Shaping Surface into Light /
Gallery EXIT /
Hong Kong /
Aug 30 – Sep 17, 2025 /
There is, first of all, an immediate shock. On either side of the space, the pure colours of Hilarie Hon’s paintings vibrate and strike with dazzling intensity. In her new solo exhibition at Gallery Exit, the same motif recurs everywhere: an immense sun slipping into the sea at sunset. The tones are vivid – flamboyant orange, scarlet red and fuchsia pink against bright blues. These colours radiate through the room, producing an initial pleasure that feels raw and almost physical. But what arises from these works is not pure joy. Rather, it is a kind of nostalgia, a feeling inevitably tied to that fleeting instant when day falters and yields to night.
Hilarie Hon has been painting sunsets since 2017. It is an obsession for the artist, who, as a child, developed the habit of watching the sunset from Plover Cove Reservoir Dam. When she struggled with sleeplessness and nightmares, her father would take her for night walks to the reservoir. There, the dam divides the water into calm stillness on one side and the open sea on the other. They could spend hours gazing silently at the landscape. For her, this experience revealed both the vastness of the sea and her own smallness.
Courtesy the artist and Gallery EXIT.
Recently, Hon felt she had mastered this theme and was ready to explore other perspectives. But the motif returned with new intensity after a personal loss, when she found that painting could once again serve as a means of healing. After this exhibition, however, she admits she has nearly exhausted the subject.
Between day and night, sky and ocean, between our individual emotions and the immensity of the world, and between life and death, we feel caught in a transition, a rite of passage. Hon seems intent on guiding us through it, with curves that soften as they meet the water and lines that interlace: the sun, widening at its base, slips into the sea, its outline at times stretching like a wave into the water. The outer islands and distant mountains have also melted into the waves. This continuity creates a soothing unity among the elements. At the same time, one cannot ignore the violence of the tones, sharpened by their reflections in the liquid surface.
In the gallery, the artist has alternated large canvases with very small ones. She considers these the ideal formats: one allows for immersion while the other fosters intimacy. On closer inspection, the smaller works do not only show sunsets. The moon, too, appears above the sea. Naturally, the nocturnal hues are darker. Cast wind into shape (2024), set in a frame of driftwood, black as coal, is particularly striking. Both the sky and the sea resemble an earthy mud that spreads horizontally, as if it will slowly invade the whole space.
At the back of the gallery, there is a small bench where it feels good to sit and linger. Little by little, one must allow the contradictory emotions and tensions within these works to take hold. In Hon’s paintings, the sky appears distant, stretched out in diluted washes of colour, almost elusive. The sea, in contrast, gathers the turbulence. The paint drips, mixes and thickens into dense layers, evoking the ocean’s restless churn.
Courtesy the artist and Gallery EXIT.
Hon paints mainly at floor level, spilling colours across the canvas and reworking them, letting her gestures channel raw, nearly unrestrained energy. Her process is largely spontaneous: she begins by thinking of a colour, then follows her intuition. There is no realism in her compositions – she paints entirely from imagination and feeling. For her, painting is a vital process, one she can pursue endlessly, sometimes for days and nights without sleep.
Many of her works are titled Murmur. She says this refers to the murmur of the sea when it speaks to her – or rather, when she speaks to herself, because the sea does not care; as humans, we only project our thoughts and emotions onto it. In her work, the sea remains inaccessible, an opaque and mysterious surface that merely reflects and absorbs all that happens above it. Amid this elemental tumult, however, the sun remains perfect and immutable. An endless source of energy, it radiates and captivates the eyes.
In the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific, it is said that the sun follows an irregular path across the sky until, in the early evening, it settles in an orange tree. There, it throws its fruit into the ocean to scare away the sharks before making its final descent into the sea. The people of Peleliu island, Palau have tried to capture the sun while it rested in the tree, seeking to prolong the day. Yet those who set out in their canoes on this quest never returned. Hon’s paintings are an invitation to search for this source of bewilderment and eternal light.
