We've handpicked some art exhibitions and events to check out this September. Read on to discover more.
Sin Sin Fine Art: Extended
After decades, Sin Sin Fine Art, the pioneering Hong Kong gallery that first showcased Indonesian artists, is once more unveiling emerging talents from the region. A chance encounter in Bali with Dani Huda and Talitha Maranila resonated deeply with Sin Sin Man, prompting her to reach out to artists from a land so dear to her.
What connects all three artists in this group show is the thirst to search deeper through nature into creative expression. Excited to share how today’s young artists are embracing nature and spirituality in their lives and work, Sin Sin “hopes it will inspire people who feel under pressure or lost; to guide them to find more light, more expanse, more breath.” A life spent in celebration of beauty and harmony, craftsmanship and art, this exhibition is philosophy in practice.
Meeting these two young artists served as an immense boost of inspiration for Sin Sin, connecting in their collective energy to work and live. ‘Extend’ is curated by Sin Sin, however she will also be showing a work in the exhibition that literally reflects back and engages in conversation with the work of Dani & Talitha. We invite you to join this creative explosion, letting the artworks be a stepping stone to introspection and spirituality.
When: 13th September - 9th November 2024
Image: courtesy Sin Sin Fine Art
Unit A, 4/f, Kin Teck Industrial Building, 26 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong
Pao Galleries: From Sketch to Story: The Creative Journey of Adolfo Arranz
The Consulate-General of Spain in Hong Kong - in collaboration with South China Morning Post and the Spanish Programme of The University of Hong Kong - is delighted to present "From Sketch to Story: The Creative Journey of Adolfo Arranz", the very first solo exhibition covering the professional and the personal works of this renowned artist. The exhibition explores the intersection of artistic expression and journalistic storytelling in Arranz's visually captivating creations.
Adolfo Arranz is a Spanish artist based in Hong Kong, currently working with Reuters to develop innovative visual
presentations of news stories. With a passion for handcrafted illustrations, Arranz creates visual displays that are both
informative and appealing. Throughout his career as a journalist, which led him to work for media outlets such as El Mundo in Spain, Mediacorp in Singapore, and South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where he rose to various positions during the two periods in which he worked for them (2011-2014 and 2016-2022), he has received over 150 awards for his contributions to visual communication. Among those awards are four gold medals at the Malofiej Awards, a gold in the Society for News Design; on two occasions the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists of the USA -an award shared with the SCMP graphics team-, a PRINT Award, the Pencil Wood Award, three golds in Wan-Ifra, and he is a four-times winner in the best design category of the Hong Kong News Awards. Back in May of this year, Adolfo was chosen World’s Best Designer by the Society of News Design
When: 11th September - 22nd September 2024
Image: courtesy Consulate General of Spain, Hong Kong
5/f Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road
Muse Garden: The Love
Muse Garden is pleased to announce the solo exhibition The Love by the legendary female artist Kong Ning, running from August 31 to October 12, 2024. This exhibition marks Kong Ning’s debut in Hong Kong, showcasing seven of her iconic oil paintings alongside video documentation of her performance art. Through these works, Kong Ning transforms her personal experiences and societal appeals into a diverse artistic language that resonates deeply with humanity, probing the essence of life.
Born in Manzhouli, a border city in China, Kong Ning has endured a life marked by hardship—experiencing the threat of war, life and death, psychological trauma, and the loss of family members. After weathering these profound trials, she found solace in art, creating works that stimulate the senses and inspire contemplation beyond the surface, ultimately illuminating life's grand and purest theme: love. Her artistic journey intertwines love with the Earth and nature, extending beyond visual aesthetics to become an ethical imperative.
When: 31st August - 12th October 2024
Image: courtesy Muse Gardens
H506-507, Block B, PMQ, Central
Touch Gallery: Inklings of the Heart
Renowned artist Ou Da-wei will present his first solo exhibition, "Inklings of the Heart" at Touch Gallery this September. At 77 years of age, Ou Da-wei is the only contemporary artist in Hong Kong who skillfully combines poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal carving, integrating the elegance of literati culture into his creations and expressing the intertwining of emotions through a unique style that conveys depth.
