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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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      “I & the ME” Group Exhibition at THE SHOPHOUSE in Hong Kong

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      THE SHOPHOUSE gallery in Hong Kong is pleased to present group exhibition “I & the ME” by Anders Lindseth, Iabadiou Piko, Josh Reames,  Julian Watts, Kour Pour, Mahsa Tehrani, Osamu Kobayashi, Yves Scherer and Zhang Ji. Participating artists are invited to create two works, one representing “I”, the subjective side of the artists evaluating themselves. Another piece about “Me” – the objective side of themselves shaped by the market, exploring how artists rover around today’s art world.The exhibition is inspired by late 1800’s sociologist George Herbert Mead’s theory of self. Mead believes that the self is formed by the dynamic relations between the “I” and the “ME”. The “ME” is the others’ perspectives on ourselves – the “Objective part of self”. The “I” is the part of us that responds to these attitudes – the “Subjective part of self”.“The art world has radically transformed in the past thirty years, turning into a multibillion-dollar international industry. Artists and their career are becoming commanded by the market system, often packaged as a celebrity with unceasing output for the growing demand in consumer culture, sought after as profit generators of the commercial powerhouse. Would artists be affected in expressing themselves under such influence?”Scroll down below to view more photos from “I & the ME” exhibition. More

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      “Stay Tuned…” Group Exhibit at WOAW Gallery in Hong Kong

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      WOAW Gallery presents its inaugural group show “Stay Tuned…” at their new gallery space, 9 Queens Road Central, Hong Kong. This exhibition is curated by a long-time friend of the gallery, Sasha Bogojev from Juxtapoz Magazine. The exhibition is viewing from 9th April –9th May, 2021.Staying tuned was at the same time never easier and never harder than it is nowadays. With fast and direct access to any news source, archive, store, or any person anywhere on the globe, the challenge of following something through has never been greater. And in the world of arts this means immediate access to artists’ studios, galleries, or museums globally, and the ability to closely observe the evolutions of new styles, births of new aesthetics, developments of new techniques, and first-hand experience of unraveling art history.In this regard, WOAW Gallery joined together five artists, Bas De Wit, Rhys Lee, Shannon Peel, Christopher Regner and Aaron Elvis Jupin, whose practices are not only keeping up with the current times, but are hinting about things to come. The purpose of WOAW Gallery is to provide a platform for artists, curators and collectors to appreciate art. So, stay tuned…Christopher Regner, Hercules’ Party at his Cool Dad’s”, 2021Providing a counterbalance to the aforementioned artists, US-based Christopher Regner is using air brush to create assemblage-style portraits made out of disparate reference imagery .Interested both in the technical limitations and possibilities of growingly popular artistic tools, the artist from American Midwest keeps developing new ways of blending unrelated visuals in order to explore struggles with masculinity in the context of lacking a comprehensive role model. Through such practice he is fully utilizing the flatness and plasticity of the technique, while constructing most uncanny jumbles filled with personal, historic, as well as pop-culture references.Bas De Wit, “In funny memory of … Apollo #2″, 2020Dutch artist Bas De Wit has been creating grotesque, surreal objects and settings through appropriation of almost organic characteristics to his sculptural references to Greek columns, Roman bust statues, or canvas paintings. While bent pillars or deflated and twisted effigies feel otherworldly from a distance, his technical experimentation with the properties and possibilities of the multicolored polyester results in endless layers of colors and textureswhich open up upon closer inspection. This whole approach is informed with the interest to comment on the transience of culture and a glorification of irrational thought while present the humorous perspective on the struggle of humanity and the drag of the everyday.Rhys Lee, “Apple Tree”, 2021Rhys Lee’s paintings are crashscenes of his graffiti past colliding with deep appreciationand respect for classical painting. Mixing his immediate approach with curiosity for technicaland contextual exploration, the Australian artist is creating heavily textured works that carryscars of his resolute and vigorous mark-making. Filled with references to both grafficonography and most traditional tropes, the artist is frequently re-painting chosen composition in an effort to explore the ways it changes with a different technical approach or setup.Shannon Peel, “Face Plant with sunflower”, 2020Lee’s NY-based fellow countryman and a long-time friend, Shannon Peel, has recentlystarted developing his own painterly practice in which he reinvents the traditional formatsthrough subtle animation of otherwise inert motifs. His ongoing body of work Still Alives andFace Plants quite literally inserts life and dynamics to typically inanimate subjects, all while referencing both his graff roots and some of the most recognizable artistic genres. Through the use of dedicated repetition the artist is exhausting the subject matter, switching the focus towards technical experimentation and discovery.Aaron Jupin, “Like to think, I am a man”, 2020Working with the same technique, but utilizing its qualities towards the other side of the aesthetic spectrum, LA-based Aaron Elvis Jupin constructs believable renderings of impossible realities. His masterful employment of airbrush enables him to construct mostrealistic scenes which turn the familiar mundane snapshots into the unthinkable extraordinary. With a focus on depicting almost tangible surfaces and frequent use of black negative space, he lures the focus onto a familiar object which instantly warps into a somewhat Dali-esque mirage of it self through an attribution of ludicrous qualities.Curator Sasha Bogojev is a contributing editor/European correspondent at Juxtapoz magazine. Born in Croatia and currently living in The Netherlands, over the years he has contributed to various international publications and media outlets, collaborated with artists on monographs/books/catalogs, and has curated a number of gallery shows worldwide.Scroll down below to view more photos of the exhibition. More

