The Hong Kong Art Gallery Association (HKAGA) has put on an art fair, titled Unscheduled, to breathe life back into the city’s art market that has been stagnant over the past few months.
Featuring solo presentations by 12 galleries in town, Unscheduled serves as a platform for HKAGA members to showcase their collections with a focus on Asian modern and contemporary art. Prices for the artworks range between US$3,000 and US$40,000.
Held at a confined space at Tai Kwun, the show adopts an open floor plan without designated aisles, which is a departure from traditional museum floor plan, according to HKAGA.
At the show, visitors are welcomed by an immersive temple-like structure by local artist Kwok Mang Ho, better known as Frog King, represented by 10 Chancery Lane. Apart from paintings and sculptures, the gallery showcases also what’s perhaps the most intriguing work of art by Frog King – the artist himself.
The performance artist, famed for his outlandish frog-inspired outfits which often described as “wearable sculpture”, showed up yesterday at the show in a statement-making oversized hat with a dramatic fly-whisk sticking out from the top. Hanging below his waist was a prominent bottle gourd in silver metal paint. Ho is one of the pioneers of contemporary art in town since the late 60s, whose art and performances have reportedly been presented at over 3,000 art events worldwide.
Adjacent to Frog King's booth are paintings by Irene Chou (1924-2011), as shown by Hanart TZ Gallery. The Shanghai-born artist is a key figure of the New Ink Art Movement in the 1980s, who is reputed for her conceptual landscape ink paintings with expressive brushstrokes. Under the influence of her mentor Lui Shou Kwan, an acclaimed ink painters of the 20th century, Chou’s contemporary paintings were very much informed by Chinese philosophy of Zen and Taoism in a dynamic and abstract style.
Other art galleries taking part include L+/ Lucie Chang Fine Arts, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Contemporary by Angela Li and de Sarthe, to name but a few.
Galerie Ora-Ora:
Modification (2016), Huang Dan, Ink on Paper (75 x 48 cm)
Whitestone Gallery:
Temptation by brush, Etsu Egami
Contemporary by Angela Li:
Bottle 388 (2016), Ng Chung, Oil on canvas, courtesy of Contemporary by Angela Li
L+/ Lucie Chang Fine Arts:
Coma (2019), Aruta Soup, courtesy of L+ Lucie Chang Fine Arts
Visitors are advised to purchase admission tickets in advance through HKAGA website. A proportion of ticket sales will be donated to local charity partner HandsOn Hong Kong to help with COVID-19 relief efforts.
More information:
Exhibition Period: Wednesday 17 June – Saturday 27 June, 2020
Preview Day: Wednesday 17 June, 2020; 2pm – 10pm
Public Days: Thursday 18 June – Friday 26 June, 2020; 12pm – 7pm
Closing Day: Saturday 27 June, 2020; 12 pm – 6 pm
Venue: Duplex Studio, LG1/F & LG2/F, Block 01, Tai Kwun
Ticketing: Adult: HK$80
Concessions (Full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above and people with disabilities and their minders): HK$40
Under 12s: free admission