EVENT DESCRIPTION
This year, Hong Kong Open Printshop’s annual fundraising exhibition is Medium Rare Medium Well: A Dialogue about Print Art curated by guest curator Shirky Chan Sui-kee.
Printmaking is an art of discipline and chance – a medium where each print is an act of faith, a negotiation between control and surrender. This exhibition showcases the beauty and skill of printmaking while challenging broader assumptions. It proposes that the essence of printmaking lies not just in multiplicity, but also in the tension at its conceptual core: the dance between intention and accident, the original matrix and its unique impression.
Medium Rare Medium Well brings together fifteen Hong Kong artists – some skilled in woodblock printing, etching and screen printing, others working across diverse disciplines – to explore how the fundamental principles of printmaking resonate within contemporary art. Their works demonstrate how concepts like repetition, transfer and the balance between control and chaos transcend the art of printmaking, revealing unexpected dialogues across artistic practices.
The exhibition begins with a clear premise: the skills honed by printmaking extend beyond the printmaking process. A painter layers strokes, each pass a distinct impression. A digital artist manipulates code, generating infinite variations from a single algorithm. A kinetic sculptor sets material in motion, transferring energy into rhythm. While their tools differ, their methods echo the central questions of printmaking: How does repetition generate meaning? What is lost, or found, in the act of translation? Where does the artist’s hand end and chance begin?
This show does not seek to blur the boundaries of printmaking, but to trace its influence through contemporary practice, questioning both what printmaking is, and how the practice translates to other art forms.
Guest Curator
Shirky CHAN
Participating Artists
AU Hoi-lam
CHAN Yi-ting, Tinnie
CHAN Yuk-keung, Kurt
CHEUNG Tsz-ki
CHOW Chun-fai
LAM Lok-san
LAM Tung-pang╳Lauraine MAK
LAU Ka-chun, Jay
LEE Mei-kuen, Carol
LI Ning
LI Xiao-qiao
LUI Yan-yi, Mindy
TUNG Wing-hong
WONG Lai-yan, Cam
