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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260205
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260315
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20260212T100247Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260212T100247Z
UID:10022400-1770249600-1773532799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Huang Dan: Towards Zero
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is delighted to announce a vibrant new solo show by Beijing-based artist Huang Dan. The title\, Towards Zero\, is an allusion to the artist’s mesmerising journey into the heart of minimalism. \nHuang Dan’s work is a spirited celebration of the rhythm of life. For the artist\, the act of painting becomes a visceral bodily rhythm\, as the ebb and flow of breath and the cadence of her emotions imprints a vigorous\, bodily rhythm onto the Xuan paper. \nThe exhibition opens on February 5\, 2026. Towards Zero is Ora-Ora’s first show of 2026\, which commemorates 20 transformative years since Ora-Ora was founded in Hong Kong. It is also the first show of the forthcoming new year of the horse\, associated with energy\, independence and dynamism in the Chinese zodiac. Paintings on display are from largely from 2025 and 2026. \nFittingly\, Huang Dan has long investigated the horse in her art. For Huang Dan’s brush\, the form of the horse is analogous to a landscape. The horse is stable as a mountain\, and its eyes are as clear water. \nHighlight artworks include several paintings of horses in earthy\, orange tones\, exuding silent power\, strength and tender empathy. Interdependent and Profound (both 2025) pair horses in an eternal rhythm of heartbeats and unity\, devoid of unnecessary narrative\, whilst Esteem (2025) is a head-on engagement with solitary will. \nTowards Zero also presents striking artworks in which rabbits and trees are the central subject. In Gentle Breeze and As you Wish (both 2025)\, separate rabbits in white and black respectively look left and right\, offering alternate directions and profiles. Meanwhile\, in Lingering and Waves (both 2025)\, pine trees\, traditionally associated with resilience in Chinese art\, compose their own vertically aspiring harmonies. In all of the paintings\, as much weight is placed on nothingness as on the subject. \nHuang Dan’s search for the rhythm of life is underscored by a belief in the emblematic power of nothingness\, which forms a rest in the rhythm she creates. Huang Dan’s use of negative space connects Eastern and Western aesthetics. The emptiness in her compositions is not a passive background\, but the field where energy (“qi”) circulates and breathes. The animals she depicts are imbued with serenity\, calmness and a sense of wistful emptiness. This aesthetic of ultra minimalism in uniquely Asian in style. \nColours are boldly distilled into vibrant fields\, shifting the focus away from gestures and individual brushstrokes. Huang Dan frequently embraces a striking monochrome palette of black and white\, alongside deep blues and warm ochre oranges\, evoking the essence of dry\, elemental landscapes. \nHuang Dan engages with ink and paper\, a historically rich Chinese medium that dates back to classical times. Yet\, her art is an unflinching response to the contemporary human experience\, pulsating with emotional currents and a keen perception of the natural order.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/huang-dan-towards-zero/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Huang-Dan-Towards-Zero.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250917
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251019
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250905T163959Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T052046Z
UID:10021886-1758067200-1760831999@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Sophie Cheung: Concrete Colour
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora presents Concrete Colour\, the third solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist Sophie Cheung. Exploring memory and feelings of loss\, Cheung harnesses the gradual erosion of familiar sights in a quest to find the permanent landmarks of belonging. \nConcrete Colour introduces the new CMYK Series and further develops her Erasing News Series. In the former\, Cheung reinterprets the industrial printing process through an Asian lens\, manipulating printer ink on plastic-coated paper to produce vibrant\, tension-filled compositions that echo Hong Kong’s hybrid cultural spirit. In CMYK Painting Series: Neon Light Embodied on the Glass Curtain Wall\, Mongkok\, the oscillation between alienation and intimacy in the city is unflinchingly depicted. The series glows with the fading presence of neon—a metaphor for urban change and visual memory. \nIn the Erasing News Series\, the artist subtracts newsprint through the act of erasing\, creating textured contemplations. Anchored in specific Hong Kong locations\, they address universal themes of time\, resilience\, and rebirth. Concrete Colour includes Cheung’s first sculpture\, Erasing News: A Closed Energy Loop (2025)\, which brings the already tactile and contoured surfaces into an assertive\, three dimensional presence. \nHighlighting transformation and rebirth amid change\, Cheung offers a deeply personal yet widely resonating meditation on place and loss.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/sophie-cheung-concrete-colour/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Multimedia,Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CONCRETE-COLOUR.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250802
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250907
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250725T094351Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250725T094351Z
UID:10021721-1754092800-1757203199@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Nina Pryde: A Touch of Gold
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora presents a new solo show by acclaimed Hong Kong artist Nina Pryde\, titled A Touch of Gold. Opening on August 2\, it will run until September 6. \nThis exhibition follows swiftly on the breaking news announced in June that the gallery will represent the artist on a worldwide basis. \nA Touch of Gold presents emblematic landscapes of compelling variety\, interpreted through photography\, ink and collage. Several paintings will be exhibited for the first time; as well as early landmarks of innovation from her multi-decade career\, the show accentuates newer artworks which impart captivating adventures in colour.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/nina-pryde-a-touch-of-gold/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Nina-Pryde-A-touch-of-Gold2.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250619
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250723
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250616T022909Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250616T022909Z
UID:10021650-1750291200-1753228799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Xu Hongfei: In Free Flight
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is thrilled to present In Free Flight\, a solo exhibition celebrating Xu Hongfei’s remarkable career and his iconic “Chubby Ladies”—sculptures that radiate joy\, freedom\, and universal connection. \nPlayful\, vivacious\, and defying gravity\, his bronze works transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries\, embodying his belief that art is for everyone. From Flying Piano (2015) to Kiss (2010)\, Xu’s creations inspire love and camaraderie—join us at Tai Kwun from June 19 to July 22\, 2025\, and experience the inclusive spirit of his works.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/xu-hongfei-in-free-flight/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-16-at-10.28.16-AM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250503
