Opening Reception:
Jan 8th 2009 Thur 6 - 9pm
Artist present

"In recent years art creation with social issues coupled with government's expectations on creative industry and West Kowloon have again attracted the attention of the media.  However, "Installation Art" in the mid 90s and the trend of "Art Space" that followed reflect that the artistic trend has turned from pure aesthetics to humanist concerns about the society.  Thus recent local development and changes in painting could only be reflected in the art gallery exhibitions rendering the art galleries a new space for the release of paintings apart from the "Art Space".  The changes that should not escape our attention are the popularity of art education in the local post-secondary institutions and the ensuing phenomenon with collegiate artistic style.   Art schools and art faculties as well as galleries with local investments are on the increase providing opportunities for the emergent artists to release their works, a departure from the art arena in the 90s led by returning artists from abroad and artists coming to fame by self-study and a personal development trend characterized by collegiate training as a starting point. 

Let us take the young but experienced Hong Kong Art School as an example.  It not only cultivates an active new generation of artists in Hong Kong such as the publication of "White Text", the establishment of "Tooart" Gallery and the forming of the Mere Independent Artists (MIA), an independent artist group but also becomes an important nurturing ground for local artists.  Its Hong Kong graduates, the "Me Generation" artists, apart from possessing the same personal urban sense as their counterparts in the Mainland also strive to be concerned about and consolidate the forms of painting.  For example, Damon Tong, a graduate of the Hong Kong Art School, being inspired by a table with legs but no top in his tiny studio, develops his own installation art painting series, a continuation of the concerns to installation space aesthetics formed by paintings of the artists of the former generation.  Stephanie Sin, a graduate of the same term, just like the ordinary people of Hong Kong, lives in a tiny place but she develops an abstract pattern as inspired by the window lattice and its surrounding space, an essence of forms and colours extracted from reality for the pursuit of pure aesthetics in painting.  The development of such abstract paintings evolving from their daily personal situation amidst the urban crowdedness manifests their concerns about the social issues as well as their heed to personal living space, details and scenes with a view to the personal pursuit of aesthetics." - Jeff Leung