Ou Da-wei's works capture fleeting inspiration through the variations in ink intensity and brushstroke techniques, allowing viewers to experience his reflections and insights on life. The poetry and landscape paintings within the works complement each other, creating a harmonious artistic dialogue.
When: 10th September - 5th October 2024
Image: Touch Gallery
Shop 103, 1/f, Block 3 Barrack Block, Tai Kwan, 10 Hollywood Road
ADVERT
Dot Dot Dot Gallery: Goodbye World
‘Goodbye World’ is the second part of Michael Chuah’s World series. The first part, ‘Hello World,’ serves as an introduction to Michael’s alter ego, Yuurei Neko Sama, allowing him to explore the inner self of a creator. In ‘Goodbye World,’ the focus shifts to the transition of growing up and preparing to move on to the next stage. It reflects the struggles that Michael encounters and the things he needs to leave behind.
When: 7th September - 22nd September 2024
Image: courtesy Dot Dot Dot Gallery
10/f Pang Kwong Building, 59 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong
Mou Project: Secretly, Inwardly, Dimly
MOU PROJECTS is pleased to present "Secretly, Inwardly, Dimly," Ding Zhi's first solo exhibition with the gallery as well as in Hong Kong. Showcasing a curated selection of most recent paintings, Ding merges personal history with a universal narrative in the featured works, encapsulating the essence of observing life from the shadows and the internal struggle of understanding one's place in the world. The exhibition's English title, composed of three peculiar adverbs, serves not just as a literal description of the spaces her painted characters inhabit but as a metaphor for the emotional and psychological landscapes they traverse. These adverbs—secretly, inwardly, and dimly—collectively sketch the contours of a deeply interior world, where actions and observations are cloaked in layers of discretion and introspection.
Ding's paintings are deeply imbued with her own life experiences, particularly her upbringing in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China, and her subsequent immigration to the United States. Elements of magical realism found in her works speak volumes about the ordinary lives and life paths of people from small Chinese cities, articulated through a visual language that balances between cartoonish innocence and somber contemplation. Against backdrops of dark tones, the characters in her works exude a palpable sense of melancholy, underscoring the stark realities of ordinary living—harsh yet not devoid of hope.
Central to the exhibition are motifs that recur with symbolic intensity. The telescope, as seen in works like Dream Hunting (all works 2024) and Lurkingseries, is emblematic of the desire to observe from a distance, to be part of the world while also remaining apart from it. This duality speaks to Ding's own experiences as an immigrant and an observer, capturing the tension between longing and belonging, between the desire to engage and the instinct to retreat. The telescope as a motif also explores the dichotomy of visibility and invisibility, suggesting that what we choose to see and how we choose to see it can reveal as much about ourselves as it does about our subjects.
Elsewhere, the motif of riding a (fake) tiger beckons viewers into a realm infused with dreamland magic. An enigmatic symbol associated with deities in Chinese folklore, the act of riding a tiger embodies formidable power. However, in Ding's works, the illusion shatters as it becomes evident that the "tiger" is in fact a person in disguise. This startling revelation transforms scenes from her works into peculiar parodies, where the expected display of supernatural strength is undercut by a sense of theatrical absurdity. This motif echoes the story of her migration to the United States for education, funded by her parents' small business earnings. What felt like an empowering leap—"riding a tiger"—later revealed layers of self-discovery and the realization of entrenched roots in her humble beginnings. The tiger, once a symbol of her bold venture, is demystified as something much more relatable and human. The work Chana Star, with its reference to a van model popular among aspiring business owners in 2000s China, encapsulates this theme of aspiration versus reality. Against passing scenery in a window frame, the stationary tiger, mistaken for motion, parallels the artist's personal revelations about her journey, where perceived advances may be mere static views. Similarly, Come Prepared depicts a scene of anticipatory confrontation, and A Fish That Escaped the Net Ivisualizes the protagonist's elusion from capture. These allegorical scenes bring to the forefront themes of ambition, self-revelation, and the nuanced dance between power and vulnerability.