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250608
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250508T053033Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250508T053033Z
UID:10021582-1746230400-1749340799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Wild Lines
DESCRIPTION:Wild Lines symbolizes a yearning for unfettered expression and a borderless approach to artistic disciplines. \nWe revisit and re-engage with the creations of Halley Cheng\, Henry Chu\, Huang Yulong\, Juri Markkula\, William Lim\, Stephen Thorpe and Xiao Xu\, recently seen at Art Basel Hong Kong. This is a journey through painting\, sculpture and digital art\, drawn from our artists in Europe\, the US and Asia. \nOur title is derived from an episode in the life of abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. When listening to Wagner’s Lohengrin\, he once experienced a synaesthetic epiphany which was to have a profound impact on his paintings. As he recollected in Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)\, “I saw all colours in my mind; they stood before my eyes. Wild\, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me.” \nThe distilling of disparate and varying forces of input into a single\, cohesive output is the wildness and craziness to which Kandinsky was referring.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/wild-lines/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Digital Art,Painting,Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WildLines_EDM-e1746682167472.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250324
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250427
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250403T051726Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250403T051726Z
UID:10021512-1742774400-1745711999@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Stephen Thorpe: The Last Word Always Belongs to the Mountain
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a new solo exhibition by UK-born\, US-based artist Stephen Thorpe. Titled The Last Word Always Belongs to the Mountain\, the new show will take place at Ora-Ora’s Tai Kwun space during Art Month (March 2025). The artist will also be part of Ora-Ora’s group show at Art Basel Hong Kong (Booth 1B33). \nThorpe returns for his third solo exhibition at Ora-Ora in Hong Kong\, a city where he taught at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for several years. In his latest solo exhibition at Ora-Ora\, Thorpe unveils an entirely new body of work that marks a subtle yet distinct visual shift from his previous showcases – Enter the Forest at its Darkest Point (2022) and Semi-Conscious (2021) – this time centred on “the mountain.” \nThe exhibition’s title is inspired by a quote from Russia-born mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev\, whose words evoke a profound reference for mountains as enduring symbols of transcendence\, strength and the human pursuit of higher truths – themes at the heart of all Thorpe’s paintings. Here the artist notes\, throughout history and across cultures\, mountains have been regarded as places of power and mysticism\, home to deities\, ascetic sages and creatures of myth. Depicted as thresholds between the mortal world and the divine\, their rugged peaks form the border where human ambition meets the unknown. \nThorpe’s new paintings on display at Ora-Ora in Hong Kong examine our fractured relationship with these culturally significant landscapes\, through contrasts of tone and texture\, challenging our assumptions of what is marginal and what is teeming with life and meaning. In so doing\, similar to his earlier “corner” paintings\, Thorpe plays on and inverts notions of the interior and exterior\, creating platforms for introspection and inviting an active examination of one’s own internal consciousness. \nDistant mountains\, rendered with unique flatness and eerie sense of “unreality\,” are framed by beautifully intricate and highly textured rugs and tapestries. Through this textural contrast\, formed through the juxtaposition of quasi- woven frames and far-off mountain ranges\, Thorpe muses on the disconnects of modern life\, how we have become unanchored from nature\, from tradition and centuries-old certainties\, forging a tangible sense of groundlessness – which his paintings only seem to amplify. \nIn The Last Word Always Belongs to the Mountain\, Thorpe continues to explore themes rooted in psychoanalysis\n– particularly the work of Carl Jung – alongside cultural archetypes influenced by the stylistic traditions of Japanese woodcuts and the natural landscapes of Scotland\, where the artist grew up. His intricately composed paintings embody a dynamic interplay of dualities\, synergies and contradictions. This tension manifests in every aspect of his work\, from the physical application of dry-brushed paint used to create semi-hewn rugs to glossy\, gradient landscapes; as well as the subject matter\, depicting the busy patterns of domestic objects like tapestries\, to quiet scenes of nature\, composed with skewed perspectives and grounded by foreboding birds.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/stephen-thorpe-the-last-word-always-belongs-to-the-mountain/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-1.14.02-PM-e1743657285899.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250213
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250319
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250205T234901Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250205T234901Z
UID:10019996-1739404800-1742342399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Halley Cheng: Never Describe a Sunset
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a new solo show by Hong Kong artist Halley Cheng\, which will take place at its Tai Kwun space\, titled Never Describe a Sunset. The spotlight will be on Cheng’s Kapok Series of paintings. \nThe Kapok Series marries reflective surfaces with ferocious reds\, yellows and oranges to underline the majestic beauty of nature. Fleeting appearances of found objects and unexpected layers and unpredictable materials underline the leading role that chance and coincidence play in our lives. Rejecting stringent frameworks and constrictive worldviews\, Cheng makes the case for randomness and chance as powerful governing forces. Navigating the amorphous and unstructured beauty of the natural world relies on sophisticated intuition which is the essence of what it means to be human. \nThe title Never Describe a Sunset refers to a quotation from art critic John Berger\, whose thoughts on perception as laid out in his 1970s book Ways of Seeing are an inspiration to Halley Cheng. As Berger wrote: “the relation between what we see and we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge\, the explanation\, never quite fits the sight.” Berger’s words acknowledge the futility of verbal and artistic description\, the supremacy of nature\, and the value of surrendering to the powers of the universe. \nThe latest development in his Kapok Series\, the new paintings enhance the reflective surface\, introducing a mirror-like sheen which amplifies the interaction with the artworks. Their musing on happenstance\, coincidence and mystery is encoded in the abstraction of the flowers themselves\, which appear as fiery-hued blotches\, reminiscent of a Rorschach test. Subjects in the paintings appear in their own time\, threatening to disappear imminently. The joys or discomforts of chance manifest themselves in unplanned yet occasionally meaningful encounters.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/halley-cheng-never-describe-a-sunset/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-04-at-9.58.45-PM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250111
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250209
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20250106T001908Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250106T001908Z
