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      Peeling Paint in Hong Kong Reveals Work of Newly Relevant ‘King’

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      When he was alive, the graffiti of Tsang Tsou-choi, or the “King of Kowloon,” was considered peculiar and personal. In a radically changed city, his mostly vanished art now has a political charge.HONG KONG — Often shirtless in summer, smelling of sweat and ink, the aggrieved artist wrote incessantly, and everywhere: on walls, underpasses, lamp posts and traffic light control boxes.He covered public spaces in Hong Kong with expansive jumbles of Chinese characters that announced his unshakable belief that much of the Kowloon Peninsula rightfully belonged to his family.During his lifetime, the graffiti artist, Tsang Tsou-choi, was a ubiquitous figure, well-known for his eccentric campaign that struck most as a peculiar personal mission, not a political rallying cry.But Hong Kong has become a very different place since Mr. Tsang died in 2007, and his work — once commonly spotted, but now largely vanished from the streetscape — has taken on a new resonance in a city where much political expression has been stamped out by a sweeping campaign against dissent since 2020.“In his lifetime, particularly early on, people thought he was completely crazy,” said Louisa Lim, author of “Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong,” a new book that examines Mr. Tsang’s legacy. “Even at the time that he died no one was really interested in the content or the political message of his work. But actually, he was talking about these Hong Kong preoccupations long before other people were — territory, sovereignty, dispossession and loss.”When a decades-old work surfaced earlier this year, it started drawing a crowd to a setting that could hardly be more mundane: a concrete railway bridge, built over a roadway and adorned with little besides a registration number and a warning against graffiti.The bridge sits near a bird market and a sports stadium on Boundary Street, a road that marks the edge of the territory ceded by the Qing dynasty to the British in 1860 after the Second Opium War. It is covered in gray paint, some of which flaked away this spring — exactly how remains a mystery — to reveal a palimpsest of Mr. Tsang’s work from several eras of painting at one of his favorite sites.Taking a photo of the newly discovered work. “There are very few King of Kowloon works left in Hong Kong, and now, those that are before our eyes are precious,” When In Doubt, an artist collective, wrote in celebration of the discovery. Anthony Kwan for The New York TimesLam Siu-wing, a Hong Kong artist, said he happened across the Boundary Street work while out for an evening walk in late March.“I thought the old Hong Kong was saying hello again,” he said.News of the discovery began to spread, with When In Doubt, an artist collective that Mr. Lam belongs to, describing his find as a rare treasure. The group noted that it’s one of the earliest artistic creations to prod discussion of an essential and increasingly pressing question in Hong Kong: Who does urban space belong to?The Latest on China: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 6China’s economy stumbles. More

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      “Madzarevic” by Wuper Kec in Ekaterinburg, Russia

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      Serbian artist Dejan Ivanovic presented his work in Ekaterinburg at the STENOGRAFFIA international street art festival. He has been working under the pseudonym Wuper Kec since 2007. The mural is placed in Ekaterinburg at Malysheva str., 56A. It is the second art object by a foreign author this year.The work is done in the realism style. The art object resembles oil on canvas. Wuper Kec depicted a man peeling an apple against a carpet. He often saw carpets on the walls in Russian apartments. “This is an interesting tradition for me. I was inspired by the Soviet era, Soviet oil paintings. I like the style of that time,” said Wuper Kec.The work was named Madzarevic in honor of the man depicted on the mural. The father of the artist’s friend  is the protagonist. Dejan often came to visit him, and the man shared his life stories. Therefore, the author decided to capture an important person in his work in Russia. Wuper has taken a photo of the future main character. «It was important for me that he did not pose. He behaved the way he does every day. I wanted to show an ordinary person in his usual environment,» the artist noted.The author has chosen the apple to create a bright center at the work. Dejan made the figure of a man lighter, while the carpet was made in dark colors. Wuper analyzed several carpets to create an exact image of the Russian carpet. Then he combined the elements he liked and created his own version of the carpet on the wall, using blue, red, and muted yellow. As the result, the Wuper’s work in saturated colors stands out from the gray walls of surrounded houses. Thus, Dejan’s work puts together vivid images from the two countries, and integrates them harmoniously into the urban space.Wuper Kec visited Ekaterinburg and took part in the STENOGRAFFIA festival for the first time. Dejan became a street artist 15 years ago. He started creating realistic murals 5 years ago. He has a lot of graffiti, tags, as well as large-scale art objects: portrait and genre art. The artist combines painting and street art. Wuper creates about 13 paintings on canvas and about 8 murals in a year. More

