M+: A New Perspective On Hong Kong’s Art & Culture

M+ has transformed Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District into one of Asia’s most important destinations for contemporary visual culture.

Opened to the public in 2021, M+ was created to explore the art, design, architecture, moving image and visual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries from a distinctly Asian perspective.

Its striking waterfront building was designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with TFP Farrells and Arup, combining a broad horizontal podium with a vertical tower to create the now-iconic inverted-T silhouette. Covering 65,000 square metres, M+ contains 33 galleries as well as cinemas, a research centre, learning spaces and a harbour-facing roof garden. The building itself is part of the experience, particularly its enormous LED-covered facade, which turns into a public canvas for moving-image artworks after dark.

 

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Inside, M+ offers an unusually broad definition of what belongs in a museum. Its permanent collection spans more than 8,000 objects and brings together visual art, design and architecture, moving image and Hong Kong visual culture.

Among its most significant holdings is the M+ Sigg Collection, which contains more than 1,500 works tracing the development of Chinese contemporary art from 1972 to 2012. Notable works in the collection include Zhang Xiaogang’s Bloodline—Big Family No. 17, Fang Lijun’s 1995.2, Wang Keping’s Fist and Song Dong’s Breathing, Tiananmen Square.

The museum’s collection also extends beyond painting and sculpture, encompassing photography, installations, film, video, furniture, posters, architecture and digital works. This interdisciplinary approach is one of M+’s defining characteristics, allowing visitors to see how art, popular culture, technology and everyday life intersect across Asia and beyond.

The history of M+ is closely tied to the development of West Kowloon as Hong Kong’s new cultural quarter. The museum was conceived as the city’s first institution dedicated specifically to the visual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries, with its collection-building beginning in earnest in 2012. Herzog & de Meuron was selected to design the building through an international competition in 2013, construction began in 2014 and the completed museum opened in 2021.

Today, M+ is more than another Hong Kong art museum: it is a place where the city’s distinctive visual identity is placed alongside broader Asian and international narratives. For travelers looking for the best museums in Hong Kong, the museum offers an especially compelling combination of major contemporary artworks, Hong Kong history, cutting-edge design and dramatic Victoria Harbour views.