iPRECIATION is delighted to present 4 paintings series by the local art talent Wong Wai Yin, in her first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Born in 1981, Wong Wai Yin is one of the most experimental young artists in the Hong Kong art scene, whose multidisciplinary works include paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and community art projects. Wong graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2004, and a Master in Fine Arts from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 2005. Wong’s works have been exhibited extensively in Hong Kong, as well as showcased in Japan, USA, UK, Singapore, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In 2010, Wong was awarded The Artist-In-Residence Fellowship by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and Asian Cultural Council. The artist’s works have won acclaim for her unique, conceptual approach; possessing an expansive way of thinking beyond traditional studio practices, Wong frequently investigates the nature of what is real or fake, what constitutes art, and what doesn’t.
Among the many art mediums explored in all these years, painting has remained Wong’s favorite mode of expression. The four exhibited series were created from 2007 up till 2011, illustrating the artist’s critical preoccupation and recently, a more inward approach in her art making. Abandoning a visually alluring façade, Wong urges viewers to drill deeper into the core of her paintings, and to share with her an uncommon way of seeing.
To paint with a high level of originality is always one of the most captivating pursuits amongst artists in different generations. Yet Wong has on the other way round persuaded us to rethink such unchallenged artistic endeavors. In her series Museum Poster and Postcards from USA, Wong hand painted with acrylic to replicate the exhibition posters and flyers she collected from the Hong Kong Museum of Art and galleries in Portland. Purposefully turning her original artworks into imperfect counter- feits of the most ordinary printed materials, Wong readily discarded the noble notions of art as the genius combination of craftsmanship and creativity.
The artist’s unsettling outlook and skeptical stance on art has further given rise to her famed Hong Kong Artist Museum series, part of which were featured at the ‘Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation’ exhibition by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2009. Inspired from her wish to erect a fulfilling art space dedicated to Hong Kong contemporary artists, Wong created 100 paintings from 2007 to 2010 as a personal tribute to the Hong Kong art masters as well as to her contemporaries. Beneath the surface is an intelligently infused irony to Hong Kong’s current art development; the imagined artists’ museums standing amidst on barren ground are after all unrealized visions, and the greyish colour tones and the lack of human figures has left the canvas an air of ghostly nostalgia. The series also hints at the prejudiced construction of a Hong Kong art history, by questioning how and why an artist is being included or excluded in the mainstream contemporary art canon.
Desiring to paint freely without the burden of intense conceptualization and criticism, a new direction is witnessed in Wong’s latest endeavor I Decide to Make 100 Paintings to Learn and Unlearn PAINTING. Each work in the series is about a particular person whom the artist is acquainted with, and has either helped construct or shattered her perception towards the painting genre. Suspending her own artistic beliefs, Wong painted purely from a third person perspective, as a way to unlearn the artistic languages she developed. By visualizing the opinions of others, Wong has given way to a fresh and unburdened expression. The approach has surprisingly brought the series a new sense of placidity, and opened up a new dimension of the artist which we should all be looking forward to.