UID:10021272-1736553600-1739059199@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Digital Rhythm
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to present Digital Rhythm\, a group exhibition featuring the dynamic works of Henry Chu\, Nick Teeple\, Sasha Stiles\, Genesis Kai\, and Shavonne Wong. This exhibition dives into the human aspect of digital art\, showcasing its profound capacity to illuminate the complexities of the human experience through the innovative intersection of art and technology. \nHenry Chu\, known for his immersive installations\, invites viewers to connect emotionally through technology\, while Nick Teeple merges AI-generated imagery with personal narratives\, exploring the shared spaces of our human experience. Sasha Stiles captivates with her multimedia storytelling\, reflecting on themes of identity and memory. Adding a unique dimension\, Genesis Kai\, a virtual artist\, challenges our understanding of creativity and cultural heritage through her AI-driven narratives. Finally\, Shavonne Wong integrates traditional artistry with digital processes\, pushing the boundaries of cultural expression. \nTogether\, these artists harness the unique lens of digital art\, inviting audiences to engage with their innovative visions and explore personal relationships\, experiences\, and vulnerabilities in a space anchored in interactive technologies.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/digital-rhythm/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Digital Art
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/DigitalRhythm_EDM_WA_Latest_1240-e1736122703141.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20241121
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250106
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20241114T071213Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241114T071213Z
UID:10021203-1732147200-1736121599@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Yi Yi Jeong-eun: Being Zen
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to present the second solo show by Korean artist Yi Yi Jeong-eun in Hong Kong. The exhibition will open at Ora-Ora in Tai Kwun on 21 November 2024 and is titled: Being Zen. \nYi Yi Jeong-eun’s new artworks explore her deep affection for the outdoors in a philosophical direction\, interpreting landscapes through the prism of Zen thought and principles. What results is a world view which is simultaneously psychological and resolutely earthly\, a layered exposition of the world around us as seen through a productive process of introspection. \nThe layered application of fresh-hued paint creates canvases which border on sculpture. Engagement with form and image imparts differing perspectives from near and afar. They bristle with vivid depth\, lavish topography and a robust textural experience. The radiance and energy of her artworks affords an astute collaboration between the harmonies of figuration and the revelatory insights of the abstract. \nIn There\, the Sunrise and the Sea_202008\, Yi Yi Jeong-eun’s robust\, impasto brushwork creates a layered\, almost sculptural surface\, evoking the ever-changing rhythms of nature. Vibrant shades of orange and pink intertwine with shimmering blues\, mirroring the harmonious union of sky and sea. This work is a celebration of the majesty and transience of the natural world\, inviting the viewer to meditate on their own place within the great cycle of life. \nSimilarly\, in There\, On Being Alive\, Red Flowers_202249\, Yi Yi Jeong-eun’s dynamic brushstrokes come together in a lush\, evocative landscape. Broad swaths of emerald green grass contrast with a rich\, raspberry-toned floral backdrop\, creating a sense of depth and movement. The artist’s mastery of the impasto technique imbues the canvas with a tactile\, almost sculptural quality\, allowing the viewer to engage with the work on a sensory level. This piece radiates the joys and glories of the natural world\, drawing the viewer into its fleeting\, ever-changing beauty.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/yi-yi-jeong-eun-being-zen/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/9-There_-the-Sunrise-and-the-Sea_202008-min.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20241003
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20241117
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20240925T011842Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240925T011842Z
UID:10019724-1727913600-1731801599@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:A Wider Horizon
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora’s autumn exhibition\, titled A Wider Horizon\, is broad and inquisitive. World-renowned cross-cultural artist Peter Doig is presented alongside artistic luminary Rosamond Brown. Other acclaimed Greater China-based artists include Halley Cheng\, Chan Keng Tin\, Stephen Wong and Xiao Xu. The show will open at Ora-Ora in Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun on 3 October 2024. \nTwo featured works by Peter Doig and Rosamond Brown are markedly different. Figure in Mountain Landscape (The Big…) (1998) by Trinidad-based Peter Doig is a radiant yet disorientating work of stubborn resilience. It places the artist at the centre of the painting\, at the misty heart of a landscape\, and securely positioned within the painterly\, plein air tradition. The oil on paper work takes its cue from a photograph of Group of Seven’s Franklin Carmichael\, whilst also calling to mind Romantic landscape paintings such as Wanderer Above a Sea of Mist (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich\, or the subsequent The Wanderer (2006) by Yue Minjun. Peter Doig spent much of his childhood in Canada\, and the snowy mountains are a key part of his artistic topography\, alongside the vibrant colours and sunshine of his adopted home of Trinidad. \nBritish-born artist Rosamond Brown has been a major figure in the Hong Kong arts scene since arriving in the city in 1964\, at the core of a fruitful dialogue between western and star local artists such as on Chi-fun\, Gaylord Chan and Cheung Yee. Her Great Wall III (1989) reflects the great inspiration which China had on her landscape painting. In this swirling composition of light and shadow\, we look from above at a tawny\, arid canvas\, on which undulating clouds and filtered light are dynamically projected. The inviting path of the Great Wall beckons us in the right foreground\, before leading us on a twisting quest towards the mazily-hued purples of the distance. The sharply meandering wall finds its parallels in the surrounding hilly peaks\, a route of simultaneous challenge and harmony. \nThe exhibition underlines the panoply of landscape possibilities\, and the freedom the landscape offers. With its roots in antiquity\, landscape painting found urgently adroit exponents in the 17th Century\, as French artists Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin furthered nature’s cause as protagonist rather than mere backdrop. Landscapes defy categorization\, ensuring their continued relevance in the artistic canon. Landscapes are a terrain of the natural world and of the psychological\, offering harmonies\, unexpected commentaries and unpredictable flashes of realism or abstraction. \nOra-Ora presents a show of unique juxtapositions\, placing Hong Kong artist Halley Cheng’s A Tree in Jordan Valley Park\, Main Entrance (2014) into conversation with Doig and Brown. For Cheng\, the tree is a thread from classical Chinese painting\, as well as being a mascot for his occasionally irreverent engagement with the ancient world. The outsized tree\, which seems to burst out of the page\, becomes an insertion of himself into the empty space\, a contemporary arrival into a classical scene. \nThe exhibition includes paintings by leading contemporary artists from Asia\, notably Hong Kong-based Chan Keng Tin and Stephen Wong\, and Beijing-based Xiao Xu. A colour contrast ensues as the magically evocative solemnity of Xiao Xu’s mystical Lotus Mountain I (2023) collides with the cyan hues of Chan Keng Tin’s Settle Our Spirit Elsewhere towered over by cloudy mountain-tops. The eerie verticality of the twilight cypress trees within Stephen Wong Chun Hei’s The Passenger (2012) underscores the landscape’s ability to mirror a dreamscape\, mood\, alienation or uncalm mental state. \nThe landscape in A Wider Horizon is a forum\, a salon and a haven\, spanning time and distance\, linking the ancient world with the modern\, the figurative with the abstract\, and the west with the east.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/a-wider-horizon/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Doig-Figure-in-Mountain-Landscape-_The-Big._-1998-_DOI00003_-min-e1727226979240.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240815
