Alisan Fine Arts is honoured to present a group exhibition POP ROCK that uses the scholar’s rock as a starting point to create a dialogue between high and low culture, past and present. Featuring 14 artists from Hong Kong and mainland China, the exhibition highlights the diverse explorations and perspectives of artists working in a range of different media—ink, photography, oil, sculpture, installation and video.

One of the challenges facing each generation of Chinese artists has been how to innovate and develop a personal idiom while remaining reverent to age-old artistic traditions. From the early twentieth century and increasingly in the last couple of decades, the desire to develop and incorporate Western aesthetics within Chinese art and culture has taken many different forms. This cultural hybridization has created much friction and misunderstanding of the formal, conceptual and spiritual dimensions of tradition.

As such, tradition today is often idealized. It is shrouded in a certain romantic myth that an artist is full of supernatural wisdom that connects to the natural elements, and is—unlike his or her audience—free from the material pressures of contemporary life. The notion of tradition thus has become almost sacred, and pushes the viewer further away from understanding it. POP ROCK seeks to bring tradition closer to us by making it more approachable and interactive. Symbols of the past need to be made alive and brought into the present in order to be appreciated and revered.

There is something otherworldly about beholding a rock—a prized icon in Chinese art history. An object for meditation, the rock was believed to be imbued with primordial and supernatural energies capable of dynamic transformations. From the Song dynasty, large rocks were an essential feature in gardens, and smaller ones made up home or studio collections, where they offered “imaginary travel” to mystical peaks and cave paradises.

Just as rocks have been appreciated for their mystical and natural beauty since ancient times, they continue to serve as objects of inspiration and curiosity for artists and collectors today. The abstract forms of a rock lend itself to endless possibilities of exploration and interpretation. Standing between an object from nature and a readymade enhanced by human hand, the rock also compels us to ponder upon the boundaries between culture and nature.

POP ROCK takes an irreverent and playful approach on this classical symbol, reflecting the idea that objects that we truly care about should be kept close and cherished.

Ben Brown Fine Arts is delighted to announce its forthcoming exhibition Ze/Ro at the Hong Kong gallery, from July through August 2021. The exhibition is organised by Hong Kong-based curator Shirky Chan as part of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association’s (HKAGA) Summer Programme. Fostering the local arts community with a focus on young talent, the HKAGA’s Summer Programme actively builds a bridge between its member galleries, emerging artists, curators and writers within this vibrant city.

Chan has curated a contemplative and topical group show featuring the work of five artists: Au Hoi Lam, Chan Ka Kiu, Christy Chow, Jaffa Lam and Jess Lau. All of these artists are living and working in Hong Kong and each addresses notions of identity, gender, society and self, framed by social constructs and desired dissolutions of gender. Chan explains:

“Gender is a social construct. Culture and tradition are often used to shape the contents of gender stereotypes to prescribe regulatory social regimes. In this sense, the representation of female and male is still crucial in terms of how they are being projected by self and others in society. To enact gender neutrality and de-gendering in society, Oxford English Dictionary has officially adopted the new gender pronoun “Ze” instead of “He” and “She” to represent non-binary gender identities. As such, the powerful and divine word “Hero” is no longer the privilege of “He” in the world of linguistics and reality. Perhaps we can start calling it “Ze/Ro” from now on.

In this exhibition five artists, Au Hoi Lam, Chan Ka Kiu, Christy Chow, Jaffa Lam and Jess Lau, explore the nature of the female world where women empower themselves by embracing their creativity in the realms of body and mind. Cross-generational women in distinct identity roles transcend acts of self-awareness into rewarding outcomes, from which a sense of autonomy is recognised through one’s individuality and multifaceted characteristics. Their works adapt the female’s multisensory experience from body to mind: a life-giving bearer that embodies changes and endures beyond our imagination; whilst being the matrix for one to envision fantasies, emotional associations or even a learning process in life.

Body is the intimate site for one to reclaim memories and emotions through movements and sensations. The artists in this exhibition also disclose their autonomy, fear, romance and tension in different stages, all of which are traces in life, or put simply, a lifelong contemplation. Evaluated against the cultural orientation of gender, they acknowledge and exercise the power of “Ze”.

The fleeting days of childhood, never to return, leave behind our most cherished memories. Artspace K presents “Childhood in Ceramic” Exhibition. Three celebrated ceramic artists from Taiwan – Ah Leon (Chen Ching-Liang), Lee Chin-Sheng and Leo Tang (Tang Shou-Nan) awaken memories of innocence and joy of childhood through sculptures created from the natural warmth of clay. Gabrielle will be writing a review on the exhibition.

Three artists exploring the concept of space and memories through their works.