Goethe-Institut Hongkong presents Hong Kong artist Magdalen Wong’s first solo exhibition Lift from April 2 to 27, 2010 at its Goethe-Gallery.

“Arrested by the mystical desire to levitate”, Magdalen Wong states about her exhibition at the Goethe-Gallery, “Lift, investigates the intricacy of the mundane through the transformation and re-arrangement of object and image.”. Often playing with the innate quality and the composition of things found in daily living, Wong formalizes their fundamental design, giving new form to their colorful yet minimal appearance.

The magical ingredient in the power of levitation is imagination. Rather than the physical ability to truly float in the air, the excitement of this possibility transport this performance to beyond a simple act of illusion. From re-presenting ordinary material, such as candies and glow-in-the-dark neon sticks, Wong hopes to reveal the reality of substance in a space that may heighten the illusion of an altered state.

Magdalen Wong received her BFA in General Sculptural Studies at Maryland Institute College of Art, 2003, and her MFA in Sculpture with a Trustee Merit scholarship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2005.  She had also attended the Salzburg Summer Academy with the 2005 Hayward Prize of the Salzburg Stiftung from the American Austrian Foundation. Recently awarded the Freeman Foundation Asian Artists’ Fellowship, Wong will attend the Vermont Studio Center Residency for two months in 2010. She is a member of the i.e. artist group, based in the United States, in which she collaborates with six other artists in organizing art events and exhibitions internationally. Apart from the artist group, she had participated in group shows and performances internationally. Currently, Wong is a lecturer at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.