All posts tagged: Szelit Cheung

Szelit Cheung 張施烈

Published by Caroline Ha Thuc

Szelit Cheung’s paintings offer viewers open spaces in which to wander, escape or retreat. Neither abstract nor realistic, they feature imaginative architectural settings that are at the same time familiar and unknown. Fascinated by the concept of the void, the Hong Kong artist builds structural and poetic landscapes that attempt to embody the texture and complexity of emptiness expressed through a rich range of colours and contrasts. With no foreground or tangible objects to hold onto, the gaze plunges immediately into a geometrical world of light and shadows where time appears suspended. Light radiates and exceeds frames, including the canvas itself, while the void tends to echo the projection of our own selves. Caroline Ha Thuc: Do you remember why you originally wanted to be an artist? Szelit Cheung: I love the process of making art; it is as simple as that. The only thing I can remember from childhood was drawing with a pencil for hours until the sun went down. There was nothing that made me happier than painting and drawing. Then, in …

Szelit Cheung and Olga Grotova

Published by Brady Ng

Door to Door / The Shophouse / Hong Kong / Jul 15– Aug 13, 2023 / Doors open memories. Portals from our past are linked to significant locations or major milestones – the entrance to our childhood home or the gate leading into a campus where we embarked on intellectual explorations, for instance. When we think about important moments that we’ve experienced, those journeys can be traced through doors too, each entryway a marker for consequential junctures in our lives. For its summer show, Tai Hang’s The Shophouse organised a four-week artist residency and open studio programme that led up to a month-long exhibition, Door to Door. The two artists involved were Hong Kong painter Szelit Cheung and London-based Russian artist Olga Grotova, who created new artworks that drew from The Shophouse’s architectural heritage and, more broadly, the city in which the gallery is situated.  In Cheung’s section of the presentation, Door I (all works 2023) showed four rotating panels opening up to let beams of natural light into a muted blue space, the rays …

Tang Kwong-san, Szelit Cheung, Tap Chan 鄧廣燊, 張施烈, 陳沁昕

Published by Artomity Magazine

Space and Memory 空間與記憶 / Whitestone Gallery 香港白石畫廊 / Hong Kong / Aug 31 – Sep 30, 2021 / Christie Lee / Hong Kong provides interesting material to mull over ideas of space and memory. The city’s density means that every day there are legions of personal and collectives memories being made. But the city’s ultra-capitalist mindset means that the new often replaces old at blistering pace. In the past few years, there have been concerted efforts by various parties in society and politics to preserve, rub out or construct memories. Space and Memory, an exhibition of three Hong Kong artists at Whitestone Gallery curated by Aimee Man, examines memory’s role in place-making and identity construction. Although cast as a group exhibition, it feels like three individual exhibitions, all exploring the same theme, instead of an exhibition where works by the artists are knitted together by a focused narrative. At first glance, Tang Kwong-san’s works lean towards the personal. The first thing you see in the space might be ’96 7 14 (2020), a life-size painting of …