Month: March 2025

Eliso Virsaladze 艾莉索·薇莎拉茲

Concert Hall, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts /Hong Kong /Mar 2, 2025 /Ernest Wan / The great Georgian pianist Eliso Virsaladze made her Hong Kong debut in 2017 at the age of 74, playing both solo and chamber music, and returned two years later for a concerto performance. Now 82, she was back at this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival for a solo recital, one in which her powers proved largely undiminished. The recital began with Schubert’s Moments musicaux, the middle four of which were played in a straightforward fashion. In the C-major opening piece, Virsaladze’s left and right hands at times went slightly out of sync so as to clarify the interaction of two imitative voices, a rare practice among today’s pianists. In the outer sections of the sixth and last piece, in A-flat major, such was the extreme flexibility of her tempo – it changed almost every bar and the music slowed down massively upon settling into F-flat major (notated as E major) – that the triple metre was often difficult to …

Ruth Asawa 魯斯·阿薩瓦 Scott Kahn 斯科特·卡恩

Published by Ilaria Maria Sala

Doing Is Living /Once in a Blue Moon /David Zwirner /Hong Kong /Nov 19, 2024 – Feb 22, 2025 / David Zwirner Hong Kong’s double show, with ethereal sculptures by Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) on the lower floor and the moon paintings of Scott Kahn (b. 1946) on the upper one, pairs two very different artists, allowing the viewer to find unexpected connections between their works. In Asawa’s first solo show in Greater China, Doing is Living, her mesmerisingly beautiful sculptures float in the air with magical, perfectly mathematical rhythms. Born in California, Asawa created these, as she has said in a past interview, “by observing plants” and then taking “a wire line and [going] into the air and [defining] the air without stealing it from anyone”. In this show, complementing the sculptures hanging from the ceiling, we can also admire a series of lesser-seen preparatory works, mostly watercolours of roses and irises but also meticulous renderings of leaves and their veins, and initial transpositions of these into patterns of lines and curves, both in ink: geometrical …

Xu Bing in Hong Kong: Eying East, Wondering West — Square Word Calligraphy Classroom at Hong Kong Museum of Art

Published by Artomity Magazine

Xu Bing /Eying East, Wondering West — Square Word Calligraphy Classroom /Mar 26 – Jul 30, 2025 / The Wing (Lower)G/F, Hong Kong Museum of Art10 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha TsuiMondays to Wednesdays and Fridays 10am – 6pmSaturdays, Sundays and public holidays 10am – 9pmFree admission hk.art.museum Following Xu Bing’s appointment as Hong Kong’s Ambassador for Cultural Promotion in 2024, Xu Bing in Hong Kong: Square Word Calligraphy marks the renowned artist’s inaugural commissioning art initiative in the city. One of the featured programmes of the project is the Eying East, Wondering West — Square Word Calligraphy Classroom exhibition. Square Word Calligraphy is a form of writing Xu Bing began developing in 1993, in which English is written to resemble Chinese characters. This writing system highlights the interplay between Eastern and Western cultures, aligning with Hong Kong’s vibrant cultural tapestry. This exhibition invites the audience to explore Square Word Calligraphy from three perspectives: “Appreciation”, “Learning” and “Application”, encouraging them to reflect on language and culture, challenges fixed ways of thinking, and sparking creativity through the switching between languages. Xu Bing has especially incorporated …

Maeve Brennan at Tai Kwun Contemporary

Published by Artomity Magazine

Maeve Brennan /Records /Mar 21 – Jun 8, 2025 / JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun /10 Hollywood Road / Central, Hong Kong /Tue – Sun, 11am – 7pm taikwun.hk For her inaugural solo exhibition in Asia, Maeve Brennan (b. 1990) creates three newly commissioned works including a film shot in Puglia, Italy, and two sculptures. Brennan is a cinematic storyteller and filmmaker whose practice investigates material histories, underground economics, and ecological issues. Adopting a unique approach that blends forensic investigation with poetic tales drawn from real-life stories, Brennan has quickly established herself as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary documentary filmmaking. Through deep research and long-term collaboration, the exhibition uncovers the hidden world of stolen antiques, exposing the networks that shape our cultural past and present. Running from 21 March to 8 June 2025 at the JC Contemporary, Records features ongoing projects from the artist, spanning moving image, sculpture, works on paper, and printed matter. The exhibition title Records speaks to the documentation, and preservation, of often-overlooked narratives surrounding places and objects. Resembling documentaries in their style, Brennan’s films draw the …

Lynne Drexler at White Cube Hong Kong

Published by Artomity Magazine

Lynne Drexler /The Seventies /Mar 26 – May 17, 2025 / White Cube Hong Kong /50 Connaught Road, Central /Hong Kong /+852 2592 2000Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm whitecube.com White Cube is pleased to present the first exhibition in Asia of paintings by American artist Lynne Drexler (1928–99). Coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong, ‘Lynne Drexler: The Seventies’ will debut never-before-seen works created during a pivotal decade in the artist’s practice. Affiliated with the second-generation Abstract Expressionist movement, the artist’s vivid chromatic compositions reflect a breadth of stylistic influences, drawing from Impressionism, Fauvism and Pointillism, as well as classical music and the natural landscape. Executed through tessellated rectangles of paint, Drexler’s colour fields emanate an organic, kinetic dynamism. The exhibition follows White Cube’s first solo presentation of her work at Mason’s Yard, London, in November 2024, and the gallery’s announcement of the representation of The Lynne Drexler Archive in 2023. Click here for more information on the artist and the exhibition.

