The Collectors: Patrick Sun
The Sunpride Foundation founder is preparing for a landmark show of his holdings at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
When Patrick Sun began acquiring art in 1988, it was purely a personal passion. But a pivotal conversation with legendary collector Uli Sigg fundamentally altered his collecting journey. “He told me to acquire for exhibition,” says the Hong Kong–based Sun, whose early interest centered on traditional Chinese painting before evolving to contemporary art with a focus on LGBTQ+ voices. “A private collection is a personal diary. A collection built for exhibition is a public gift. My attachment is to the mission, not to any one piece.”
Guided by that ethos, Sun founded the Sunpride Foundation in 2014 to champion queer voices across Asia and has since cohosted groundbreaking exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Tai Kwun in Hong Kong, and the Art Sonje Center in Seoul. Now he is busy preparing for a landmark show of his holdings at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2027.
Personal resonance: Sun acquired Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s seminal 1993 installation, Untitled (Last Light), in remembrance of a dear friend who passed away that same year. “It speaks to me about the loss and fragility of life with quiet reverence.”
Cultural stewardship: “When people look back at contemporary queer art in Asia, they will find an archive that proves it was never marginal. I hope the collection becomes a reference point, so that queer art history is no longer a footnote but a central chapter in the story of contemporary art.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Late Fall Issue in the section “The Collectors.” Subscribe to the magazine.