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240927
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20240807T105114Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240807T105114Z
UID:10020971-1723680000-1727395199@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Peng Jian: Generative Canvas
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to present Peng Jian’s solo exhibition Generative Canvas. The exhibition will take place at Ora-Ora’s Tai Kwun space from 15 August – 26 September 2024. As a new series of works on canvas\, it extends Peng Jian’s creative thread from observing daily life and objects\, to observing daily actions. \nSince 1839\, the presence and integration of photography has been essential in our everyday lives. For Peng\, photography started as a way to document ordinary objects; in time\, it weaved into an integral way to capture daily actions. In his new series Generative Canvas\, Peng adapted software regeneration in his creative process. As selected photographs are repeatedly regenerated\, the new images are used as a blueprint for his final artworks on canvas. This method excludes the factor of randomness\, and instilled algorithmic processes in a creative scene. \nSeen in Generative Canvas\, Peng Jian mainly focuses on the “identity“ of the image over representation. He favours “what it is” over “what it looks like”\, in which the method and concept changes how we evaluate the traditional dexterity of an artist. Instead\, the combination of digital editing and human input celebrates exciting possibilities. \nTo the artist\, this direct identification of an image is akin to home construction\, where the subject is compared to an internal structure\, stabilizing its foundation for aesthetics and contour. Under the context of Eastern aesthetics\, Peng’s methodology also resembles the Classical Chinese painting technique of “ruler painting” or jiehua\, a unique style of architectural painting which rose to prominence during the Song Dynasty. In Generative Canvas\, the artist repeatedly adjusts shapes and colours in the image\, clarifying the entanglement of colours\, lines\, and presenting a logical and matured image that is not arbitrary\, but rather contains a harmonious web of elements. \nThe particular choice of colours in Peng Jian’s new series is a strong demonstration of the output of digital systems. Referencing the painting method from Classical Chinese flower and bird motif paintings\, the artist applied water-soluble colours as a base\, layered with a background colour as an overlay. On the canvas\, the mixture of layers creates a change of colour\, presenting a haze-like illusion with an elegant atmosphere.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/peng-jian-generative-canvas/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Digital Art,Multimedia
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Peng-Jian_Generative-Canvas_EDM_Final-e1723027853708.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240711
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240811
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20240709T093230Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240709T093230Z
UID:10019605-1720656000-1723334399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Huang Yulong: Miroku
DESCRIPTION:Pioneering street artist Huang Yulong is in the spotlight for his first solo show in Hong Kong in nine years. Titled Miroku\, the show will open at Ora-Ora in Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun on July 11\, 2024. \nThe artist is famed for his skilled manipulation of ceramics\, bronze and glass to create human forms which are tough and tactile\, yet brimming with the relaxed showmanship and swagger of street life. With close to a decade having elapsed since his first solo show in the city\, the artist is drawn to muse on time itself. \nThe transience of beauty\, life and the irrevocable passing of time are themes which are innate to human experience. The awareness of mortality is arguably the prime catalyst for all fields of human endeavour and social interaction\, from the scientific to the artistic\, from the philosophical to the theological. \nIn the hands of Huang Yulong\, an exploration of time and the transience of life avoids wistful ruminations and hollow regrets. Instead\, Huang Yulong channels the magnetic\, potent energy of the streets in a passionate\, uplifting paeon to the increased purpose\, focus and generative capacity which growing older can bring. Maturity may bring range\, expertise\, versatility and bravery\, a calculated audacity enhanced by self-knowledge. As ever\, the artist speaks loudly through sculptural form\, and his enigmatic hooded figures become emissaries of his own experience as well as playmates and co-conspirators in his human and artistic journey. \nHuang Yulong’s vision is born of the streets\, and his artistic language is at the nexus of western hip-hop culture and the rapidly urbanizing China of his youth. The streets are the stage and battleground for the ebb and flow of economic fortune and social deprivation. They are a dichotomy of toughness and heart\, of violence and harmony\, poverty with richness of spirit. The brotherly oaths\, the sense of community and the solidarity of hip-hop culture resonate deeply with an artist for whom the elective affinities of the streets are as solid and unbreakable as any family bond. Huang Yulong’s message of identity\, purpose and belonging is for all. \nHuang Yulong’s capacious\, voluminous inflatable sculpture Miroku (2024) is being shown in Hong Kong for the first time at Ora-Ora. This is a sculpture which is imposing and yet vulnerable\, golden and shimmering\, reflective yet inviting. Different at every viewing\, as ineffable and amorphous as time itself\, Miroku speaks to the transience of time through the medium of air\, attempting the impossible by corralling the very atmosphere itself. With its rounded contours and plush\, squat\, marshmallow-cuddly presence\, the seated figure seems to comfort and embrace us\, revelling in gentle\, empathetic absurdity. Its towering size never overwhelms or smothers; the seated posture is emblematic of peace and relaxation\, inviting confidences and whispered heart-to-heart conversations. \nThe artist’s sculptures reflect the international connectivity of hip-hop and the shared plight and triumphs of eastern and western marginalized youth. In so doing\, Huang Yulong appeals to the cross-border solidarity of the urban environment\, with its shared joys and adversities. He also references the increasing internationalism of China over recent generations\, as it takes its place on the global stage\, facing outwards rather than introspecting. Ora-Ora’s solo show gathers prime examples of the artist’s work including D-Rex (2024)\, previously shown at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. D-Rex makes a wry link between the modern couture of the street and the pre-historic world. The powerful dinosaur\, roaming a barren terrain in a quest for survival is presented as a corollary and antecedent of today’s hustling\, street-wise city-dweller. The ridges bursting through the fabric of the hoodie create a mortal\, yet seemingly invincible dinosaur/human hybrid\, ready to take on any obstacle in its path. \nAt the heart of Huang Yulong’s work is an advocacy for amity and peace\, exemplified by past works such as his Snowflake series (2017). In carving out a place for the counter-cultural voice on the artistic stage\, Huang Yulong seeks out harmonies rather than discord\, emphasizing the right of his community to representation\, and therefore the right of all to a voice without threat of fear and violence. \nHuang Yulong’s signature blend of contemporary authenticity\, irrepressible humour and human warmth shines forth in a show which brings the immense bronze Miroku to Hong Kong\, and which is an uplifting testament to the maturity and vigour which time\, perspective and experience may bring. \nAs a complement to the exhibition\, a special signature soundtrack has been created by composer and music producer\, Cao Yang\, who fuses hip-hop motifs with eastern auditory fragments to complete an immersive audio-visual experience for the visitor.