#ARTBASELHK13: theW+ TOP 5 ‘OFF-Basel’ Guide to Shops, Parades, Drinks, and Exhibits

It’s that time of year again. Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK) arrives for the first time in our great city with tons of buzz. For those who are new to all this, all you need to know that this art fair in Hong Kong is the 3rd largest art fair in the world, third only to Art Basel in Basel and Art Basel in Miami. Before the Art Basel brand took over this year, the fair was dubbed ART HK (see all my ART HK posts here). The fair grew so successful since its inception in 2007 that ART BASEL officially became the major stakeholder of the fair in 2011.

This year there wil be 245 galleries from the around the world with over 50 percent coming from Asia and Asia-Pacific.  Of the 245, 48 galleries will mark their first appearance at a fair in Hong Kong. The show will be presented in four sectors: “Galleries” for general work, “Insights” for Asia based works made for the HK Show, “Discoveries” for works by emerging contemporary artists globally, and “Encounters” for site specific works exhibited beyond the booth around the floor and curated by Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

Before we get further into the fair, so much is happening around the city with “OFF-Basel” (Official and Unofficial) Activities in the build up to opening night this Wednesday for VIP Members and Thursday for the General Public.

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Here is our TOP 5 ‘OFF-Basel’ Guide to (Official and Unofficial) Events and Exhibitions Outside Art Basel Hong Kong:

+ ‘PAPER RAIN’ A Public Parade by Arto Lindsay

This multi-media parade built around the idea of cinema, unspools along the Victoria Harbourfront and on the Star Ferry. Contributions from Nadim Abbas, Haegue Yang, Angela Su, João Vasco Paiva, Korakrit Arunanodchai, Alice Ma, Enoch Cheng, Otomo Yoshihide, Cedric Maridet, Kung Chi Shing and Shane Aspegren, as well as more special guests to be announced.

Art Basel Hong Kong is eager to invite the public to take part and participate in this public event commemorating the first day of Art Basel in Hong  Kong. The parade begins with a choir performance at the HKCEC Expo Drive Entrance. Then officially commences from Central Pier No. 10 (ferry will take public from Wanchai to Central). Parade will take artists and public to the Victoria Harbourfront and will end with an electro-acoustic performance by Otomo Yoshihide.

23 MAY 2013, Thur 16:30 - 19:00 / Public Parade Begins at HKCEC Expo Drive Entrance and Ends at the Viewing Platforms at the Victoria Harbourfront / Free and Open To The Public / Weblink

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+ The Saamlung Three: Nadim Abbas @ CL3, Joao Vasco Pavia @ Goethe-Institute, Adrian Wong x Absolut Art Bureau @ Fringe Club

The highly celebrated Saamlung may have ceased operations as a commercial gallery in January 2013, but its space-less expansive projects and works are going the non-commercial route with new shows for the week of Art Basel Hong Kong curated by founder, Robin Peckham. 

Expect new works by its core group of artists, Nadim Abbas, Joao Vasco Paiva, and Adrian Wong (under the Absolut Art Bureau curation)…in three spaces. Abbas’ animated GIFs and molecular structures will be exhibited in an architect’s studios at CL3. One floor below, Paiva continues his formal studies at the Goethe-Institut spaces, and supported by Edouard Malingue Gallery. Wong will have a very interesting “art bar” installation at the Fringe Club with animatronic jazz bands, geriatric lounge singers, Asian porn soundtracks, and surly waiters from a soy sauce steak joint. 

Nadim Abbas at CL3 Architects 20-25 MAY 2013, 15F Hong Kong Arts Centre 2 Harbour Road Wanchai / Joao Vaco Paiva at Goethe-Institut Hong Kong 20 MAY - 8 JUN 2013, 14F Hong Kong Arts Centre 2 Harbour Road Wanchai / Adrian Wong Wun Dun Art Bar with Absolut Art Bureau 22-25 MAY 2013, BF Fringe Club 2 Lower Albert Road Central / Free and Open to The Public / Weblink

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+ MOBILES by Xavier Veilhan 

Word on the street is that Xavier Veilhan may erect site specific MOBILES at Galerie Perrotin’s 50 Connaught Road  home. This week expect a group of recent and never-before scene mobiles of varying shapes and dimensions. Veilhan is known for his site-specific interventions in cities, parks, and living environments (most recently iconic Lautner homes in Los Angeles.) 