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      “Whisper” by SATR in Mannheim, Germany

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      This June/July 2022, Chinese artist SATR have traveled all the way from her hometown of Guangzhou in China to Mannheim, Germany.  SATR worked on her latest mural “Whisper” for the Stadt.Wand.Kunst mural festival.The large apartment building facade, pre-coated in a bold clean white was to be the basis of the captivating mural. SATR, who made her entry into the street art realm in 2013, has paved her unique path through the world by merging animals, a limited but bold color palette of predominantly black, white, red, and very few other colors, and an engaging transparent style that has a ghostly smokey appeal, in a technique that is reminiscent of Chinese brush painting done in the street art way.Originating from years of experimentation with transparent colors, her approach also shows a refined knowledge of equilibrium, successfully using positive and negative space in regard to the wall space she covers and that she leaves free of paint. An ideal working process for her as she took the qualities of the Montana BLACK, Montana GOLD and particularly the Montana GOLD Transparent colors cans to their limits. Opaque and transparent carefully juxtapose with each other in all her concepts, with the main focus always being animals. Tigers, lions, eagles, and wolves, to name a few, are all animals that have strong symbolic origins that find their way into SATR artworks. For Stadt.Wand.Kunst, it was a panther and a leopard.“Whisper”, the title of SATR’s SWK mural takes the viewer in various directions. Questions are raised the longer one ponders the mural. Why is a panther whispering to a leopard? Is this a trusted relationship between the two animal breeds that we are looking at? And as the artist herself explains, “the mural shows human emotions in the animal world”. A notion that is seldom raised in artworks on the street. The local residents of the Mannheim suburb Waldhof looked on in amazement as the mural took shape. Yet another milestone for SATR and the team at SWK, taking international street art to new heights each year.Check out below for more photos of the stunning mural.Photos by Alexander Krziwanie More

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      Volery Gallery at CAN Art Fair Ibiza 2022

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      Volery Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Contemporary Art Now, Ibiza (CAN). The fair focuses on the Now and solely on the latest happenings in the contemporary art world.Volery Gallery’s main aim is to offer the Middle East exposure to the latest happenings in the international art world, exhibiting and collaborating with artists and galleries representing the New Contemporary wave.Volery will exhibit the works of six outstanding artists, Ana Barriga, Ms. Dyu, Britty Em, Franco Fasoli, Tosin Kalejaye and Putu Adi Suanjaya (Kencut). Their work has a common thread of questioning their surrounding environments and societies. Flat backgrounds, cartoon characters and colourful toys take over the space to raise questions and recall past experiences.The selection brings together the mischievousness, irony and humour of Barriga’s universe, where the artist is met with children’s toys and daily colourful objects from which unforeseen situations that do not fit the rules emerge. The ironic presentation of society in Ms. Dyu’s work is seen in her cartoonish display of characters interacting with their surrounding environment. The extraordinary trip Em’s work takes the audiences through her extravagantly colourful and playful work filled with patterns, symbolism and nostalgic objects. The dispute, conflict and discursive juxtaposition in Fasoli’s work in which he questions the questions already asked. The flat backgrounds in Kalejaye’s work, in conjunction with his vividly painted figures, he utilises his work to convey his opinions and impressions about the everyday Black experience in modern society. The stuffed toys and the buttoned eyes are recurring characters in Kencut’s work, reflecting and mirroring his past experiences from a young age that are embedded within his subconscious.You can book your tickets to this year’s festival at Contemporary Art Now’s website. More

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      KAI “Attack” Limited Edition Print – Available July 7th

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      Japanese artist KAI have collaborated with ArtPort for his latest limited edition screenprint entitled “Attack”.  Attack comes in an edition of 50 and measures 50 x 50 cm.Kai is a self-taught artist who started creating art in October 2021. He paints monsters in a monochrome world. His monsters, however, have friendly and playful features painted in black and white. Kai aims for the number of expressive and unique monsters to proliferate.Attack will be available on July 7, 2020, Thursday. 7PM HK Time (7AM NYC, 4AM LA, 9PM Melbourne, 12PM UK, 8PM Tokyo) at ArtPort website.Take a look below for more photos of Attack. More

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      “Mr. Günter, The Cat Show” exhibition by Javier Calleja in Tokyo, Japan