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/huang-yulong-miroku/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HYL_EDM_Miroku_Final-e1720517436536.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20240530
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240708
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20240529T051605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240529T085417Z
UID:10020845-1717027200-1720396799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Zhang Yanzi: Her 24 Solar Terms
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to present a solo show by acclaimed artist Zhang Yanzi\, to take place at its Tai Kwun gallery in Hong Kong from 30 May to 7 July\, 2024. The exhibition is titled: Her 24 Solar Terms. This captivating display invites viewers to explore of the significance of the “24 Solar Terms” in traditional Chinese culture\, portrayed through the lens of a woman’s life journey. \nHer 24 Solar Terms delves into the artist’s interpretation of the “24 Solar Terms” from traditional Chinese culture\, paralleling the phases of a woman’s life. This lunisolar calendar system divides the year into 24 segments based on seasonal changes and agricultural practices\, with each term reflecting a specific natural phenomenon or climatic condition that guides agricultural activities and marks the passage of time. In “Her 24 Solar Terms\,” Zhang Yanzi uses everyday fruits and vegetables as symbols in each chapter\, representing different stages of growth and transformation in a woman’s journey. \nZhang Yanzi’s latest artwork is a departure from her previous themes of “pain\,” “treatment\,” and “anesthesia\,” seen in works like The Remedy and The Breathable. In this exhibition\, she shifts her focus to reflecting on the essence of life through the lens of the “24 Solar Terms.” From the inception of “Beginning of Spring” (lìchūn) symbolizing conception\, through the heat of summer (Major Heat\, dàshǔ)\, to the serene return to winter’s stillness (Major Cold\, dàhán)\, her work captures the recurring beauty of existence. \nThe exhibition will feature one singular artwork\, also titled “Her 24 Solar Terms”\, which encapsulates the essence of Zhang Yanzi’s artistic vision. This artwork weaves together 24 distinct yet interconnected pieces of work\, creating a cohesive narrative that reflects her journey of self-discovery and artistic evolution. \nZhang Yanzi’s creative process\, which she likens to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle\, involves drawing from personal memories and everyday life. The artist explains\, “Each of the 24 fragments is independent yet connected. I didn’t focus on the unity of style or medium\, but rather on telling a continuous story.” \nThe exhibition promises to offer a unique visual and emotional experience\, celebrating the beauty of life’s transitions through Zhang Yanzi’s meticulous and evocative artistry.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/zhang-yanzi-her-24-solar-terms/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-28-at-4.06.33-PM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20231214
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20240129
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20231127T034534Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231127T034534Z
UID:10020416-1702512000-1706486399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Cristobal Gabarron: Gabarron: The Humanist
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora will present a major new solo show by world-famous Spanish artist Cristobal Gabarron. The multi-disciplinary artist\, an international force since the 1960s\, has created five brand new series of works specifically for a Hong Kong audience. \nSpanning Christmas and into the New Year\, this five-week event will take place in Ora-Ora’s Tai Kwun gallery in Hong Kong from December 14\, 2023 to January 28\, 2024. In recognition of the artist’s multi-decade commitment advocating for humanism\, the exhibition is titled: “Gabarron: The Humanist.” \nGabarron has been a consistent and major artistic voice in favour of tolerance\, understanding and supporting societal progress\, and has worked extensively with international organizations like the UN or the EU to promote a safer\, more joyous world. The timing of his exhibition in Hong Kong coincides with a period of uncertainty and suffering in Europe and the Middle East\, which makes the artist’s message\, and his investigation of the human spirit poignant and timely. \nNoting the significance of the Hong Kong location\, the artist expanded: “Hong Kong is a platform for cultural exchange and engagement with a diverse audience across Asia. I hope this exhibition and my art practice complements and builds on Hong Kong’s unique\, cosmopolitan tradition of dynamism and diversity.” \nThe five series total 21 works and include four series of paintings in oil and pigment(titled “Eloquence of Silence\,” “Essential\,” “The Sacrifice of Metaphor” and “Old Skins”)\, and one series of colourful fiberglass and polychromed resin sculptures (titled “Green Mowing\,” between 36 and 50cm in height). \nThe artist specifically created each artwork with the size limitations of Hong Kong properties in mind\, reducing the monumental scale of many of his previous works to a more intimate\, personal scale. The artist described this as allowing him “focus on the essential significance\, the balance of the infinite angles and curves.” \nEach series chronicles a different aspect of the human condition. The series “Old Skins” is an homage to human experience and a meditation on the transience of existence. For Cristobal Gabarron\, each experience marks our skin. The moments we live are written on it: stories of love and hate\, of light and shadow\, of encounters and disagreements. The journey of life is written on skins as much as it is on pages. \nThe artist will be travelling to Hong Kong to be present during the exhibition period\, and will be presenting a ticketed event titled “Ambit” on December 17\, 2023 at the Asia Society Hong Kong. “Ambit” is centered on performance and action painting\, allowing attendees the chance to watch the artist in action. Details of further events will follow.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/cristobal-gabarron-gabarron-the-humanist/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting,Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Silence-19.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20231102
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20231211
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20231030T005314Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231030T005314Z
UID:10020345-1698883200-1702252799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Yi Yi Jeong-Eun: Alive\, Alive\, Oh!