Veilhan, as a multidisciplinary artist, is “possessed by a highly personal artistic universe inhabited by a heterodox range of characters, objects and animals. Through these devices, the playful component emerges as a fundamental element in evoking a reality populated with symbols, metaphors and other semantic ambiguities.” These timeless studies a transformed into iconic objects that aim to communicate via a “POP” language.

Xavier Veilhan’s Mobiles / 21 MAY - 6 JUL 2013, Galerie Perrotin 50 Connaught Road Central HK / Free and Open To The Public / Weblink

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+ The Gift Shop by TANGRAM

For the second year in a row, Tangram will make Hong Kong’s best independent art, design, and fashion available for all Art Basel guests to take a little something back from Hong Kong with them as gifts for themselves or their loved ones in the world. Yes, it’s the long awaited annual, The Gift Shop, a 2 day pop-up concept shop to be located in Tangram’s studios in Chai Wan Mei (the art and design spaces within Chai Wan’s industrial district.) 

Tangram’s newest collections will be on sale, but so will the rest of these amazing independent brands:

Stars & Tart (silk scarves) / Ferse Verse (paper products) / Hammer & Needle ( Leather Goods for Men) / Harlex (leather goods that can be personalized) / Gemma Hayden Blest (pressed plant collages) / 15SquareStreet (Men’s accessories) / TheYesterdaySkin (vintage and repurposed womenswear collection) / Or-Play (thoughtful children’s toys) / La Petite Mort Preserves and Jams (by Ashton Winkler, ex-Heirloom) / Teahka / MatterMatters (women’s accessories) / Tangram Loves Jaycow (bespoke headpieces with Jaycow Milliner) / Signed Prints By HK Illustrators Kitty Wong, Emilie Sarnel, Emilie Eldridge 

Although Tangram’s founder Paola Sinisterra is perfectly happy with the “Off-Basel” annual shop to stay in Chai Wan, something tells me that this initiative should be closer to the fair next year because it is a treat for guests from out of town to go to a one-stop-shop for all the “CURATED” independent and design goods from our city. And I say curated because that HKTDC Design Store at the Convention Center and Hong Kong Airport just DOESNT Cut it. NO Offense to Anyone.

The Gift Shop / 24 - 25 MAY 2013, Tangram Studio, Unit 1701 Chai Wan Industrial City Phase 2 70 Wing Tai Road Chai Wan / Free and Open To The Public / Facebook Page and Instructions for Transportation

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+ Wong Chuk Hang Art Night

With the Chai Wan Mei galleries and design space unveiling open studio programs for Saturday and Sunday, I’d like to highlight another new Art District on Hong Kong Island… the Wong Chuk Hang Art District composed of a group of gallery spaces with include Spring Workshop, Blindspot (annex), Rossi & Rossi, Pekin Fine Arts, Gallery EXIT, and Alisan Fine Arts.

This Thursday night will be their “Art Night” with exhibits by Qui Zhijie, Fang Lu, David Adamo, Christopher Orr, Yang Xinguang, and photographs by Ai Wei Wei, Gu Zheng, Han Lei, Zhao Liang, Qiu Zhijie, and RongRong to name a few. Should be fun. Plus the SPRING space is amazing. (See previous post.)

Wong Chuk Hang Art Night / 23 MAY 2013 Thur 17:00-23:00, 3F Remex Centre 42 Wong Chuk Hang Road (entrance Heung Yip Road) Aberdeen / Free and Open To The Public / Shuttle Bus Available at Art Basel Hong Kong Expo Drive Entrance Starting 18:00 / Weblink

I will see you at all these things… well me or my clones.

JJ.

Seen&Scene: A SPRING Evening With Qiu Zhijie

Last Saturday brought a balmy and drizzly Spring evening to Hong Kong, but at the Wong Chuk Hang Industrial District, it was all smiles and pleasant conversations as the arts community rallied around Spring Workshop’s latest artist-in-residence, Qiu Zhijie, one of the mainland’s most celebrated artist and thinkers of his generation.

Inspired by Spring Workshops’ delightfully expansive and flexible space, Qiu began making full use of the large areas of of wall and floor for a very specific mapping exercise which only can be accomplished in such a site.

