo: Kylie Knott

Wonaeamirri stands among ironwood trees from which he makes tutini. He carves single pieces of ironwood and intricately paints them with natural ochres in abstract patterns unique to the Tiwi. Leaves are burned for traditional welcoming ceremonies. Photo: Kylie Knott

Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri paints a spear at Jilamara’s carving workshop. Photo: Kylie Knott 

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Patrick Freddy Puruntatameri holds a photo of his artistic parents, Paddy Freddy Puruntatameri and Rachel Puruntatameri, at Jilamara’s carving workshop. Photo: Kylie Knott

Puruntatameri (left) and Wonaeamirri stand in front of their installation “White, Yellow, Red, Black on Ironwood” (2020) – a collection of ceremonial tutini poles – at the 2020 Sydney Biennale at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photo: Ken Leanfore 

Puruntatameri prepares ochre at the workshop of Jilamara Arts. Photo: Kylie Knott  

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Hong Kong-based British artist Dominic Johnson-Hill sits with his installation in the “boss’ office” at “Re:Urgent”, an exhibition at Young Soy Gallery in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: AFP

Artworks on display at “Re:Urgent”. Photo: AFP

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Bouie Choi’s The Screen Cleaner (2024). Photo: courtesy Bouie Choi

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Bouie Choi pictured with some of her artworks at her studio in Kowloon. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

The tools of artist Bouie Choi’s trade in her studio at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

PostMag

Culture

The director of Asia’s largest contemporary art fair on finding her voice through art and immersing herself in the artistic community


The director of Asia’s largest contemporary art fair on finding her voice through art and immersing herself in the artistic community.


Angelle Siyang-Le on the journey that brought her to Art Basel Hong Kong

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The director of Asia’s largest contemporary art fair on finding her voice through art and immersing herself in the artistic community

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Luck of the draw

The director of Asia’s largest contemporary art fair on finding her voice through art and immersing herself in the artistic community

Luck of the draw