HONG KONG AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2023 -10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present the twelfth edition of HKFOREWORD 2023, which introduces new art from Hong Kong through its latest art graduates. This year we have selected 10 artists from 3 Hong Kong universities. The exhibition includes painting, video, installation, and a stop motion animation video. The HKFOREWORD exhibition brings a fresh outlook on Hong Kong’s art development and offers insight into the preoccupations and inspirations driving their work.
We are honored to present:
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Karen Chan |
Mak Yung Ka |
The year of 2023 has been the official end of the Covid restrictions in Hong Kong that liberated this group of artists during their last year as students to get them back into the physical classroom. However, it came late, thus, they have had a challenging time during their studies. Currently in the post pandemic art world, there does seem to be more colour, frivolity and spontaneity in the works. Many of the artists of this generation have felt the changing political environment, with friends having been arrested for their views and a definite feeling of uncertainty moving forward. We did see some works among the graduates that were overtly political but less than the previous two years. There are some cryptic messages well hidden within some of the works. Overall, this year felt as if they were breaking free from the heaviness of the past 3 years of the Covid pandemic and the protests that preceded it.
A glimpse into the souls of our youth is a gift for all to cherish. HKFOREWORD23 offers a moment in time to understand through art the thoughts and concerns of Hong Kong artists today. Art is a lasting material for society to embrace as a collective journey. May we take a moment to reflect on their musings and embrace the creative process of our time.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Karen Chan (b. 2000 ) recently received her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University. Karen Chan is an artist skilled in various art mediums such as oil painting, ceramics, watercolour, and more. This has led to her establishing a diverse art-making practice. Her inspiration traces back to her childhood where she spent most of her time enjoying cartoons and moving images, as well as, from her current practice of teaching children as an art tutor. Her works express her sensitivity and beliefs towards life, thereby reaching out to the minds of her audience. Through a cartoonish and playful approach, her works attract viewers with a relaxed and lively attitude. Embracing the concept of the inner child, she hopes audiences can relive the beautiful feelings of innocence, kindness, and happiness through her work. The seemingly cold expressions in her paintings stem from her dissatisfaction and rebellion against prejudices she encountered transitioning into adulthood. The black humour, irony, and jokes in her paintings have the intention to encourage people to face challenges in a light-hearted way and encourage independent thinking.
Chi Tin Sui (b. 2001) recently received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chi Tin Sui is a painter, most of her work presents a sense of disorientation in unfamiliar places, juxtaposing symbols and objects in the same space. She is interested in the ambiguity of human nature, the contingency of life, and the relationship between life and consciousness. Chi Tin Sui’s objects summon the viewer’s irrational thoughts, perspectives and ways of thinking to provoke an understanding of the world through their most intimate thoughts. Combining the realistic and surreal confronts both the subconscious and conscious understanding of her works. The work then reflects a truth that is closer to the absolute.
Wing Chiu (b. 2001) recently received her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University. Wing Chiu focuses on painting and drawing in her art practice. Inspired by conversations and day-to-day moments of life, her works are visual narratives reassembled with a hint of quirkiness. She believes that random ideas are resurfaced through subconscious thoughts, and thus practices free association during her art-making process. Her works are not only an expression of emotion, but also a record of daily life.
Lee Kam Ching, Lewis (b.1998) recently received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lee Kam Ching, Lewis grew up between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. He uses landscape painting to express his personal experiences of his family and his ancestry. Through his work, he responds to the scars left by previous generations, exploring identity and constructing his own worldview in a playful yet surreal manner. His past works have encompassed painting, photography, installation, and artificial landscapes. Lee is the winner of Grotto Fine Art Award 2023.
Pyrce Luk (b. 1988) recently received her Master of Arts in Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Pyrce Luk is inspired and fascinated by the texture of desire - a force that is elementally powerful, yet paradoxically fragile and open to manipulation, for it is a synthetic mess. Her artistic journey is a continuous exploration into the labyrinth of desire and truth, and the complex relationships that intertwine them. Pyrce predominantly expresses herself through conceptual and mixed media artworks. Her creations often incorporate fragments of text to reflect or probe the complex terrain of the human psyche, and the ambiguity between simulation and reality. Through her works, she extends an invitation to everyone to delve into the swirling paradoxes and uncertainties beneath the manifestation of desire. In her kinetic installation “WHO WANTS WHAT”, while the pronoun "I" was taken out from all sentences on the surface panel, the rotating panels underneath bear the names of all people she personally knew throughout her life, probing the complex interplay between personal wants, human interactions, mass media, and internal struggles.