The neutralness of the walls and the beige floors allowed Qiu to think of them as a blank canvas, a datum in which ready-made objects, “found, made, free, and confined”, can be categorized and mapped, with a help of students from all of Hong Kong’s schools and universities, namely the University of Hong Kong, City University, Baptist University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Arts School, HKICC/Jockey Club Ti-ICollege, Diocesan Girls’ School, Hong Kong Academy and Po Leung Kuk Laws Foundation College.

And when we went there last Saturday… he was close to completion…

But more was left to do. The exhibit officially starts on May 23rd.

Also a work in progress, but in a completely different scale, is the work of Eric Shuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu of Eskyiu in the back garden area, titled, Industrial Forest. 

Below, Marisa sits within her work as she takes photos of me taking photos of the landscape. Behind her stands Laurent Gutierrez of map office, another celebrated mult-disciplinary architectural studio doing great work in / for the city.

The Industrial Forest is a forest composed of metal “bamboo” rods securely placed on artificial topography. This synthetic nature comes alive, the rods swaying back and forth, with the affect of use and natural weather conditions. Imagine a typhoon!

You can find the scale model of the project in the office.

… As well as the architectural drawings.

So many friends and supporters were there that night to rally around the artists as well as founder, Mimi Brown’s non-profit arts initiative. Also spotted were Art Basel Hong Kong’s Director Asia, Magnus Renfrew (Check out our interview with him last year), art patron and writer Alex Seno, restauranteur and creative Alan Lo, art muse Xue Tan, Art Basel Hong Kong’s VIP coordinator Deborah Erlich, creative consultant Louise Wong, write and curator Christina Li, artist/educator Leung Chi Wo, and my pals Katrina, Jason S, Jason R, and Susan.

Dinner was served on the beautiful lawn and deck area outside.

There’s a map on the table…

Balls on the floor can be kicked around to create new word structures, concepts, ideas… the purpose of which to create a more dynamic version of mapping which involves the user and the space, via the propositions of the artist.

Can’t wait to see more from Spring Workshop? Go take a look for yourself. The doors are now open.

VISIT Qiu Zhijie and Eskiyiu’s Industrial Forest @ Spring Workshop, 3F Remix Centre, 42 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, HK

JJ.

#ARTBASELHK13: Art Fair Month Kicks Off With JMR at JOYCE Gallery

JOYCE Gallery, located inside JOYCE, one of Hong Kong’s premier fashion boutiques, kicked-off the Art Basel fair season with their in-store exhibition of JM Rizzi (JMR), a highly celebrated Brooklyn-based street artist whose unique works reflect a neo-abstract expressionist influence but with a twist of pop art.

While a selection of JMR’s works are available at the gallery for sale, the artist was also able to collaborate with the shop to create unique site-specific works which are based on the theme of “escape”. 

According to the gallery, “JMR views painting as a medium through which he can escape the frustrations and the monotony of daily life”… and for most of us city dwellers, these black and white graphic lines may reflect exactly that kind of urban angst.

Other works on display plus a mural specifically for the On Pedder bags and accessories shop upstairs utilize bold colors as an added layer to the “scribbles”. The whole expression feels musical.

A little color IS fun… and a little fun doesn’t hurt anyone. The crowd was sold on Thursday night, with a few pieces already purchased by opening day.

I met up with a few pals in the crowd including, Marika of Lane Crawford, stylist Laura Li, bag designer Michelle Lai of MISCHA, W Hong Kong’s DJ Angus Wong, DJ Miss Yellow, The Armoury’s Alan See, Fashion Blogger Cindy Ko of Cindiddy, Artist Simon Birch, Disney’s Katrina Tran, and bag designer, Grace Chan editor of LUSHGAZINE.

Also met up for the first time with artist, DJ, and director, Mischa Hollenbach, the creator of Perks and Mini, an iconic Australian street fashion label.

One champagne is not enough.

Hood Rats.

AND also met up with street artist and graphic designer, Mark Goss from the UK. Like all things in my life these days, Mark and I met on Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram. And now we collaborate via his blog Curious Fiend, part of Fiend Projects. You’ll see some of my posts on there, and his posts will pop up on my website as well. Together we’ll do our best to cover the region’s art + design shows and exhibits. 

We’ll both try to keep it fun and non-pretentious. Exactly like these crazy glasses we’re trying on at On Pedder.

On the way out I saw that JMR painted on these iconic bags, one from Proenza Schouler and the other from Pucci. 

Prices upon request.

Of Coz.

VISIT JMR at JOYCE Gallery, G/F New World Tower, Central HK, Opens Daily 10:30am - 7:30pm, +852-28101120, Until 13 JUN 06

JJ.

