Irreverent young artists meet art history pioneers in this month’s list of stunning art exhibitions in Hong Kong. Scroll through to find the best art shows to catch this December in town.
Eric Fok: Notes on the Future
When: Through 7 December
Young Macanese artist Eric Fok was a finalist in the Sovereign Asian Art Prize earlier this year. Catch his solo show at Karin Weber gallery with ink on wood etchings that envisage the future of Hong Kong and Macau, referencing iconic Hong Kong movies such as Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 and Stephen Chow’s From Beijing With Love.
Karin Weber Gallery, G/F, 20 Aberdeen Street, Central, +852 2544 5004
Banksy: Genius or Vandal
When: 20 December–1 March 2020
Price: HK$180–210 from Banksy Exhibition HK
Formerly home to Van Gogh Live and Studio Ghibli exhibitions, Portal 6311 is hosting a landmark exhibition of works by British street artist Banksy. Notorious for his anonymity and for challenging the status quo within politics, art, culture and ethics, the artist has also garnered a rave following in the auction circuit (with an unprecedented live destruction of his own work going under the hammer at Sotheby’s London auction this year). At this exhibition, you can catch an audiovisual display highlighting the mysterious artist’s career and see some of his most important pieces to date.
Portal 6311, 1/F, FTLife Tower, 18 Sheung Yuet Road, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong
A Sense of Place: From Turner to Hockney
When: Through 4 March 2020
Price: HK$15–30
With the landmark reopening of the Hong Kong Museum of Art — closed since 2015 for extensive remodelling — the institution is now home to 11 spectacular shows of world-class art, as well as an admirable showcase of Hong Kong talent. One of the highlights launching this winter is an exhibition tracing the development of British Landscape Painting and its influence on European art over the past 300 years. 76 exhibits feature masterworks from J.M.W. Turner, John Constable as well as the largest painting ever completed by David Hockney, all on loan from Tate. More information here.
Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Carol Bove: Ten Hours
When: Through 14 December
Luscious, vibrant shapes that appear like folded silk or rubber, but on closer inspection are stainless steel forms take up the two expansive floors at David Zwirner Hong Kong. It’s American artist Carol Bove’s first solo show in Asia: the showcase follows her participation at this year’s Venice Biennale and a current two-person exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
David Zwirner Hong Kong, 5–6/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
Hong Kong Arts Collective Christmas Exhibition
When: 13–22 December
Hong Kong Arts Collective is an artist-run group that champions Hong Kong-based talent. This Christmas pop-up exhibition features works by an array of local artists including Ernest Chang, Szabotage, Kyra Campbell, Elaine Chiu, Romaine Jaquet-Lagreze, Alex Croft (work pictured) and more.
41 Water Street, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
Mr Doodle Invades Sotheby’s
When: 7-19 December
Sotheby’s is no stranger to some of the world’s greatest masterpieces throughout time. This December, the Sotheby’s Hong Kong gallery will see an invasion of graffiti-style exhibitions that are whimsical spins on classic art history canon. They are drawn by 25-year-old artist Sam Cox, better known as Mr. Doodle, who will also be taking over the gallery with live doodling sessions on 7 December.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5/F, One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
A World Within: The Art and Inspiration of Irene Chou
When: Through 5 January
Irene Chou was a pioneering New Ink painter whose work became increasingly dynamic throughout her career spanning 50 years. Now celebrating a resurgence of the artist’s work in recent years, this exhibition at the Asia Society is the first major solo survey of the artist since her death in 2011, and is the third instalment of Asia Society’s 20th Century Chinese Female Artist series.
Asia Society Hong Kong, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Wang Gongyi: Leaves of Grass
When: Through 31 December
In Wang Gongyi’s second solo exhibition at Galerie du Monde this December, she debuts mixed media grass paintings on Chinese silk, with paint she created on her own using ink, pastel and mineral pigments using stone and seashell. Inspired, naturally, by the words of Walt Whitman and hiking trips through Portland, Wang’s fields of grass are softened forms depicting the magnificence of nature that emerge from her inner artistic expression, rather than based on scenes found in reality.
Galerie du Monde, 108 Ruttonjee Centre, 11 Duddell Street, Central, Hong Kong, +852 2525 0529
AI Held: Modern Maverick
When: Through 11 January
The first artist estate presentation at White Cube Hong Kong is a show of American painter Al Held’s developing oeuvre until his passing in 2005, from works on paper to small-scale paintings. One entire room is dedicated to how he continually strived to beat the confines of abstraction, particularly with his richly colourful works from his ‘Luminous Construct’ series. Inspired by the illusionism of Renaissance paintings, these geometric pieces from the 1980s were a return to colour following a departure to monochrome palettes between 1967–1978 and the culmination of his decades of experimentation.
White Cube Hong Kong, G/F, 50 Connaught Road Central, Hong Kong, +852 2592 2000
Long to Belong
When: Through 14 December
With its opening coinciding with November’s Hong Kong Art Week Art Gallery Night, ‘Long to Belong’ is a group exhibition of three young artists from Hong Kong: Tang Kwong-san (work pictured), Kwong Man-chun and Apple Wong Hiu-fung. Each artist examines the concept of belonging in their distinct styles: from graphite drawing to surrealist paintings to emotional coloured drawings.
Contemporary by Angela Li, 248 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, +852 3571 8200