Shaping Surface into Light
安全口畫廊
香港
2025年8月30日至9月17日
首先來的，是一種即時的震撼。展廳兩側，韓幸霖畫作中的純粹色彩以炫麗奪目的力度衝擊著觀者。在她於安全口畫廊的全新個展中，相同的意象無處不在：一輪碩大的落日正沉入海面。整體色調鮮明——絢爛的橙、鮮艷的紅、濃烈的紫紅，映襯著亮藍。這些色彩在展廳裡彌漫開來，帶來一種原始而近乎生理性的直觀愉悅。但此間湧現的，並非純粹的歡欣，而是一種懷舊感，一種註定與白晝蹣跚、臣服於夜的須臾片刻相繫的感覺。
韓幸霖自2017年起便開始描繪日落。這是藝術家的一種執念，源自她孩童時養成、在船灣淡水湖水壩觀日落的習慣。每當受失眠和噩夢侵擾時，父親總會帶她前往水庫夜行。在那，堤壩將水域一分為二：一側是凝滯的平靜，另一側則是無垠的海域。父女倆常靜靜凝望著這片景致數小時。對她而言，這段經歷既展示了大海的浩瀚，也透露出自身的渺小。
近來，韓氏自覺已全然掌握此創作主題，並欲探索其他視角。然而在經歷一場個人傷痛後，此意象卻以全新的強度回歸——她發現繪畫再次成為療愈途徑。但藝術家坦言，是次展覽過後，這個主題於她已近乎枯竭。
在晝與夜、天與海、個人情感與世界浩渺、乃至生與死之間，我們陷於一場過渡，一場過渡禮。韓氏似有意引導我們穿越這段歷程——圓弧與水面相接時變的柔和，線條彼此交織；太陽底部漸寬，滑入海面，輪廓時而如波浪般在海水中舒展。週邊的島嶼與遠處的山脈也已消融進波濤。這種連續性在自然萬物間締造出撫慰人心的統一感。而與此同時，無人能忽視那色彩中的暴烈，它們在流動表面的倒影中，愈發顯得銳利。
展廳裡，藝術家將巨幅畫作與微型作品交替陳列。她認為這兩種尺幅最為理想：一方令人沉浸，另一則滋生親密。細看之下，小型畫作不獨描繪日落。海面之上亦有月亮浮現。自然，夜間色調更為深邃。作品《Cast wind into shape》（2024年），以浮木為框，烏黑似煤，尤為奪目。天空與海洋皆如橫向蔓延的泥濘土壤，彷彿將緩緩侵吞整個展廳。
展廳盡頭有張小長凳，在此駐足停留格外愜意。觀者須徐徐放任畫作中那些矛盾情緒和張力將自身浸染。韓氏筆下，天空總顯得遙遠，以稀釋的淡彩鋪展延伸，幾乎難以察覺；與之相對，大海卻彙聚著所有動盪。顏料滴落、交融，凝結成緻密的層次，彷彿大海那永無寧息的翻騰洶湧。
韓氏作畫多在地板上進行，她將顏料潑灑於畫布上，反覆修整，手勢下間引導出原始，近乎無拘無束的能量。她的創作過程頗為隨心：由一種顏色想起，之後便全憑直覺引領。構圖不追求寫實——全然依仗想像與感覺揮灑。對她來說，繪畫是不可或缺的歷程，是可以無限投入的過程，有時甚至不眠不休續畫上數晝夜。
她的不少作品都以「Murmur」命名。她說這意指海濤對她的低語——或者說，是她與自己的對話，因為大海從不在意；人類不過是將思緒與情感投射於這片蔚藍。在她的畫作中，大海始終觸不可及，那朦朧而神秘的表面，只反射並吞噬著上方發生的一切。然而在這萬物激蕩之中，太陽卻始終完美而永恆。如無窮無盡的能量之源，輻射著令人目眩的光芒。
在西太平洋加羅林群島，有這樣一則傳說：太陽以不規則的軌跡運行於天際，直至傍晚初臨，便棲居於一棵橙樹之梢。在那，它將果實擲入海洋，嚇退鯊魚，而後才最終沉入大海。貝里琉島的居民曾試圖趁太陽棲於樹梢時將其捕捉，以期延長白晝，然而所有駕獨木舟前往的追尋者，皆一去不返。韓氏的畫作，正是邀人追尋這令人困惑卻永恆的光芒之源。
