The eccentric and vibrant Frog King Kwok (Kwok Mang Ho) is an indomitable Hong Kong artist and is one of the most important figures in the history of contemporary art in in the city. He was a pioneer to experiment in performance and conceptual practices in Hong Kong and China as early as the 1970s and was the Hong Kong artist for the 54th Venice Biennale. On the tail of his inaugural exhibition at the newly renovated Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Chancery Lane presents a solo section of the booth of Frog King in an immersive space to engage the audience into the Frog King world.
Celebrating in 2021 20 years of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, we will also exhibit gallery revered artists Chinese “Star’s Group” artists Wang Keping, Huang Rui and Ma Desheng, Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê, Hong Kong born Australia-based artist John Young Zerunge and new to the gallery with his bamboo mobiles Laurent Martin “Lo.”
Frog King Kwok (Kwok Mang Ho b. 1947) is one of Hong Kong’s earliest conceptual artists and a key figure in paving the way for performance art in Asia. Prior to forging new artistic ground within the Hong Kong art scene beginning in the late 1960s, Kwok studied with ink painting master Lui Shou-kwan. Whilst his peers were following the ink medium’s realist traditions, Kwok chose instead to translate ink into a new language by incorporating it into installations, conceptual works, and works he termed in Cantonese as happenings (hark bun lum). In 1980 he moved to New York and became active in the East Village art scene opening the Kwok Gallery in 1982. The vibrant time of Art happenings during the 80s and 90s were explosive where Kwok became the persona Frog King. A few of the artists practicing in New York at that time and were of influence to him were Keith Haring, Tehching (Sam) Hsieh, Carolee Schneemann among others. A firm believer in fully immersing himself—body, mind, and soul—into his artworks and the spaces around them, Kwok is a living embodiment of his practice. He works effortlessly across various disciplines, and has produced innumerable paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, graffiti, happenings, and spontaneous performances throughout his career. In 2011, he represented Hong Kong at the 54th Venice Biennale in an exhibition titled Frogtopia Hongkornucopia.