DE SARTHE at Art Basel Hong Kong

Published by Artomity Magazine

Galleries 3C08 /Chan Ka Kiu, Hou Jianan, Lov-Lov, Ma Sibo, Mak2, Caison Wang, Wang Jiajia, Wang Xin, Zhong Wei / Encounters EN9 /Lu Yang / Art Basel Hong KongConvention and Exhibition CentreMar 26 – 30, 2025 desarthe.com DE SARTHE returns to Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 with a curated presentation at Art Basel Hong Kong’s Galleries sector, an interactive installation by Lu Yang at the fair’s Encounters sector. In Galleries, the gallery will be participating with a nine-artist presentation, featuring a selection of works on canvas and paper, video, and multimedia artworks by the gallery’s roster of represented and collaborating artists, including Chan Ka Kiu, Hou Jianan, Lov-Lov, Ma Sibo, Mak2, Caison Wang, Wang Jiajia, Wang Xin, and Zhong Wei. Of particular note is a newly created interactive video game by Hong Kong-based artist Mak2 that visitors can play at the booth. Under the new cultural narrative forming amongst contemporary artists from Asia, cultivated by the emerging phenomenon of digital diaspora, the presented artists investigate the agents of identity in the post-technological era. Following Mak2’s large-scale installation Copy of …

Emma McIntyre at David Zwirner Hong Kong

Published by Artomity Magazine

Emma McIntyre /Among my swan /Mar 25 – May 10, 2025 /Opening: Tuesday, Mar 25, 3pm – 7pm / David Zwirner5-6/F, H Queen’s 80 Queen’s Road CentralCentral, Hong KongTuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm+852 21195900 davidzwirner.com David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by New Zealand–born and Los Angeles–based artist Emma McIntyre at the gallery’s Hong Kong location. This is McIntyre’s first solo show in Asia. McIntyre creates vivid abstractions imbued with chromatic and gestural energy. Made with oils and unconventional substances like oxidized iron, her instinctual yet deeply considered works explore the alchemical possibilities of the painted medium and expand traditional understandings of landscape and the natural world. The artist’s practice is protean and rhizomatic; each painting shares its roots with the ones before and after it, enacting an endlessly transformative system of generation and discovery. The show in Hong Kong, Among my swan, shares its title with a 1996 album by the band Mazzy Star that has inspired McIntyre; moreover, it alludes to the depictions of swans and cranes that often surface in her work …

Miwa Komatsu at Whitestone Gallery Hong Kong

Published by Artomity Magazine

Miwa Komatsu /Sacred NexusMar 25 – Apr 15, 2025 /Opening: Tuesday, Mar 25, 4pm – 7pm /Artist talk with Felix Kwok: Monday, Mar 24, 4pm – 5pm / Art Central Hong KongBooth C2Central HarbourfrontMar 26 – 30, 2025 Whitestone Gallery Hong Kong8F, H Queen’s80 Queen’s Road, Central +852 2523 8001Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm whitestone-gallery.com Whitestone Gallery Hong Kong is honoured to present Sacred Nexus, a solo exhibition by acclaimed Japanese artist Miwa Komatsu. Until now, Komatsu has presented works under the theme “sense of sacredness”, aiming to evoke inner spirituality. As part of a new venture, the Sacred Nexus exhibition unveils over 20 new works by the artist. A sacred nexus is a confluence of sacred resonance – a place or moment where we can have spiritual interaction and dialogue with divine spirits and the natural world. Historical sites of worship, lands imbued with earnest prayers and nature itself are the inspirations for Komatsu’s practice; she envisions invisible energy and creates an intersection of the material and immaterial realms. She amplifies the resonance between her works and the viewers, …

Michele Chu 朱凱婷

Published by Caroline Ha Thuc

Multidisciplinary artist Michele Chu explores how human bodies interact and express our deep and often hidden emotions. Through performances and interactive installations, her practice engages with the tensions and societal norms that govern the public space and our cultural customs. Delicate and subtle, her work also involves sharing parts of her own intimacy and personal memory as an invitation for viewers to journey inward and question the threads that bind us to one another and the world we inhabit. Caroline Ha Thuc: Your practice revolves around the ideas of intimacy and personal emotion. What triggered this interest? Michele Chu: My interest in intimacy dates to my graduate school, where I became aware of how many of my friends were struggling with loneliness. The juxtaposition of connection [through friendship] and isolation prompted me to question the nature of intimacy and what fosters closeness between people. Because intimacy is so inherently human-centred, in conjunction with doing academic research, I also conducted fieldwork through street interventions with strangers. These insights directly informed the design of one of my …

Gongkan at Tang Contemporary Art

Published by Artomity Magazine

Gongkan /Asynchronous Affinities /Mar 22 – May 14, 2025 /Opening: Saturday, Mar 22, 3pm – 6pm /Artist talk: Saturday, Mar 22, 5pm – 6pm / Art Basel Hong KongBooth1D39Convention and Exhibition CentreMar 26 – 30, 2025 Tang Contemporary Art20/F, Landmark South39 Yip Kan Street Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pmT +852 3703 9246 tangcontemporary.com Asynchronous Affinities marks a new phase in Gongkan’s creative practice, exploring displacement to challenge social norms, cultural codifications, and moral values while nurturing transcultural interconnections and individual development. The exhibition invites viewers to explore the poetics of in-between frontiers, gaps, and links across cultures and generations, as well as the interstices of sexual and gender diversities.