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 …