#JJStyle: Tea With VNIKALI, 7 FAM, and Woobar

Last Sunday a friend of mine, stylist and fashion blogger Veronica Li of the Vnikali Blog, and I finally got together for a life update and a chat with friends, Priscilla and Angus. The tea/coffee get together amongst us was long overdue, and it didn’t hurt that cakes at Woobar in W Hong Kong was part of the equation.

The last time I saw Veronica was at the Black Fleece Flagship launch in town, and it was then that she and I decided that it was time to really schedule a meet up. 

Veronica has been working hard with her clients as well as religiously updating her wildly successful blog. Just two months ago, she flew to Vienna for her website’s coverage of the watch brand Omega. She had an opportunity to blog from the Garden Palace Liechtenstein while meeting up with actress, Nicole Kidman.

W Hong Kong pastry chef, Andrea Bonnafini, from Turin, served us an amazing Tea Set just for this month and in collaboration with Le French May, an annual citywide initiative by the Alliance Francaise to spread French culture in Hong Kong via art, entertainment, and F&B channels.

Andrea is like a kid in a candy shop… except his kitchen IS his candy shop, and he invents everything inside it.  If you’re lucky you can get dueling edible chocolate robots…

Or potted Tiramisu plants.

After tea, we all headed up to the Pool Wet Deck upstairs to check out the view and take a few shots for the denim brand 7 For All Mankind as part of their Spring/Summer 2013 Social Media campaign.

It was a tad bit cold and windy then… but everyone found a way to warm up. Like Priscilla and Angus below.

Thanks so much 7 For All Mankind and W Hong Kong for a great Sunday get together. I can’t wait until the summer when it gets sunny and hot and the hotel’s famous Sunday DJ pool sessions are in full effect.

WEAR 7 For All Mankind / EAT WOOBAR at W Hong Kong / CULTURE Le French May

JJ.

Much Ado About A Boy Named Sue, Bringing The World’s Greenest Fashion To You

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you already know that while Asia and Hong Kong maybe rolling out the red carpet for High Street consumerism from brands like GAP, Zara, Topshop, and H&M, unfortunate accidents like the garment factory disaster in Bangladesh are starting to happen more and more frequently, and producers just can’t keep up with consumer demand for Fast Fashion. I’m as much to blame as anyone else. The lure of a trend or a certain look at an unbeatable price just cant be beat sometimes. That said who knows if even the luxury items we purchase at Lane Crawford or NET-A-PORTER come from a sustainable ecosystem… even if it is a high price? Maybe it just means a high return on investment. There are no guarantees that one item comes from a different factory from another in this day and age. 

This is exactly why organizations, such as our friends at REDRESS and the new online shop, A BOY NAMED SUE, are seeking to help consumers re-think their options and what they wear. Every purchase we make goes directly into some eco-system. You can either feed more of the exploitation of human and ecological resources or the fostering of one. REDRESS seek to help us re-use and re-cycle our clothes, and A BOY NAMED SUE goes all over the world to source the best in sustainable fashion products. And what’s best… all these initiatives are based in Hong Kong.

Samantha Wong: I think the ASOS event was more like a test on event management and gathering food sponsors and creating a video to match. So it was more like a one-off thing to test our own skills and taste. 

 

theW+: Tell us about “eco-chic” and the “sustainable fashion industries”. People expected all of this to just be a trend, yet here we are and you have launched a new website devoted to it. Do you see longevity in this business?

TR: I think there is longevity, as we run our of resources, pollution rises across Asia and the rest of the world, the climate change becomes more acutely felt and there is more awareness about the dirty business of fashion, businesses will become more keen on introducing sustainable practices and governments will hopefully become more stringent. 

theW+: What are the brands to watch out for and will you carry some of them on your online store?

TR: I love The Sway, Isabell de Hillerin and Hien Le. Although I really love all the brands we stock as Sam and I spent 4 months researching them. For the next season I am really psyched about Svilu and L’Herbe Rouge

SHOP A Boy Named Sue Online / VISIT A Green Home Shop. A Sustainable Pop-Up Store. May 5-12th, 2013, Fuk Sau Lane off Third Street in Sai Ying Pun. Open Daily from 12PM - 7:30PM 

theW+ HK Spring 2013 Shops Guide: Sun Street, St. Francis Yard & Sau Wa Fong

Based on the weather in Hong Kong lately, it seems like the city is not yet ready to give up on Spring (ie. rainy and chilly). So therefore, while it is still Spring out in the city, take your umbrella and go to some of these shops I checked out with friends, MacArthur and Peter (as in SOM, one of the US’s hottest designers today.) 

