Desiring: Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art

Co-curated by Daphne King & Eric Leung
In the presence of the artists

Talk: 8 July, Saturday, 3-5pm
Topic: Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art
By Tang Hoi-chiu, Adjunct Professor, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University; Daphne King, Director; Wucius Wong, Cheuk Ka-wai Cherie, artists
Moderator: Eric Leung

Alisan Fine Arts presents “Desiring: Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art”, an exhibition to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Showcasing the ink works of ten local artists of different generations and styles, the exhibition traces the footprint of Hong Kong’s ink art reformation. Established in 1981, Alisan Fine Arts celebrated its 35th anniversary last year. As one of the first professionally run galleries in Hong Kong, Alisan is in the perfect position to examine and explore the development and changes in ink art in Hong Kong pre- and post-1997.

Twenty years ago, to celebrate Hong Kong’s handover to China, Alisan Fine Arts, together with the Shanghai Art Museum, organized the exhibition “The Chinese Roots.” While that exhibition brought together over fifty Chinese artists from the Mainland, Hong Kong, and overseas to showcase the best of Chinese contemporary art, this exhibition twenty years later focuses solely on Hong Kong artists and the importance they played in the development of contemporary ink art.

In an advantageous position, Hong Kong has always been a place where East and West converge, as well as where tradition and modernity intermingle. It is here that Lui Shou Kwan and his fellow students started promoting a new form of ink art in the 1960s and 1970s. Incorporating Western abstract art, design skills, and concepts, they set off a revolution to abandon the traditional ink brush technique. Together, they launched the New Ink Painting Movement and nurtured a number of outstanding modern ink artists, forming an important platform in the evolution of ink painting and in the overall map of Asian art. Since its inception, Alisan Fine Arts has been an important promoter of this movement.

After 1997, Hong Kong has gone even further in the development of ink art. Influenced by native consciousness and commercial factors, a new era of contemporary ink art with distinct features has unfolded. As contemporary art focuses more on concept and innovation, new generations are utilizing various media, technology, and everyday materials in their work, expanding the possibilities of ink art infinitely. Moreover, Hong Kong ink art is gradually detaching itself from the traditional literati style—deeply rooted in Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist spiritualism—and instead infuses more elements of urban life and modern social community, thus creating a unique local artistic language.

Curator Eric Leung states that young artists trained in art institutes not only possess traditional ink painting techniques but also have the ability to express conceptual ideas. Influenced by comics and digital culture, they create outstanding works that are highly favored by collectors. Unlike the pre-1997 works that borrowed Western aesthetic styles to express Eastern ideas, the post-1997 generation of artists whimsically conveys contemporary notions in a classical style.

Daphne King, Director of Alisan Fine Arts, joined her mother, Alice King, the founder of the gallery, in 1996 and has witnessed firsthand the changes in contemporary ink art since the handover. She observes that although the market once slowed down due to the post-1997 financial crisis and migration issues, auction houses are now aggressively promoting contemporary ink art. The status of new ink predecessors such as Lui Shou Kwan is well established, and the prices of his works have reached new heights. The current ink art scene in Hong Kong is thriving and continues to embody the spirit of exploration, as the Chinese idiom suggests, “to have the desire to see a thousand miles” while pushing us to “reach new heights.”

The exhibiting artists include Fang Zhaoling and TC Lai, who took inspiration from Western painting styles; Lui Shou-kwan and Wucius Wong, pioneers of the New Ink Painting Movement; Man Fung-yi and Kum Chi-keung, who demonstrate new media appropriation; and Cheuk Ka-wai Cherie, Ho Kwun-ting, Hui Hoi-kiu, and Zhang Xiaoli, representatives of neo-classical ink art from contemporary art colleges. Their ink works blend delicate oriental charm with captivating occidental visualization, often expressed through introspective reflections or humorous criticism, shaping the landscape of post-1997 Hong Kong contemporary ink art.

Exhibition catalogue available.