Three Foundational Icons of Hong Kong Visual Art

Description

With works spanning over half a century, Lucie Chang Fine Arts’ THE HONG KONG ICONICS Art Basel Hong Kong Review features pieces from King of Kowloon (Tsang Tsou-choi), Zhao Haitien and Anothermountainman (Stanley Wong). The exhibit highlights Hong Kong’s unique culture and artistic spirit through sharing the stories behind their works, which cover a range of mediums from graffitied calligraphy to oil paintings.

Known colloquially as King of Kowloon, Tsang was a renowned local street calligraphist whose bold claims of royal lineage once covered walls and streets, and have become a symbol of Hong Kong. Since his passing in 2007, his work has been exhibited in M+, sold for tens of thousands of dollars and even worn by models in fashion shows.

Zhao, a Chinese contemporary artist, has been creating artworks for over half a century with over 15 solo exhibitions. Her work incorporates Daoism and Buddhism into abstract oil paintings characterised by heavy brushstrokes and emotional depth.

A representative of Hong Kong’s new pop art, Wong often makes use of local visual symbols like the red-white-blue nylon fabric in his multi-medium works, embodying and translating characteristics of Hong Kong into his works. His redwhiteblue series was shown in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005.