Peter and Mac getting along just fine!

Not knowing how to spend the Sunday, I decided to meet up with Peter and Mac post-brunch for coffee. Soon after some gossip updates, we all decided that it was best to do some exercise .. and by exercise we mean a walking tour of one of my most favorite neighborhoods… the Sun Street / St. Francis Yard / Sau Wa Fong (triangle?) in Wanchai Admiralty.

+ CARVEN / Moon Street

Our first stop of the tour, straight to Moon Street to check out the latest Spring looks at the newly opened CARVEN boutique.

For those who do not know, CARVEN was founded in 1945 at Rond Point des Champs-Elysees by Madame Carven to house her collection of Haute Couture. The shop has had a few transformations since the 90’s when Mardame CARVEN retired from the label, and since then the brand has been building a collection inspired by CARVEN’s very clean, elegant, and youthfully romantic approach to the “CARVEN” aesthetic.

In 2010 Guillaume Henry joins the CARVEN house as its newest Art Director. His biggest change? Adding the brand’s first men’s collection for the Summer 2012 line.

And by the looks of what’s on offer at the Moon Street CARVEN, this season it’s all about neon tangerines, electric greens, and florals. (A different interpretation of Spring than what we’re all stuck with in HK.)

Im loving the collaborative pieces with PORTER Bags and Zespa Shoes.

The friendly neighborhood CARVEN guy said “Hi”.

+ KAPOK / Sun Street

Next stop, we wanted to show Peter the original KAPOK shops. I know these days there are other locations… but I still think the Sun Street and St. Francis Street shops are the best. KAPOK is where you can go to find labels and goods before they they show up anywhere else in Hong Kong. They’re the true purveyors of fine goods in the city.

This time around we checked out sunglasses by Smith & Norby, the latest wallets by Jack Spade, and card cases by MAKR Carry Goods.

That said, i’m a big fan of these easy to carry Wm.J.Mills&CO. Sailmakers Bags from Greenport NY. (According to the label).

They have KINFOLK!

+ THE MEN’S SHOP by CLUB MONACO / St. Francis Yard

I’m a Club Monaco addict. There I said yet. I think my friend, Whitney and I buy at least one thing from this store every week.

Men in Hong Kong get an an extra special treat with The Men’s Shop concept on St. Francis street because they do ship in some extra special items only found in this store from some independent labels in the states. I’m loving the “needlepoint belts” from Smathers & Branson above.

We we all loved these great pair of loafers from Mark McNairy.

I was also tempted to get this umbrella from London Undercover.

Meanwhile I wore my new Club Monaco blazer for this season. It’s got green and yellow flowers printed all over it like wallpaper… but that’s exactly why I love it. It’s quite quirky.

+ WDSG Art & Craft Department / St. Francis Street

Around the corner we we went to check out the newest goods at the WDSG Shop… which looked more like a General Store from the wild west… That… or Williamsburg today.

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Sun Above, Sin Below. SCARLETT and Maggie Choo’s Makes Nightlife Lush Again

Bangkok is quite good with super “Designed” Wallpaper*-esque nightlife concepts and offerings and has been since the emergence of “IT” joints like Bed Supper Club, FACE Bar, and Fallabella in the last decade.

While those bars are a memory of what they once were, making waves as of late are two new hotspots located high above the city with, SCARLETT, perfect for those wanting a sunset with a scene, and a new “speakeasy” very low underground, at the new/old Maggie Choo’s, for those wanting a bit of naughty privacy.  

If you plan on going to SCARLETT, make sure you get reservations first because patrons come here early to catch the sunset with pre drinks, and then follow-up with delicious Tapaz, cold cuts, and cheese, with wine pairing. In addition, the menu is formulated by 2-star Michelin Chef Manuel Martinez. 

The original SCARLETT is located in Beijing. The Bangkok bar is the sister location.

Designed by friends of mine at P49 DEESIGN, one of Asia’s top hospitality design studios, SCARLETT’s has plenty of greens for that softer touch and nice comfy outdoor lounging areas, plus indoor share tables perfect for big groups or impromptu meet ups. Tables are lit with exposed pendant bulbs to have that floating candle-light effect, and are framed by by colorful black, white, and red graphic tiles on the floor to add a bit of that Spanish fun and color but in a modern and subdued way.

