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Gallery EXIT – “To Each, His Zone” featuring the work of Hong Kong artists
June 10, 2017 @ 11:00 amJuly 15, 2017 @ 6:00 pm UTC+8
Chihoi
Elpis CHOW
Tiffany LAW
Lulu NGIE
YEUNG Hok Tak
To Each, his zone
10 June – 15 July 2017
Opening: Saturday, 10 June 2017, 4 – 6 pm
Gallery EXIT, 3/F, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Hours: Tue – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm
Gallery EXIT is pleased to announce “To Each, his zone”, a group exhibition featuring the work of Hong Kong artists Chihoi, Elpis CHOW, Tiffany LAW, Lulu NGIE and YEUNG Hok Tak. The exhibition will open on 10 June 2017 and remain on view through 15 July 2017. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, 10 June from 4pm to 6pm.
The exhibition brings together established and emerging artists, highlighting the diversity of art-making in Hong Kong and inviting comparisons between the different approaches. Although each of the artists has their own distinct voice, they all share the experience of having spent most, if not all, of their life in Hong Kong’s unique and often challenging living environment.
YEUNG Hok Tak is well known for his illustrations and comics, and has long been a fixture in the local art world. His new oil paintings, many of which show urban landscapes, appear hilarious at first – a closer look often reveals tiny figures having sex in dark corners. But there is sadness beneath the humorous surface: In a place so densely populated it leaves almost no room for intimacy, where life is further restricted by oppressive social norms, sex becomes an act of desperation and protest. Hong Kong’s skyline, a looming presence in some of the paintings, only deepens the feeling of helplessness.
The same high-rise towers become main characters in the work of Chihoi, another well-established artist and illustrator. His meticulous pencil drawings portray buildings in a moment of transformation, when they are completely covered in bamboo scaffolding while being redeveloped and converted into even higher structures. The detailed and careful depictions evoke a strong sense of nostalgia, a longing for solidity in a city that keeps reinventing itself at a frenetic pace, all too willingly sacrificing its history and identity in the process.
Chihoi’s drawings make for a fascinating comparison with those of Tiffany LAW. Like Chihoi, she takes her inspiration from Hong Kong’s ever-changing urban environment. But where her fellow artist relies on architectural precision, Law allows herself more freedom, resulting in vibrant and emotionally charged lines. In her largest drawing, a dark expanse suggests a body of water. Half hidden in the mesh of lines are the contours of ships and construction cranes, the harbingers of a world engulfed in change. Several smaller drawings depict empty guardhouses – they are surrounded by potted plants, set up by the security guards in a touching attempt to make the dehumanised environment more liveable.
In sharp contrast to LAW’s line drawings, the work of Elpis CHOW builds upon colour and its evocative power. The subjects of her square-format paintings are deceptively simple: a street corner at night, the branches of a plant, a pair of legs. It is the artist’s eerily muted palette of earthy shades, however, that transforms the seemingly ordinary into something higher. In CHOW’s hands, painting becomes an investigation into the quiet mysteries of daily life.
The urban influence is not always obvious. In her deeply personal work, Lulu NGIE turns inward to explore an emotional landscape marked by loss and struggle. On her canvasses, NGIE translates this inner world into highly stylised human figures, resulting in powerful representations of human feelings. Sometimes, multiple facets of herself appear at the same time, playing out their conflicts like characters in ancient myths.
智海
周紫羚
羅巧彤
倪鷺露
楊學德
《各自角》
2017年6月10日至7月15日
開幕:6月10日(星期六)下午4時至6時
地點:安全口畫廊 香港香港仔田灣興和街25號大生工業大廈3樓
辦公時間:星期二至六 上午11時至下午6時
安全口畫廊最新群展《各自角》,呈獻香港藝術家 智海,周紫羚,羅巧彤,倪鷺露,楊學德 的一系列作品。展覽於2017年6月10日至7月15日開放,開幕酒會在6月10日(星期六)下午4時至6時舉行。
五位資深和新晉藝術家,以不同角度出發,呈現其特立獨行的豐富筆觸。雖然每位風格迥然,但對於香港獨特而富挑戰性的生活環境,都各自有著深刻體會。
漫畫家楊學德近年向油畫領域進發,全新作品呈現具壓迫感的都市面貌,畫中人物微乎其微,躲在黑暗的角落裡進行性愛,表面的幽默隱現出不安的氣氛。在人煙稠密的城市裡,親密的舉動成了難能可貴的自由。壓抑的生活讓無力感油然而生,因此人只能以性來挑戰社會規範和限制。部分作品中的香港市景猶如龐然巨物,更顯畫中人的無助。
另一漫畫及藝術家智海,以鉛筆仔細描繪高樓大廈的永恆過渡。建築物裹上美麗的竹棚,日後卻可能重建成更龐大的樓宇。他以細致入微的勾畫,來表達消逝離別的哀傷。城市風景轉瞬即逝,歷史和身分太輕易被捨棄,智海的作品表現出對某種確實性的嚮往。
同樣是鉛筆畫,羅巧彤的風格卻截然不同。她和智海的作品同樣取材自變化急速的香港都市,但與後者的精密建築細節相比,羅氏的創作擁有相當自由度,藉著紙張上的線條表達敏銳情感。其核心作品浮泛一片漆黑的水潭,船隻和吊臂隱藏在密麻麻的線條下,預示生命中種種變化的來臨。另外數幅小型作品,空洞的更亭簇擁在看更栽種的植物之間,為非人性化的環境增添一點人情味。
周紫羚的油畫富於聯想色彩,與羅氏的素描質感形成強烈對比。作品刻意採用正方規格,晚上的街角、植物的枝椏、小腿等題材,也賦予鬱悶暗啞的大地色調,為畫中的平常物事添上一抹異色。在周氏的畫筆下,她靜心發掘沈寂日常的隱秘。
倪鷺露的作品含蓄而滿載個人反思,每每向內探索生命中的失落與掙扎。她將內心世界活現於油彩畫布上,以非寫實的簡約人物反映強烈感受。有時候,其自我意識的多個面向同時展現,如神話人物般表露情感上的抵觸。