Yau Wing Fung

Introduction

Yau Wing Fung had a chance encounter with a certain rock on a walk in the Kowloon Walled City Park several years ago. He recalls that he was so struck by the huge garden rock shrouded between the smog and fog, that he immediately bought pen and paper to sketch it. Rocks have since become an important subject matter in his ink-painting oeuvre. He is particularly interested in exploring the negative space in rocks—revealed by the hollows and crevices shaped over time—and the interaction with its surroundings.

Yau’s paintings of rocks have developed alongside his innovative pictorial strategies, which offer fresh interpretations of the Chinese landscape painting tradition. Inspired by the theory of master painter Guo Xi (c. 1000–c. 1090) that observation of the landscape is naturally in a state of motion (山形步步移、山形面面看), Yau takes the concept further. He splits the elements within the rocks and reconfigures them into a multiple grid structure, as we see in Riding Mist 15 (2020). He also deploys a unique aerial point of view, which derives from his interest in technology and satellite imagery.

Yau Wing Fung received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Fine Arts department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

POP ROCK in 2021 is Alisan Fine Arts’ first time working with the artist.