It’s located centrally on the 37th floor of the Pullman Bangkok Hotel G where I stayed earlier this Spring. Its very easy to get to.

The sunset views are really the best part of the Pre-Dining experience here.

That same week, my friends and I were trying to figure out where to go for nightlife. And thinking that I wanted to blog about something new, a friend mentioned to me that a new bar, called Maggie Choo’s, just opened up by the same team which includes “IT” designer and “Nightlife Baron”, Ashley Sutton.

You may know Perth-born Sutton’s work via his other destination bars, Iron Fairies and Fat Gut’z. And recently he’s just opened a family friendly eating establishment at Siam Center, Mr. Jone’s Orphanage, and a bookshop/bar called Bookshop Bar. Funny that.

Just when you thought 1920’s Shanghainese fetishism in design has gone been-there-done-that… well, you can change your mind again with Sutton’s version of the concept… a concubine’s haven run by head-mistress, a character named, Maggie Choo.

What’s great about Maggie Choo’s, is that it’s truly a “speakeasy”, even the theatre of the sense of arrival gives you a feeling of naughy (using the word again) anticipation. 

The door (as all faux-speakeasies tend to be) is a side door on the Ground floor of an old Novotel on Silom Road. You walk in, see a tiled wall with a picture of men eating noodles, then you notice you’ll need to walk down a flight of stairs (hand carved) and enter a what seemingly looks like an old-school dai pai dong Cantonese noodle bar.

“Is this it?”, you ask yourself, “Where are the concubines on a swing I keep hearing about?”. Just when you thought you’d give it all up, a lady tells you to follow her through a door with curtains.

And then just like some magic trick, the space expands… into this…

…A lush cavernous bar lined with vaults clad in steel and brick, a plush central bar that looks like a bank teller… and swings… everywhere. That night I got there too early so there were no concubines on swings, (they were swinging on their own… ghastly), but I got the point.

You’ll be surprised to know that all the bricks, steel, and vaults were actually already there and were just incorporated by Sutton for the design… so no faux “Disneyfication” here.

The site was originally a 1947 East India Company Bank underground vault. The concept works great with the space. Each vault has a VIP sitting area, and i’m sure you can close it up for privacy. Also each vault area connects to the other vaults so you can have one big party.

We ordered yummy “cantonese” snacks of friend dumplings and chicken wings plus fries and fried peanuts with house cocktails which tasted like the 1920’s. 

These two served us.

It’s very well done. Although next time i’ll really want to try the noodles and dumplings at the cafe out front… which you can do before or after drinking!

According to their Facebook Page:

Maggie Choo’s was named after Shanghai cabaret owner who fled her hometown in 1931 following the Japanese invasion that tore the city.

Shortly after arriving in Bangkok, she found a 19th century Thai Chinese shoe box restaurant crammed into a basement 10 meters below Silom road serving authentic Thai chinese shophouse food.

When one day, she discovered behind the walls in the corner of the restaurant an entrance that lead to a derelict 19th century East India company bank built in 1847 used for storing porcelain and spices that the British used to carry back to England for Queen Victoria, her past caught up with her and she converted the old bank into a cabaret, just like when she used to back in Shanghai.

Today the cabaret is yet to be revived again…

Have a great night in Bangkok! We always do!

EAT SCARLETT Wine Bar & Restaurant, 37th Floor, Pullman Bangkok Hotel G, 188 Silom Road +66-2238-1992 / DRINK Maggie Choo’s, Novotel Bangkok Fenix Silom Hotel, 320 Silom Road 02-63506055

JJ.

Technology and Visual History Combine For Divine Effect, Works by Wim Delvoye and Ronald Ventura in Hong Kong

If a gallery was a pop-indie-R&B-electronic music promoter whose sole purpose was to import the best in edgy yet mature acts in the world to Hong Kong today, then one can single out Paris/Hong Kong based Galerie Perrotin as that kind of gallery. 

