The joint show of the three elders, including works by Gaylord Chan, Chu Hing-Wah and the late Luis Chan.

Luis Chan began painting Hong Kong in the late 1920s, using techniques of English landscape watercolour painting. His style evolved as the city went through a half-century of dramatic change. By the 1960s his paintings had become dreamscapes using a psychedelic vocabulary to portray the subconscious life of the city and the psyche of the post-war generation. Among those artists born in the twilight of the Qing Dynasty, such as Lin Fengmian and Xu Beihong, who also pursued Western style art, no one resonated more intimately with our time and place in history than Luis Chan.

Gaylord Chan does not paint abstract art. His images are derived from the shape of things we encounter every day. The charm of Chan’s work lies in the tactile painter’s touch. The artist applies flat planes of colour layered one over the other so that they create a rhythm of appearance and disappearance: a kind of slow, quiescent breathing that makes us aware of the life-force contained in even the humblest form. Through giving us this awareness, Chan’s paintings open up a new window in our hearts.

Although deeply interested in painting in his youth, Chu Hing-Wah chose to train as a psychiatric nurse. From this time on, his professional career and has art-making developed side by side. Chu’ style and technique have the innocent quality of the primitive painter, but as its core, his art is infused with a sophisticated understanding. The emotional tenor of his works is free of the sense of crass urbanity even as his imagery is drawn from scenes of urban Hong Kong life. With his keen sensitivity to the fragility Although deeply interested in painting in his youth, Chu Hing-Wah chose to train as a psychiatric nurse. From this time on, his professional career and his art-making developed side by side. Chu’s style and technique have the innocent quality of the primitive painter, but at its core, his art is infused with a sophisticated understanding. The emotional tenor of his works is free of the sense of crass urbanity even as his imagery is drawn from scenes of urban Hong Kong life. With his keen sensitivity to the fragility of the human psyche, Chu understands that for ordinary people in the city, life’s true pleasure is still found in the bonds of community and family. These are the strengths that enable us to withstand the corrosive quality of this commercialized age. They are the starting points from which we form a bond with our world.

-Hanart TZ Gallery