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      After passing through Almine Rech Paris with “This Is Your Lucky Day” and his recent collaboration with Hypebeans, the prestigious coffee shops in Hong Kong and Seoul, on June 25 Javier Calleja arrived in Tokyo to inaugurate a new solo exhibition curated by Nanzuka, “Mr. Günter, The Cat Show”.Conceived as an installation, the exhibition features Günter Gambita, Javier Calleja and Alicia Gutiérrez’s cat. With a mischievous gaze Günter freely “walks” through the Parco Museum to make himself present in every corner of his owner’s exhibition. At the same time, he seems to become the perfect “host” to make way for a selection of works that include new sketches, paintings, and a large wooden sculpture, never before exhibited in Japan.In addition, welcoming the visitors, a large sculpture of the feline has been installed on the street that gives access to Parco Museum. “I am delighted to present this important member of our family in Japan”, the artist stated about this presentation. Javier Calleja’s work is characterised by his ability to imprint surprise and touches on humor in everyday aspects of our daily lives. A recognised admirer of the surrealism master René Magritte, as well as such artists as Yoshitomo Nara or Chris Johanson, Calleja has been able to masterfully incorporate his techniques into contemporary portraiture until finding his own hallmark through his large eye characters.The game that he establishes between colours or scales and the expressions of his characters or the texts that accompany the works, is one of the more distinct qualities of Calleja’s practice. It is this ability to face difficulties through insightful creativity as well as his premise to face any vital aspect with positivity, that feeds the contagious fascination and empathy generated through his work.Check out below for more photos of “Mr. Günter, The Cat Show” More

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      “Abeona” by Rona Smith in Paddington, London

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      Commissioned by JCDecaux, sculptor Rona Smith has created Abeona, a major new 50ft cast bronze artwork in the heart of Paddington, inspired by the architecture of travel. The permanent sculpture will be unveiled in a private ceremony on Monday 27th June 2022.Rona Smith says, ‘Since public transport networks play such an integral role in our daily lives, I found inspiration for Abeona in the proximity to Paddington station. This commission was an opportunity to bring to life the complex infrastructure of rail travel and the pathways or ‘tracks’ that connect us in our work, communities, and relationships.As a Londoner, I frequently travel through incredible transport hubs intersecting thousands of lives and journeys. My intention is to reference not only the scale and history of these structures but also to draw attention to the physical human connection which they facilitate.’The form of the sculpture is lifted directly from the artist’s line drawing of Paddington railway tracks receding to a vanishing point and it is the sketched, wavering pen on paper that gives the sculpture its organic quality. Rona explains, ‘The fluid nature of the line gives a personal and human feel to the industrial imagery and the sculpture peels away from the wall like a page from a sketch book.’Abeona is named after the Roman goddess of outbound travel who protects travellers, particularly children, and ensures a safe passage. Rona says, ‘The sculpture plays with perspective, appearing to extend beyond the frame of the building and into the sky, giving a sense of taking off. The title Abeona evokes the beginning of epic journeys and reminds us of the thrill of a child’s first steps.’Abeona’s kinetic lighting is inspired by the movement of trains shunting slowly into a station and casts shifting shadows across the sculpture. This gently fluctuating shadow play also suggests the careful movement of a pen across paper, reflecting the notion of the artwork as a three-dimensional drawing.The railway imagery alludes to JCDecaux’s utilisation of travel hubs including bus stops, stations, and airports while offering an unmissable greeting to JCDecaux’s UK central London office. The fluid form of the sculpture complements the sharp simplicity of the architecture, its freeform quadrilaterals echoing the grid of windows in the adjacent wall. The sculpture sweeps away from the building and suspends in space, its foundations invisible. The work showcases impressive engineering allowing a lightness which is unexpected given the necessary robustness of such a structure.Take a look below for more photos of the project. More

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      “Pasta, Panda, Beretta e Mandolino – Made in Italy” by Urka in Turin, Italy

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      Street artist Urka just worked on his latest mural located at Parco Dora, Turin, Italy. The mural entitled “Pasta, Panda, Beretta e Mandolino – Made in Italy” was made in collaboration with artist MrFijodor.URKA is a talented, satirical sketch artist who enjoys also creating on city walls. Based in Italy, he is a shy guy, introverted, meteoropathic and misanthropic the most of the time.  The artist likes to draw silly and satiric puppets about human behaviors.Take a look below for more photos of his latest project. More