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      Coverage: “Art Bodega” Group Show at K11 Art Mall, Hong Kong

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      The word “Bodega” means “grocery” in Spanish, which we call “士多” (Store) in Hong Kong. The character of a grocery store is one-stop, all-inclusive, and most importantly, friendly. Galleries and art have always been a little distant from the public, they are often labelled as high class and unaffordable, it seems that everyone in the field is often comparing each other’s taste and wealth in an unhealthy manner.b-sm = none; sm > 728×90;b-sm = 300×250; sm > none;This fallacy is probably deeply ingrained in many people’s hearts in Hong Kong. In view of this, Matt Chung, the founder of Art Streaming and Off The Record, curated “Art Bodega” during the difficult times that the world is still facing, and broughttogether five artists to the K11 Art Mall.Artists from different countries include Jon Burgerman from the UK, Maria Imaginario from Portugal, Timothy Gatenby from the UK, Gunwoo Park from South Korea, and 2timesperday from Hong Kong, brought forces to create this art pop-up exhibition with food as a main theme.The exhibition consists of PIZZZA vinly figure and his original paintings specially made by Jon Burgerman and Off The Record, iconic pastelle colored lollipop sculptures handmade by Maria Imaginario, Timothy Gatenby’s reinterpretation of famous Anime characters with fast food items, Gunwoo Park, which is an expert at recreating objects with masking tape and LED lights, produced a few Hong Kong people’s childhood delicacies for his first Hong Kong exhibition, and lastly, 2timesperday from Hong Kong used his popular Illustration technique on Instagram to produce five prints related to food, hoping to let viewers reflect on humanity. During the epidemic, it is difficult for everyone to leave their house or even have a proper meal at a restaurant with friends. Under this special situation, through “Art Bodega”, hopefully everyone can be reminded that any type of interaction in person should always be cherished, while enjoying “food” in an art form, art can also be served as food for thought.During the epidemic, it is difficult for everyone to leave their house or even have a proper meal at a restaurant with friends. Under this special situation, through “Art Bodega”, hopefully everyone can be reminded that any type of interaction in person should always be cherished, while enjoying “food” in an art form, art can also be served as food for thought.Take a look below for more photos from “Art Bodega”.Works by Gunwoo ParkWorks by Gunwoo ParkWorks by Gunwoo Park, Layered masking tapes and LED“Pizzza” Vinyl toy by Jon BurgermanWorks by 2timesperdayWorks by Maria ImaginarioWorks by 2timesperday“When life gives you twists and turns” by Maria Imaginario, 2021Works by Tim GatenbyWorks by Tim Gatenby More