I say this not as a critique but an observation based on the current and last few exhibits since the gallery opened in its beautiful 50 Connaught Road space. Exhibitions that aren’t necessarily ”POP” as much as they are “Populist” are extracted from graphic and illustrative cultures of our time, magnified, amplified, choreographed, and exhibited in a nice neat package in the gallery’s light filled space. They’re edgy, but consumable, presented in a nice package like a new CD by the XX or M.I.A. for example. Exhibitions in 2012 by Peter Zimmermann, JR, KAWS, Aya Takano, Bharti Kher, and Farhad Moshiri would fall into these categories.  There have been more open ended shows, however, like works in progress or studies by Lionel Esteve and Jin Meyerson. The exhibitions have been fun, bold, and perfect for an Asian audience (maybe the young ones) still focused on refining their curatorial palette. 

However as Pop-indie acts go, part of what always makes them relevant is their ability to use digital information and technology to extract visual resources (ever available with google search and a click of the mouse) from the past to the present, then remixed, packaged, and then presented. This remix of visual culture via the technological filter is what the latest solo exhibitions at Galerie Perrotin Hong Kong are all about with two shows by the Philippine’s Ronald Ventura (pictured below) and Belgium’s Wim Delvoye (pictured above). 

Exhibited separately in one big space with no curatorial connection between the two, Ventura and Delvoye exhibit works fit for a religious spaces but with a twist. Ventura’s paintings reflect Baroque formal compositions and dutch techniques (playing on light), while Delvoye’s silver sculptures are indeed Baroque-esque in the layers of information, detail, and the way all these are flattened with a play on perspective and drama. Overall the works presented here are grand in gesture, and exaggerated in motion and drama, everything that the Roman Catholic Church just loves. In the 1600s Baroque works aimed to communicate the divinity on speed, but in today’s digital age, is the excess of information a divine gift of which to create?

Ronald Ventura’s fantastical paintings of smoking skulls, sea creatures, monsters, amid Angry Birds (an iOS game app) and BEATS by Dr. Dre Headphones, within bird cages (a thematic trope to put it all together), for Ventura, an aim to materialize his fantasies. His paintings are way for us to see what he sees. Ventura’s work begins with several sketches, then scanned, and remixed on photoshop (with presumably some other visual references from online), and then painted. Compared to Ventura’s other works in the past, the exhibition, titled Voids and Cages, is some of his most mature work yet, and thematically more global than it is regional.

Meanwhile works here by Wim Delvoye is an extension of his show from The Louvre in 2012 which took two years to produce. Unlike Ventura who works alone, Delvoye employes a studio to help him craft together his intricate sculptures, like the “Twisted Dump Truck” pictured above, modeled in a 3D computer program, then laser-cut piece by piece and assembled in Stainless Steel. This and the mirrored bronze sculptures which reflect Rorschach plates, give a sense of work truly in motion. Whats more, the sculptures look like they were gestured by a paint brush, as if Baroque works were actually transitioning from one kind of composition to another one. It is… pretty cool.

These shows will be on exhibit at Galerie Perrotin Hong Kong until 11 May 2013. Click below to see more from the show and details on where to see it.

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theW+ x CuriousFiend: ‘Hooligan’ Simon Birch at Ben Brown Fine Arts

Part of a collaborative series of art, design, and exhibition posts in Asia of note via our friends at Curious Fiend and Fiend Projects

curiousfiend:

Over the weekend we went to Ben Brown Fine Arts to check out the new solo exhibition of British artist Simon Birch, one of Hong Kong’s best known and most celebrated contemporary artists.

The fantastic works in this show are testament to why Birch is so acclaimed, this new exhibition, ‘Hooligan’ features a series of figurative paintings in the dramatic, movement filled style that he is best known for, characterized by a distinctive use of textured oil on canvas.

Taken from the Ben Brown website the following paragraphs explain the concept behind this new series of paintings.

‘Birch is interested in universal ideas of transition, the ambiguous moment between an initiation and a conclusion, the unobtainable now and the future, inevitably crashing towards us. For Birch these ideas translate easily from oil paint, to film, to installations, which engage with myth, history, circus and science fiction, connection and disconnect. He chooses to explore these themes in an enveloping environment of theater and spectacle, where the process of viewing becomes experiential: overwhelming and complex, yet as spectacle and adventure, also approachable’.

‘The striking female forms in Hooligan bear the imprint of an invisible force, as though someone hurled them through space and punched them into the frame. The belligerent title of the show is the only hint about the identity of the aggressor, underscoring the eruptive violence that pervades Birch’s work. We’re in a story that’s been freeze-framed, but not for long: there is a before to this moment, just as there will be a hereafter’.

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