The Floating World: Curated by André Chan

CHENG TING TING | VIVIAN HO | LI NING | NICOLE WONG | YAN WAI YIN

Ben Brown Fine Arts is pleased to announce our forthcoming exhibition The Floating World at the Hong Kong gallery. The exhibition, organized by Hong Kong-based curator André Chan, as part of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association’s (HKAGA) Summer Programme, aims at highlighting local artistic talents and fostering the Hong Kong arts community. The exhibition features works by Hong Kong artists Cheng Ting Ting, Vivian Ho, Li Ning, Nicole Wong, and Yan Wai Yin. The artists, hailing from various disciplinary backgrounds, will be exhibiting together for the first time in this group exhibition.

Inspired by Japanese Ukiyo-e artworks, Chan has curated a compelling group show featuring the work of these five artists, each of whom invites viewers to contemplate the fragile and fleeting state of our environment and reality. Chan explains:

Ukiyo-e, translated as “picture(s) of the floating world,” was a form of paintings and woodblock prints that bourgeond and grew during the Japanese Edo Period (1615-1868). In these works, artists portrayed an exceptional range of subject matter, from ordinary people and portraits of beautiful women to mythical creatures in local folklore and heroic tales. These depictions combined realism with fantastical elements to appeal to the refined tastes of the population at the time.

The idea of the “floating world” embodies the Buddhist concept of the ephemerality of life and the Edo ideograph of embracing life’s pleasures; reminding of the delicate and uncertain nature of existence.

Cheng Ting Ting’s lithographs depict her sights and experiences while studying in Norway, Vivian Ho’s paintings transport viewers into a fantasy that subtly reflects our own reality, Stone Faces by Li Ning uses abstract ceramic pieces to present a series of portraits, Nicole Wong’s installation, On How to Say Goodbye, pays homage to our affection for small animals, and Yan Wai Yin’s lyrical videos serve as a tribute to her environment and a reflection of her past relationship. In this group exhibition, five artists, working in different mediums, invite viewers to contemplate the fragility of nature and the impermanence of the world we inhabit.

ABOUT ANDRÉ CHAN

André Chan is an independent curator and writer based in Hong Kong. After completing his studies in East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto and  Curatorial Studies at Central Saint Martin’s, London, he worked in a number of international galleries before becoming an independent curator.  Chan co-founded Arts Collective in Hong Kong in 2018, and has since curated and co-curated exhibitions including Æthereal at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Post-Anthropocene Taiwan Biennale’s satellite exhibition, Very Natural Actions at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, and A Tree Fell in The Forest And No One’s There, Power Station of Art, Shanghai. Chan has been selected as an Emerging Curator by Shanghai Power Station of Art, and as an Emerging Curator by Para Site. He was appointed Curatorial Director for the 2021 edition of Art Central, Hong Kong. In 2023, Chan was awarded a grant from the Hong Kong Arts Centre for the research project PLAY! Artist made video games in Asia.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cheng Ting Ting (b.1990, Hong Kong)

Cheng Ting Ting graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University in 2013 and has based her practice primarily around paintings and drawings, occasionally experimenting with prints, artist books, collages, and projections. Cheng’s works, often informed by her personal memories and ever-changing and daily scenery explore the concepts of the individual versus the collective, through her perspective. Cheng has exhibited her works at Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong; Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; ParaSite, Hong Kong; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; among others. Cheng lives and works in Hong Kong and Norway.

Vivian Ho (b.1990, Hong Kong)

Painter and Illustrator, Vivian Ho graduated Wesleyan University in 2012 with a degree in Studio Arts. Working in both traditional and digital mediums, Ho’s work draws inspiration from her personal experiences in Hong Kong. She has exhibited works at A2Z Gallery, Hong Kong, Paris; Rockbund Art Museum; Shanghai; Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong, and are in public and private collections worldwide, including M+ Museum, Hong Kong; The Valmont Foundation, Switzerland; Nishiji Collection, Japan; and the Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Greece. Ho lives and works in Hong Kong.

Li Ning (b. 1992, Hong Kong)

Li Ning graduated from the Hong Kong Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2019. Li’s diverse range of artistic practices include mixed-media prints, copperplate engravings, pencil on paper and canvas, ceramics, and moving images, in addition to being a professional tattoo artist.  The combination of visual art and tattooing creates unique imageries composed of memories, dreams, mythology, time and space, and the subconscious. Li has exhibited his work at Gallery Exit, Hong Kong; 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong; and Yrellag Gallery, Hong Kong, among others. Li is currently based in Hong Kong.

Nicole Wong (b. 1990, Hong Kong)

Nicole Wong graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2012 and was the Grand Prize winner of the 2013 Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards. Her practice includes installation, photography, sculpture, and video and explores language and literacy, in what might be called “meta-language.” As she explains, “I am aware of visual poetry and flaws in perceptional understanding.” Through semiotics, Wong plays with the idea of the double entendre, questioning the literal and the connotative meaning.  Wong has been exhibited at the 21st Biennale of Sydney; Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong; 2020 Taiwan Biennale; Inside Out Museum, Beijing; Asian Culture Centre, Gwangju; and Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, among others. Wong lives and works in Hong Kong.

Yan Wai Yin (b.1994, Hong Kong)

Yan Wai Yin’s videos incorporate imagery with the support of literary texts based on personal observations. These texts interact with the temporal and take on varying degrees of emotional distances in the different texts. At times, Yan inscribes quotidian fragments of lingering memories to spaces and objects. Her film “Localized Blindness” (2019) was awarded the Best Experimental Award at the 20th South Taiwan Film Festival, “Tugging Diary” (2020) was awarded at Taiwan Kaohsiung Film Festival and Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris. Yan has been exhibited in Hong Kong and internationally, including M+, Hong Kong; IFFR, Netherlands; EMAF, Germany, Videoex, Switzerland; Image Forum, Japan; EXiS, Korea; and TIVA-ANIMA, Taiwan. Yan lives and works in Hong Kong.

ABOUT BEN BROWN FINE ARTS

In 2004, Ben Brown Fine Arts opened its first location in the heart of Mayfair, London. The gallery quickly established itself on the international art scene with exhibitions of long-term gallery artists Tony Bevan, Candida Höfer, Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne, and Heinz Mack, amongst others, as well as momentous exhibitions of 20th century masters including Alighiero Boetti, Lucio Fontana and Gerhard Richter. In 2009, Ben Brown Fine Arts opened an exhibition space in Hong Kong, becoming the first international gallery to move to the city that would soon become a major international art hub. In 2021, Ben Brown Fine Arts opened a third location in Palm Beach, Florida, with an inaugural exhibition celebrating the legacy of American and European 20th century, following with notable exhibitions of the gallery’s roster of modern and contemporary artists. The galleries regularly exhibit and develop programming for our renowned stable of international, multi-disciplinarian artists, including the aforementioned as well as Yoan Capote, Awol Erizku, Vik Muniz, Nabil Nahas, José Parlá, Enoc Perez, Ena Swansea, Hank Willis Thomas, Gavin Turk and Jan Worst. The gallery is recognized for our depth of expertise and inventory in 20th century European and American art. Ben Brown Fine Arts participates in major art fairs worldwide, including Art Basel, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, The Armory Show, Frieze Masters, TEFAF New York, and West Bund Art & Design.