In Ding's works, characters are often found in moments of concealment or transition, marked by introspection and a search for belonging. "Secretly, Inwardly, Dimly" culminates as a profoundly personal yet universally resonant exploration of human existence. Through the lens of the artist's experiences and observations, the exhibition unfolds as a narrative tapestry weaving together themes of observation and concealment, strength and vulnerability, reality and illusion. Her works, interweaving realism and fantasy, invite viewers into a world where the lines between the seen and unseen, the external and internal, are both defined and blurred. In this space, we're encouraged to reflect on our own lives, on the moments of observation and participation, on the dreams hunted and the tigers ridden, real or otherwise.
When: 31st August - 19th October 2024
Image: Courtesy of Mou Projects
202, The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang
Double Q: Preciously Profane Possessions
In a liminal space amid “primitive” experiences and erudite allegories, in which a childlike spirit and the memories therein clash with the adiaphoric character of metropolitan solipsism and the tangential contradictions of contemporary subsistence, innocent and wild scenery thrives affably in the open countryside or along the banks of waterways. Formally composed of a multitude of simple forms and large patches of earthy colours, they generate an authentic, open, and uninhibited fresco.
After the gust of a warm summer evening breeze and generous caresses, libidinous bodies and sweet memories embrace each other. Pleasantly protected by a white sheet, they celebrate the immense pleasure of the present moment, symptomatic of an ideal world that pushes the limits of conventional representations.
Thus arises “Preciously Profane Possessions,” a new exhibition chapter by the young Santiago Evans Canales. At its center is a search for and celebration of the primal colours typical of the bold and magnificent virgin nature. Here, generous and meandering brushstrokes slowly trace the indefinite images of reclining bodies, enlarged through vivid swathes of colour that slowly manifest in the auroral layers of paint.
Through the use of a luxuriant colour palette that generates a golden light, at once warm and vibrant, and endowed with action and movement, all areas of shadow gain a sort of brightness. Sometimes this is a whisper, other times it surges with intensity.
In his luminescent, psycho-perceptive, and empathic art practice, usually composed of luminous colours and near-abstract figurations, Canales frequently takes inspiration from references that are autobiographical, historical, and indigenous while at the same time pertaining to fantasy and magical realism. In doing so, each painting is a window into his personal world—a spontaneous universe in which the viewer can both perceive and be submerged in the artist’s own Weltanschauung.
Although inherently intuitive, all of his work is influenced by observation, abstraction, and imagination. And all of these elements contribute to the skilful creation of aesthetic balance and inimitable and inclusive sensory satisfaction in which light, colour, and related hues, along with line, space, form, contrast, emphasis, movement, rhythm, texture, unity, and variety coexist harmoniously in their imperishable permanence.
“Preciously Profane Possessions,” celebrating and contemplating nudity, resulting in a redefinition of the meaning of being in which, in the keeping with the evolution of Heideggerian ontology, the impulse to transfigure “restless preoccupation” with an “appeasing” metaphysics increasingly grows, and indeed seals a return to oil painting, enriched by an amalgam of sand and primer.
Here, the realm of sacred and profane space, or of openness and deprivation, are challenged in their categorical subdivision, actuating that modus cogitandi according to which these spaces themselves should no longer merely indicate a dichotomy but stimulate the revelation of a cohesive organization that contains within itself an iridescent world of values, expectations, and ways of living. Thus what is delineated is form, faith in the other, breadth of openness, and the evolution of human beings moving towards the cusp of their destinies.