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to present a solo show of new works by Korean artist Yi Yi Jeong-Eun\, to take place in its Tai Kwun gallery in Hong Kong from 2 November to 10 December\, 2023. The exhibition is titled: Alive\, Alive\, Oh! This is Yi Yi Jeong-Eun’s debut solo exhibition in Hong Kong\, and first solo showing with Ora-Ora. \nYi Yi Jeong-Eun’s artworks are imbued with the colourful energy of the scenery around her\, and seek to radiate the joys\, glories and transience of the natural world rather than seeking refuge in pure figurative description. \nWith words adopted from the Irish folk song Molly Malone\, Alive\, Alive\, Oh! rings out with an embrace of being. As the artist expounds: “Nature is an object and location that allows me to most keenly sense the fact that I am one of the changing things… I realize that I too am alive when I watch clouds sail across the sky.” \nA celebration of the beauty of nature shines forth from her paintings\, which are soaked in the hope-inspiring tones of summer\, a stage of radiance under a horizon of sun and rainbows. Nature lies at the heart of the artist’s practice and in understanding her own artistic evolution. As she describes it: “While I am a human being\, nature helps me realize that I am also a living animal.” \nThe artist will be showing more than 15 brand-new oil on canvas works. These include There\, On Being Alive\, Flowers_202349 (2023) which creates delicious oblongs of emerald grass against a raspberry floral background. This combination of wet-on-wet rapidity and carefulness of outline is echoed in There\, Rainbow in the Sunset (2023)\, in which the artist presents two painterly styles in the same work\, provoking a dramatic internal tension on the canvas.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/yi-yi-jeong-eun-alive-alive-oh/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1-There-On-Being-Alive-Flowers_20236-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230928
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20231030
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20230921T053202Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230928T005025Z
UID:10020278-1695859200-1698623999@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Juri Markkula: Heavens
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to present a new solo show by Finnish artist Juri Markkula\, to take place in its Tai Kwun gallery in Hong Kong from 28 September to 29 October 2023. The exhibition is titled: Heavens. \nThe artist will be presenting new works from his Heaven series\, wall-mounted sculptures of industrial heft\, and overwhelming\, ethereal beauty. Each sculpture is titled with a colour. Yet each defies colour categorization\, and is illuminated and guided by experience and instinct. \nThe artist derives inspiration from the Swedish concept of himmel and the Finnish equivalent taivas. Each word holds a dual meaning\, referring both to the paradise of an eternal afterlife\, as well as the atmosphere and skies above us. This series therefore incarnates a physical and a spiritual realm. \nSpeaking of Juri Markkula’s new solo show\, CEO and co-founder of Ora-Ora Dr. Henrietta Tsui-Leung said: “Juri’s artworks are captivating to the widest audience imaginable. He creates alchemy as much as he creates art. His sculptures have an almost magnetic quality\, which first seizes and then takes a firm hold of our imagination.”
