Red Elation Gallery is delighted to present Familiar Stranger, a group exhibition by local emerging artists- CHO Wing Ki, Phillip HUI & Sunday LAI. For this exhibition the three artists chose painting as a medium to recreate often-overlooked scenery in the city. They attempt to explore how intimacy and distance merge between humans, objects and space in everyday life through familiar scenes, which become unfamiliar upon closer inspection. The audience is led to a strange experience as the artists express their observations and imagination towards city life.
The city as a virtual stage
The concept of Phillip HUI’s paintings comes from his impression of the city. “We grow up in a constructed world and keep searching for needs and desires throughout our whole life without awareness. Roles and positions are preset by society for us to fulfill.” says Phillip. “Nature” has been distorted in society, just like a stray dog wandering in the streets without animalism; on the contrary, people in “Moment of Silence” pose in unnatural conditions to indicate that “civilization” is a barrier between humans and nature. Sunday LAI’s works express daily life practices in a non-inertial way. Her “Image” series is a set of images captured by the iPhone app “Spy cams”. The static images capture the moment before things happen. Sunday’s painting style exhibits a quiet and mysterious atmosphere in the artwork space. She is interested in exploring the ambiguity of human gazes and the subjects being gazed at or monitored. Her paintings will be transformed into reality at the exhibition as a medium to extend the artist’s concept. The paintings by CHO Wing Ki focus on the meticulousness of vitality. “The Broken Lamp” depicts a photo of a broken lamp as an example. For Wing Ki, painting is a way to digest and redefine the meaning of the subject being captured in the photo. “Just dead but temperature retained” expresses her concept of painting photographs. The statement expresses both the style of her paintings and the subject selection.
This exhibition is guest-curated by Reds Cheung.
About the Artist
CHO Wing Ki graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011. She attempts to stress the action of “preservation” and “abandonment” in her paintings. She has participated in a number of local exhibitions, such as “Alumni Art Exhibition of Fine Arts Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong” Hong Kong Visual Arts Center (2011), “New Trend 2011” Artist Commune (2011), “Please Mind the Platform Gap” Karin Weber Gallery (2011) and “ArtAlive@Park - Dash of Time” Shatin Park, Hong Kong (2010).
Phillip HUI was born in Hong Kong in 1981. He obtained a Diploma in Art & Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2007 and a Bachelor Degree of Art (Fine Art)(painting) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (co-presented with Hong Kong Art School) last year. His works have been exhibited at “In Their Caves- An Exhibition of Painting” White Tube Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre (2011), “New Trend 2011” Artist Commune (2011), “Fotanian Open Studios 2011” Wah Luen Industrial Centre, Fotan, Hong Kong (2011).
Sunday LAI graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University in 2009. She works in a wide range of media, such as video, installations and painting. Her creations focus on her imagination of real situations in daily life. She has participated in several group exhibitions- “Budding Winter” Tuen Mun Park, Hong Kong (2010), “New Trend 2009” Artist Commune (2009), “Transit NGO <> HKG” Nagoya City Citizens, Gallery YADA, Japan (2008).
