Month: January 2025

Angela Su 徐世琪

Published by Jessica Wan

Angela Su’s work flows from the intersection of science and art, where intricacy meets imagination. With roots in biochemistry and visual arts, her practice is a dance between the tangible and the ethereal, as she weaves delicate lines into intricate drawings, often unsettling and always profound. Her creations—whether on paper, in video or through hair embroidery—speak of bodies in flux, beings in metamorphosis, and the tension between control and chaos. Su’s art explores the shifting nature of the human body, its transformations, and the interplay of science and fiction. Through her meticulous renderings of invented anatomies, she questions the certainty of the medical gaze, creating speculative worlds where bones become snowflakes, veins twist into vines, and organisms float in space, suspended in the in-between. Her hybrid figures exist in a state of becoming, fragile yet fierce, inviting us into the mystery of the body as it unravels and reforms. In her hands, the body is a site of resistance, a vessel for transformation and a story waiting to be told. With each line, Su reimagines the universe, drawing us …

Lain Singh Bangdel

Published by Ilaria Maria Sala

Rossi & Rossi /Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong /Sep 28 – Nov 14, 2024 / The adjective that you will most often see associated with Nepali artist, preservationist, novelist and scholar Lain Singh Bangdel (1919–2002) is “iconic”. He is the man who single-handedly brought contemporary art into the Himalayan country, while at the same time being the most dedicated scholar of Nepal’s artistic past, painstakingly and doggedly compiling catalogues of looted or lost art, and making a remarkable contribution to our understanding of Nepal’s history and artistic heritage. A pioneer and the first truly international Nepali artist, Bangdel kept his deep interest in his country’s ancient art rather separate from his own artistic practice, which mainly consists of very modernist oil paintings, with clear influences from his contemporaries from all around the world. A recent show at Rossi & Rossi Wong Chuk Hang’s gallery was a very rare chance for people in Hong Kong to get a glimpse of the work of this household name in Nepal – a small but still quite comprehensive overview …

Austin Bell at Blue Lotus Gallery

Published by Artomity Magazine

Austin Bell /Shooting Hoops, All 2,549 of Hong Kong’s basketball courts /Jan 17 – Feb 23, 2025 /Solo exhibition and book launch / Blue Lotus Gallery G/F, 28 Pound LaneSheung Wan, Hong Kong +852 5590 3229 Monday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm bluelotus–gallery.com Blue Lotus Gallery is proud to announce the latest exhibition, Shooting Hoops by Austin Bell, coinciding with the release of his self-published book of the same title. In this ambitious project, Bell catalogued every outdoor basketball court in Hong Kong—an impressive total of 2,549 courts. His journey took him through the city’s nooks and crannies, relying solely on public transport. Through aerial photography, the images highlight the unique designs of these courts, their ubiquity, and their stark contrast against the city’s vertical density. This exploration not only mapped the locations of the courts but also captured the diverse topography of Hong Kong.

Alicja Kwade at Tai Kwun Contemporary

Published by Artomity Magazine

Alicja Kwade /Pretopia /Jan 10 – Apr 6, 2025 / Tai Kwun Contemporary10 Hollywood Road Central, Hong KongTu – Su, 11am – 7pm taikwun.hk Tai Kwun Contemporary proudly presents renowned contemporary artist Alicja Kwade’s inaugural solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Alicja Kwade: Pretopia showcases nine works that spanning different periods of the artist’s career, together with newly commissioned installations tailored to the history and architecture of Tai Kwun’s F Hall. Blending various mediums, including sculpture, sound, light, and performative installation, Kwade draws inspiration from abstract scientific and philosophical concepts, posing questions about reality and social structures. Alicja Kwade: Pretopia is on view from 10 January to 6 April 2025 as part of Tai Kwun Contemporary’s new Breakthrough series. Additionally, Kwade’s first site-specific public art in Hong Kong, Waiting Pavilions, is now on view. The work transforms the landscape of the Prison Yard, investigating the passage of time in the setting of a former prison, bridging the past and present within this landmark heritage site. The work was unveiled on December 20, 2024, and will remain on display through the second …

IM Pei 貝聿銘

Published by John Batten

The 1980s were volatile. Amid uncertainty over Hong Kong’s future before the signing of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the FCC’s relocation in November 1982 to its current home, the Old Dairy Farm Building, offered some stability for a club with an itinerant history. A few months earlier, in August 1982, the city’s social climate had plummeted as the Hong Kong government announced the sale of a key piece of land to the Bank of China, triggering the Hong Kong dollar and the city’s stock market to tumble. The site was symbolically significant: Murray House, the officers’ quarters of the British Army at Murray Barracks at the bottom of Garden Road. The sale was a first step in the dismantling of British military facilities in Admiralty. The current big show at Hong Kong’s M+ museum is devoted to the work of Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei (known universally as IM Pei, 1917-2019), designer of Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower and other prestigious projects, including the Louvre  Pyramid in Paris. The exhibition avoids discussing the …

Wu Jiaru 吳佳儒

Published by Brady Ng

It’s no simple task to pin down Wu Jiaru’s practice. Blending mythical themes with personal experiences, contemporary cogitations with historical perspectives, her paintings, sculptures and other artworks are the results of constant discovery. Her artistic creations have been shown in New York, London and across Asia. On the occasion of her most recent exhibition, A Brief Digression, presented at HART Haus, Wu sat down with Artomity for a conversation about the way she makes art, the flow of people and goods, and the way information is lost and recovered through multiple stages of translation. Brady Ng: We’re visiting your studio. Tell me about it. Wu Jiaru: It’s like a storage unit! My studio is in HART Haus, which is basically a coworking space for artists. When I need to make larger pieces, I use the public spaces that are more open. My own studio space is mainly for storing artworks. I’ve been renting space here since I graduated from City University of Hong Kong in 2017. BN: Jeffrey Shaw, who is one of the pioneers …

Gillian Ayres at Tang Contemporary

Published by Artomity Magazine

Gillian Ayres /Song of Hours Fled /Jan 9 – Feb 15, 2025 /Opening:Thursday, Jan 9, 6pm – 8pm / Tang Contemporary Art10/F, H Queen’s80 Queen’s Road CentralCentral, Hong KongTuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pmT +852 2682 8289 tangcontemporary.com Gillian Ayres (1930 – 2018) was an influential English painter renowned for her large, vividly colored abstract works and prints, characterized by thick layers of pigment that draw from diverse styles and movements.  Ayres viewed abstract painting as a vital language reflecting the energy of the 20th century and its evolving relationship with nature and society. Rather than depicting figures or landscapes, she explored the materiality of painting, often placing the canvas on the ground to engage with the physicality of her work. This approach allowed her to experiment with shapes, colors, and textures that convey a spectrum of emotions. Her early works featured thin vinyl paint in simple shapes, while her later oil paintings became more exuberant and colorful, created with thick layers of paint. Titles were often assigned post-creation, resonating more with the work’s mood …