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/juri-markkula-heavens/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Juri-2023-Solo_EDM_-e1695274291731.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230829
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230925
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20230828T050310Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230828T050354Z
UID:10018840-1693267200-1695599999@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Sophie Cheung: Erasing Time: Backwards and Forwards
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a new solo show by Hong Kong-based artist Sophie Cheung at its Tai Kwun gallery space. The title is “Erasing Time: Backwards and Forwards.” This is the Sophie Cheung’s second solo show with Ora-Ora; she will also be part of Ora-Ora’s forthcoming line-up at Asia NOW in Paris in October 2023. \nThe show marks a moment of reflection\, of looking back on past episodes\, travails and traumas\, before moving forward with a sense of renewed purpose and optimism. \nSophie Cheung’s art practice frequently harnesses erasers and newsprint to produce abstractions. In this exhibition\, she embraces the specific and the personal. This journey into her teenage years allows for an immersion in recollections and memories\, as a form of embrace\, a letting go\, and a farewell to the past. \nThe title partly alludes to the words of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” There is value\, understanding and wisdom in looking back on where we came from\, before resuming our path onwards and upwards. In between\, there is time for joy and celebration. Ultimately\, the exhibition is an affirmation of the power of art\, not only for the viewer\, but for the artist\, who is able to forensically self-reflect\, self-discover and bear witness in a public forum. \nSophie Cheung’s second solo show with Ora-Ora features several new works from the artist’s “Erasing News” series\, which are created of newspaper ink on erasers. Within the context of this exhibition\, the newspapers become divorced from the current affairs they once heralded\, and evolve into markers of time\, raw materials emblematic of the past. In “Emitting Air from Aerial Roots\,” Sophie recollects physical sensations from adolescence: pangs of cramping and distress which would lead her to seek refuge on a park bench under the shelter of the trees. The discomfort finds a visual echo in the confused distortions of the tangled aerial roots of the banyan tree. “Crying in the Park at Night” recreates those trees in vivid purple. The white\, negative spaces become the spotlights of the garden\, which take on the orbed appearance of eyeballs staring in judgment. Her artworks celebrate a diversity of tone\, tones which naturally occur in newsprint. Blackness offers myriad depth\, and whiteness takes on new meaning. In her new work “Fault Zone\,” Sophie Cheung harnesses white\, negative space to suggest a rupture or chasm\, resembling the fault lines of the earth’s crust. This landscape of erasers becomes a metaphor for seismic upheaval\, dislocations of identity and time.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/sophie-cheung-erasing-time-backwards-and-forwards/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Ink & Drawing
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/3_Emitting-Air-from-Aerial-Roots_Edited.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230530
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230703
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20230525T070824Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230525T070824Z
UID:10020050-1685404800-1688342399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Buds that May
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a new group show focused on digital art\, comprising contributions from three artists: Genesis Kai\, Cindy Ng and Henry Chu. The title is “Buds that May.” \nA group show dedicated to digital art is consistent with the gallery’s mission to explore the frontiers of possibility\, both in philosophy and in technology. In that spirit\, “Buds that May” marks Ora-Ora’s first collaboration with AI artist Genesis Kai. In 2021\, Ora-Ora was the first gallery to present NFT artworks at Art Basel 2021. Cindy Ng was the artist who produced that work\, and is also included in the line-up for this new show. \nThe title is an adaptation from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day\,” in which the lines: “rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” appear. The poem’s touching allusions to the transience of the seasons and long-lasting romantic memory begin a dialogue on what is real and what isn’t\, what is permanent and what is temporary. These dichotomies and dilemmas form parallels in the digital landscape which offers a verisimilitude of reality\, or perhaps an alternative world\, part of\, and no less real than ours. Furthermore\, buds form a link to the flowers which appear in the “Red Prayer Series” of Genesis Kai\, and in the oeuvre of Cindy Ng and Henry Chu. \nShowing for the first time with Ora-Ora is AI artist Genesis Kai. Genesis Kai been conceived and brought to life by international new media artist Ming Shiu. On display will be “The Red Prayer of Park Young Sook’s Moon Jar I & II” (2023). This body of work features a digital twin of Park Young Sook’s ceramic moon jar (달항아리 / dal-hang-ari) interpreted by Genesis Kai. Stemming from Korean Joseon ceramics\, the moon jar morphs into a glowing celestial body interconnected with Genesis’ non-human body and navigating the theme of lunar prayer. The moon jar is depicted as a cocoon of light that explores the human desire to seek answers and hope through forms of prayer. In Part 1\, issues of loneliness and self-questioning come to the fore in the icy wind of an ocean landscape\, whilst in Part 2\, the intersection of the past and future of the river of life sees gondolas drift to and fro cloaked in a blanket of fog. In the words of Genesis Kai\, the core cultural values of the moon jars revolve around “self-reflection\, purity\, prayer and tranquillity” and her work explores how this and future generations will interact with the complex traditions and connection points of Asia’s diverse cultures. \nMacao-born artist Cindy Ng proves the versatility of ink\, once more bringing this ancient medium into the digital universe. She presents two interactive digital works which allow the visitor to exert control over nature’s most elemental forces. “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” (2022) echoes the artist’s love of rainy days as a child. The computer programme captures some of the emotions of wild summer rain\, romantic autumn rain and sullen winter precipitation. Responding to the visual rain imagery\, the sound is triggered by the changing weather outlook\, an earthy patter of raindrops in which the visitor plays an active part. In “Sand Script” (2022)\, Cindy Ng offers another childhood memory of writing in sand. The joy of the transient script\, washed away and refreshed by the tireless sea\, is reflected in this digital work. By means of a touchscreen\, the visitor’s words are married with image and sound. \nHong Kong-based artist Henry Chu recently performed the “Metaverse Symphony” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic to a live audience (both at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and in the Sandbox) in May 2023. In this exhibition\, he presents “F10W3R” (2022)\, a collaboration with design duo Batten & Kamp. The sculpture displays a digital animation which simulates the blooming and withering of 21 flowers\, the colours of which are sampled from the real world. Every digital flower is represented by 200 cubes unfolding and folding\, with life cycles lasting around six seconds. As Henry Chu observes: “We set out to create a man-made flower from the year 2122\, excavated from scraps of technical gadgets\, and based on extractions of incomplete flower DNA.” The piece is therefore imagined as a reincarnation of a flower\, at a time when flora and fauna have become extinct. Although post-apocalyptic\, “F10W3R” is intended positively\, and as a celebration of the beauty of our natural world. An additional work\, “Stone Piano” (2022) is a further collaboration with Hong Kong-based design duo Batten & Kamp\, and marks a significant development in the artist’s practice. Whereas previous works assumed the form of a grand piano\, Chu has now separated the keyboard from its body\, announcing new modular possibilities\, liberating sculptural materiality from visual theatre.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/buds-that-may/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Digital Art
