The Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) awarded ninety-four-year-old artist Gaylord Chan with an honorary fellowship in recognition of his “exceptional achievements in the arts sector and enduring dedication to nurturing young artists.”

Chan was born in 1925 and has been active in the Hong Kong art scene since the 1970s. He worked as an engineer before enrolling in the University of Hong Kong’s visual arts program in 1968. He studied under designer Ho Tao and painter Hon Chi-fun and began painting at forty-two years old. He joined HKAC’s Visual Arts Committee in 1972 and went on to cofound the Hong Kong Visual Arts Society in 1974 and the Artmatch Group in 1995.

Chan has participated in over one hundred exhibitions and was honored as a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1986. In 1990, he received the Hong Kong Artists Guild’s Artist of the Year award, and in 2013, he was given a Bronze Bauhinia Star.

HKAC’s honorary fellowships are awarded annually to those who have made significant contributions to Hong Kong’s creative industries. Chan was honored alongside film producer Percy Fung Tze-cheong and theater director and actor Tang Shu-wing. Previous recipients include artists Theresa Lee Wai-Chun and Samson Young.