Founder and CEO of the M Restaurant Group Michelle Garnaut talks about three of her favourite pieces in her collection.
One of my first pieces of art was Yau Leung’s Dai Pai Dong 1960. It was a present from my brother-in-law in the late 90s. The photograph came with a catalogue of Leung’s works from the 60s and 70s. My brother-in-law got to know Yau Leung while working with [graphic design pioneer] Henry Steiner. Asking my brother-in-law about the piece again for this article, I discovered that the photograph was printed by Leung himself. Dai Pai Dong 1960 is a such classic Hong Kong scene, looking down at a dai pai dong with everybody sitting around tables eating.

Courtesy the artist and Michelle Garnaut.
My first encounter with Yeung Tong Lung was when he painted the murals at my former restaurant M at the Fringe, which opened in 1989 at the Fringe Club. Not being able to make a living from his art meant he had to take on commercial work and in this case he recreated Michelangelo nudes. About 10 years later I went to his studio in Kennedy Town to view his enormous canvases and triptychs of local scenes that often show a perspective looking through a window or door, or standing at an elevated position. I instantly fell in love with the moderately sized Restaurant For Sale Or Rent (2003). There is a bored-looking guy at a desk, like a sleazy real-estate agent in a closed-down dai pai dong, blue lino flooring, and stairs leading up to a very typical mezzanine floor – an honest depiction of Hong Kong life.

Courtesy the artist and Michelle Garnaut.
I got to know Antonio Mak Hin-yeung when I first came to Hong Kong in 1984. I was working at a restaurant called 97 and when I took over operations a year later, organising monthly exhibitions was part of my job description. I agreed to the part-time curator responsibility on condition that I could show Antonio Mak. Antonio and I became friends and we hung out at the haunted house in Wan Chai where he used to live at the time. After I opened M at the Fringe and made a bit of money, I went to his studio to buy some pieces. I picked a female sculpture which he was reluctant to sell but eventually did. He hardly did females. I got several pieces in the end, mostly for the restaurant; one of my favourites, which is sitting on my desk, is Remanence I & II.

Courtesy Michelle Garnaut.