While painting sculpts images that animate whispered stories in the exhibition “Preciously Profane Possessions,” the only plausible boundaries of this Arcadian world gifted to us by Canales consist solely and exclusively of the edges of horizontal canvases.
Metaphorically evoking French intellectual Pierre Klossowski’s 1965 book “The Laws of Hospitality”—a trilogy in which a parallel reflection is conducted on seemingly irreconcilable themes: theology and eroticism, being hostages or liberators—all these ecstatic paintings, breaking down into an interdependent network of symbolic elements, chorally recite a story of unconcluded mutual attractions, a theophany that is realized by breathing in effluvia that is, for some, impure.
And so the question arises: is it enough to exist or is it better to live?
When: 31st August - 12th October 2024
Image: courtesy Double Q
68 Lok Ku Road, Sheung Wan
Soluna Fine Art: The Way Home
Soluna Fine Art proudly presents The Way Home, a compelling summer group exhibition curated by Shirky Chan, featuring the works of four outstanding artists: Chan Suet Yi, Henry D’Ath, Rhett D’Costa, and Mo Lai Sze Liz. Drawing from their personal experiences, recollections, and aspirations, each artist offers a profound and nuanced interpretation of home through their distinct bodies of work. Spanning a diverse range of mediums and artistic approaches, The Way Home invites viewers to contemplate on how our private definitions of home are intricately shaped by an emotional mosaic of sentiments and feelings.
Chan Suet Yi’s paintings contain a fluidity akin to dream-like states, capturing fleeting moments of “home” from the subconscious interpreted from various contexts and media. Her hazy images evoke a familiar comfort, yet remain simultaneously elusive by nature, embracing the notion that any place can be home.
Henry D’Ath’s sculptural works are imbued with strong symbolisms that reflect his upbringing in rural New Zealand. The abstract forms that resemble elements from the farm contrasted with his architectural training and international exposure. Regardless of his location, his works help him access cherished childhood memories, collapsing time and bridging the gap between past and present in his mind.
Rhett D’Costa’s body of work explores his family’s migration experience under the influence of British colonization, reflecting on a time when ethno-cultural identity was distinct yet disjointed. His creative works, influenced by impressions grounded in western culture and history, seeks to continuously uncover the roots stemming from his Indian heritage.
Mo Lai Sze Liz’s printmaking works seek to establish meaningful connections between her roots in Hong Kong and life in a foreign place. Her collaged monoprints bridge the spatial and temporal points physically and visually, weaving a narrative that explores her personal experience of relocation and the discovery of finding new places to call home.
Soluna Fine Art invites viewers to embark on a journey that transcends boundaries from a physical location into a deep emotional, psychological, and social search for one’s way home. The exhibition will be on view from 22 August to 28 September 2024.
When: 22nd August - 28th September 2024
Image: courtesy Soluna Fine Art
52 Sai Street, Sheung Wan
Wyndham Social: Pixelated Chronicles: Tales of Hong Kong Outlying Islands
Wyndham Social gladly presents Pixelated Chronicles: Tales of Hong Kong Outlying Islands in collaboration with Project: As If___.
The term "pixel" originates from the combination of "pix" (pictures) and "el(ement)" and is used to describe the smallest unit in a digital image. Much like urban planning, every spatial moment can be seen as colors and fragments of the city; up close, it appears mottled, while from afar, it reveals infinite possibilities for extension and interpretation. Further layer with the dimension of time, the information compressed in each space silently records the trajectory of our urban development and scripts future possibilities.
This exhibition starts with the hidden stories of Hong Kong’s islands, drawing on Aldo Rossi’s framework of urban studies and Brian McGrath’s concept of “islands as urban artifacts” to seek exploration in lands away from the gaps of the city. It discusses how islands, as city pixels, challenge traditional development concepts, awaken memories forgotten by time, and inspire reflection on how the city should be shaped by everyone who cherishes this land.
When:23rd August - 06th October 2024
Image: courtesy Wyndham Social
33 Wyndham Street, Central
Comments