Making History

Having just opened a gallery in Hong Kong, their first outpost in Asia, Dominique Lévy and Brett Gorvy tell Oliver Giles what drives them—and it’s not money

- Oliver Giles

Everyone in the art world always seems to be in a hurry. In a hurry to place a bid for a painting... to visit the artist’s studio... to board a plane for the next art fair... to make a call to their art adviser... to meet that young collector who’s burst onto the scene. But that’s not how gallerist Dominique Lévy works. “We’ve been looking to open a gallery in Hong Kong for the last two years, but we were not in a rush,” says Lévy. “We looked at so many spaces, but none of them corresponded with what we wanted. It had to be the right thing.”

Lévy’s patience has paid off. At the end of last month, Lévy and business partner Brett Gorvy opened the doors of the first Lévy Gorvy gallery in Asia, a 2,500-square-foot space previously occupied by the jeweller Graff on the ground floor of St George’s Building in Central. “When Laurence Graff decided to move, we knew it was right for us,” recalls Lévy. “This space is of such quality in terms of location, ceiling height, proportion, being on the ground floor—it corresponded to everything we were looking for.”

Most importantly, the space was far more than a soulless white box. “We wanted to open an haute couture space in Hong Kong,” explains Lévy. “A space that can be an exhibition space but also a salon where you can host people, you can host poetry readings, you can host performances. We’ll also have a library there. We want the gallery to be like a think tank, a place where you can experience something.”