The city’s grande dame hotel goes bold for Chinese contemporary art.
Hong Kong may be known as financial powerhouse of Asia, but come Art Basel season, it briefly swaps boardrooms for brushstrokes. This year, The Peninsula Hong Kong came confidently into the spotlight. The grande dame of the city’s luxury hotel scene has never shied away from spectacle, but its 2025 Art in Resonance programme (on from late March through May 2025), isn’t just opulent — it’s intellectually invigorating, occasionally poetic, and just a little bit trippy.
Kicking off during Hong Kong Art Week, the hotel debuts three boundary-blurring commissions. First to dazzle is Lunar Rainbow, local multimedia artist Phoebe Hui’s shimmering ode to the moon and humanity’s eternal obsession with it. Installed across the hotel’s iconic façade, it’s part science, part sorcery — with aluminium panels laser-etched with lunar imagery, lighting effects that mimic moonbows, and a delightful optical surprise that rewards lingering viewers. Think Renaissance astronomy meets Instagrammable public art.
Inside, Shanghai-based Lin Fanglu’s She’s Bestowed Love fills the Lobby with sensuous red textile sculptures that honour feminine strength, ancient Bai traditions and, somehow, Gaia herself. It’s emotional, unapologetic, and headed to the V&A in London later this year. And then there’s The Flow Pavilion at The Verandah, where artist Chris Cheung invites guests to zen out by watching a sphere roll across a brainwave-powered silk carpet.
All this goes to show that The Peninsula isn’t just a bastion of tradition in Hong Kong — it’s now firmly part of the city’s evolution into a global arts hub, following the popularity of the annual Art Week and institutions like M+ and West Kowloon Art District. Come for the cocktails, stay for the cultural resonance.
