It’s all about NFTs, digital art and the metaverse nowadays, and Art Central is getting on board.
In addition to the usual paintings, sculptures and installations on display at this year’s Art Central, the fair will also see an increased focus on digital art. Some artists have specially prepared digital installations for the audience to interact with, whilst others — including some artists based right here in Hong Kong — will be releasing their very first NFTs.
Either way, when you hit up Art Central later this month (26 – 29 May!) make sure you don’t miss out on these four digital art programmes.
Digital artwork to check out at Art Central
Bing Lee
In 1983, Hong Kong-born and New York-based artist Bing Lee launched an ongoing iconographic journal in his “Pictodiary” series. Nearly 40 years later, Lee continues to add to the series via the invention and appropriation of signs, lines and colours, creating a reservoir of pictorial codes. Full of changeability and flexibility, his scripts have been described as “calligraphic automatism”, akin to an intuitive release of feelings and memories based on the hieroglyph of the Chinese language.
Desmond Leung
In collaboration with UOB, Hong Kong artist Desmond Leung has created a new interactive ink art installation, “The Bloom of Water Lilies”, for Art Central. 12 digital display screens are arranged in the shape of a water lily bloom, a symbol of inner peace, enlightenment and rebirth. When visitors interact with the screens, they help transform the on-screen imagery from bud to bloom. By interweaving traditional ink with digital technology, the presentation emphasises the interconnectedness of all life forms and stresses that as humans, we are inextricably linked to each other and to Mother Nature.
HIGH RES WORLDS
A virtual collaboration between nine Hong Kong and Asian artists (Choi Sai Ho, Jessie Tam, It’s Us: Ophelia, Lo Lai Lai, Kenneth Ka Chun Hui, Bo Choy, Ka Kiu Chan, Hu Rui and Joshua Serafin) brings us into their fictional worlds. Diving into all forms of multimedia work, there will be shots from the psyche, fictional characters, performative dance and experimental sound bites. The ultimate goal of HIGH RES WORLDS? To help the audience explore and examine how the digital realm can affect our perception of art.
The Spectacle Group
In this year’s rendition of Art Central, The Spectacle Group is celebrating artists who have incorporated technology, science and mathematics into their disciplines. Several creatives will be showcasing their NFT art, including British street artist Adam Neate, whose NFTs will be the first in the world to interact with a physical painting; Hong Kong mixed media artist Birdy Chu, who will be screening two photography NFTs from his 1997 collection that celebrates significant moments in Hong Kong’s history; and Hong Kong-based French artist Frank Vigneron, who is known for his scroll paintings and book sculptures, and will be releasing his first NFT at the fair.
(Lead and featured image: The Bloom of Water Lilies, Desmond Leung)
Charmaine Ng
Editor
Charmaine enjoys eating steamed broccoli and knocking back cups of spearmint tea, all in the name of health. Covering art, beauty and music :)