Mak Yung Ka (b. 1993 ) is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts from the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Mak Yung Ka is inspired by abandoned, old or broken objects as they carry both vulnerability and power when they veer off from their discernability and function. Like how a dying wave soon realises it is the core of a vast ocean, these objects are in themselves everything else. Being in this blurry state of existence makes the interconnectedness of all things more prominent. As an installation artist, Mak seeks to invite objects to reveal their relationships with each other in a more comedic and dramatic way where the audience feels compelled to redefine them. She states, “Human beings always try to make sense of what we see having a strong desire to identify things. However, this is exactly what I would not do while creating the artworks. I avoid presuming what objects I need or what my artworks should look like, I simply rely on the intuitive connections I have with the objects from the street or thrift shops and let them tell me what they are.”
Shum Hok Kiu (b. 2001 ) recently received her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University.Shum Hok Kiu’s artistic practice include painting and sculpture. Shum sees her artmaking as a form of life documentation and emotional expression, while exploring the inner self and the effects of uncertainty. Shum’s works are greatly inspired by the daily scenarios that she encounters. She simplifies the scenes or objects from her daily life into shapes and transforms them into abstract forms. She incorporates elements of night scenery as she is especially drawn to the contrast and relationship between darkness and light. Photos taken at night become the foundation of her paintings, transforming real scenarios into a quiet and peaceful space from reality.
Christine Tsang (b. 2000 ) recently received her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University. Christine Tsang’s painting of eerie scenes and characters beckon the viewer to go inward. Her work sets a scenario together with a story with a painterly interest in colour and pictorial construction. Drawn to the strangeness and sentimentality of daily trivia, she combines her personal experiences, photos, literature and observations of life to explore the definitions of love, subtly shuffling between intimate emotions and alienation. From fluid to thick, her brushstrokes are layered with under paint and varnish causing tension between the images and marks that are blended within indistinct stories. These disjointed relationships are portrayed in a grotesque composition. Christine creates a detached space in her paintings, which she shares with the viewer where tenderness could be found in the disorder.
Ella Wong (b. 1999 ) is pursuing her Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University. As a member of Generation Z who grew up in the age of the internet and social media, Ella Wong has always wondered what it means to be human and whether technology will replace human ingenuity in the future. She began to seek answers through painting, a medium she believes to be most apt in expressing human creativity, to explore the absurdity of existence in the modern world. Her choice of painting many layers of colours lend a rich, thick texture which transforms her paintings into three-dimensional artworks. Ella invites viewers to join her in redefining painting and using a dark sense of humour to challenge the status quo of modern life.
Yoyo Yu (b. 2000) recently received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Yoyo Yu finds solace in stop-motion animation as a means to process and digest her emotions and thoughts. Her creative process involves using mixed media including clay, fabrics, and painting to build unique worlds within her animations. By shaping and sculpting her puppets, she infuses her memories into the clay. As she manipulates her puppets, along with the lighting and ambience frame by frame, she not only aims to replicate reality but also offer a fresh perspective on her intimate and honest narrative. Yoyo’s art strives to create a space where vulnerability is celebrated, and where the complexities of the human experience are embraced and understood.
ABOUT 10 CHANCERY LANE GALLERY
Established in 2001, when Hong Kong’s art scene was burgeoning, Katie de Tilly started 10 Chancery Lane Gallery. Along the back wall of the, then running, Victoria Prison, now the buzzing Tai Kwun Heritage and Cultural site, the little walking lane opened into a gallery specializing in contemporary art from the Asia-Pacific. Over the past 22 years, 10 Chancery Lane has worked with some of the region’s great artists, curators and museums. The gallery’s motto still stands: “We are committed to giving a breath of fresh air to the Hong Kong art scene by bringing works that can expand horizons, open minds and view the world, and life in general, through varying eyes, ideas and souls. Art is not just decoration for our walls but a connection with our deep inner selves and the world around us.”
For Press Enquiries and to arrange interviews, please contact Ellen Zhuang:
ellen@10chancerylanegallery.com or +852 2810 0065
or mobile / whatsapp +852 96219572
or WeChat ID: manor_Z
High resolution images available on request