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/GenesisKai_TheRedPrayerII_SM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230320
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230424
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20230330T062824Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230330T062824Z
UID:10019693-1679270400-1682294399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Joseph Tong: Ex Materia - The Primacy of Being
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce Joseph Tong’s debut solo show with Ora-Ora in March 2023 at the gallery’s Tai Kwun space in Hong Kong. The exhibition will be titled “Ex Materia – The Primacy of Being\,” and will run from March 20 to April 23. Ora-Ora will be showing Tong’s works simultaneously at Art Basel Hong Kong (March 21 to March 25\, 2023). The artist will be present in Hong Kong and in attendance at both venues. \nThis exhibition of new textile works by the Berlin-based multi-media artist unites three branches of the artist’s ongoing Ex Materia series; specifically Ex Materia\, Ex Materia (Transfiguration) and Ex Materia (Chrysalis). \nThe title of the exhibition alludes to mankind’s eternal quest to understand the origins of the creation of the universe. Whilst theologians have supported the concept of ex nihilo(from nothing)\, others (including Greek philosopher Plato) have asserted that creation occurred ex materia\, meaning that life coalesced and emerged from pre-existing matter. \nTong’s Ex Materia (Transfiguration) (2022-2023) series is mystical\, primal\, terrene; these works are organized in a play of mirrored compositional constructs\, forming kaleidoscopic patterns and uniform systems of reference. The series is designed to be modular\, apt to be hung and re-hung in almost infinite combinations and arrangements. Using warm and tactile fabrics as his canvas\, they are a tapestry which forms a microcosm of artistic and human creation. The artist’s interest in psychology forms a visual echo in the traced impression of inkblot Rorschach tests. \nThe creative process is conceptual\, yet highly specialist in its execution. Operating with image-editing software\, a digitally-drafted template is first composed before being either printed onto recycled polypropylene and polyester mix textile or pure wool. The process is then completed by hand-drawn inclusions in aquarelle\, oil and wax pastels (onto the surface of the fabric) to provide the requisite image depth and colour intensity. \nBrand new works being shown for the first time include six small diptychs – Ex Materia (Chyrsalis) Part I to Part VI\, (2023). Whilst the chrysalis is an echo of the re-emergence of everyday life post-pandemic\, the lepidopteral motif draws upon the idea of beauty in symmetry\, as prevalent in nature. Followers of Tong’s work may notice a tonal shift in his new output\, as subdued tones give way to more vivid colours. \nA visual linguist\, Tong eschews the notion of a signature style. His variety encourages a pursuit of intellectual enquiry on the part of the beholder that mirrors his own restless engagement. His studies of Philosophy at King’s College\, London were a springboard into psychology\, mythology and theology\, themes to which his work either alludes or actively investigates. Influenced by a range of classical musicians and inspired by the poetry of Fernando Pessoa and Ezra Pound\, Tong is himself a multi-disciplinary artist of word and action\, bound not by limits of his imagination but by the physical possibilities of physics and materials.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/joseph-tong-ex-materia-the-primacy-of-being/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Crafts,Multimedia
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-01-at-1.39.00-PM.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221124
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20230109
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20221110T004846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221110T004846Z
UID:10019145-1669248000-1673222399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Stephen Thorpe: Enter the Forest at the Darkest Point
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a new solo exhibition by UK-born\, US-based artist Stephen Thorpe titled Enter the Forest at the Darkest Point. The title of the exhibition is drawn from a quote by US mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell\, who urges us to “enter the forest at the darkest point\, where there is no path.” In so doing\, we find what American poet\, Robert Frost\, termed the road “less travelled we learn to find our truest selves through a constant process of internal death and rebirth”. The show will open between November 24\, 2022 and January 8\, 2023 and present a new body of work created over the summer of 2022. \nHaving taught at the former Hong Kong campus of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) as a Professor of Painting for several years\, Stephen Thorpe returns to the city with a new body of work solely featuring his acclaimed “corner” paintings\, this will be the first time the artist presents this aspect of his practice in a holistic\, immersive manner. Surrounded by richly-coloured walls and an enticing wall graphic motif designed exclusively by the artist\, the corner paintings question the concept of our own interiority\, our own psychic space. \nIn the words of Ora-Ora co-founder and CEO\, Henrietta Tsui-Leung\, “Stephen Thorpe’s interiors are epic journeys into our real selves. Enter the Forest at the Darkest Point raises the stakes even still further\, enacting the primeval\ndrama of the forest.” Dr Tsui-Leung continued: “Stephen Thorpe is an exciting talent whose work is tremendously popular with our collectors. Although we have shown Stephen’s paintings twice this year\, at Art Basel Hong Kong\, and at KIAF in Seoul\, we are delighted to be presenting him for the first time in our new Tai Kwun gallery.” \nStephen Thorpe has won acclaim for the exuberance of his opulently furnished interiors\, creating a landscape and mood which sees the corner not as a dead end but the primary catalyst for an honest mental narrative. In this exhibition\, he references the noble tradition of European tapestries\, depicting with lavish detail the finely detailed\, sinuous luxury of the Gobelin world (a French family who produced characteristic tapestry in the mid-15th century)\, creatively transferring woven imagery from thread to paint\, and from wall to floor. \nThorpe’s domestic interiors may be considered a stage for drama in the theatre of our minds. In this exhibition\, however\, Thorpe draws upon the drama and enchantment of the forest\, a place long synonymous with our need to overcome and to prevail in the face of opposing forces\, imagined or otherwise. The challenge is to master ourselves and defeat the malevolent forces within us. In so doing\, we seize the chance to become who we really are. \nIn these works\, the artist is reminded of the legend from ancient Mesopotamia\, the Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2700 BC)\,a seminal work in the tradition of heroic sagas. Gilgamesh (King of Uruk) first clashes with Enkidu\, a wild man created by the gods to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of Uruk. Following a battle\, the two become friends and make a six-day journey to the fabled Cedar Forest\, where they plan to slay a monster and cut down a sacred cedar. When Enkidu is killed\, Gilgamesh undertakes a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. Like Thorpe’s paintings\, the journeys – both entering the forest to slay the monster and the hero’s mission for immortality – are stories of self-discovery. \nCreative storytelling matches a unique painterly vocabulary\, demonstrated through three notable techniques: finespun\, dry-brushed rugs; abstract and viscous planes of colour (rendered as walls); and delicate figuration\, represented through spellbinding graphics. The dry brush technique is used to great effect by using the canvas weave not only as a ground for the painting but as the actual weave of the rug itself. His use of impasto to construct his “corners” nod to celebrated artists including Frank Auerbach\, Gerhard Richter\, Leon Kossoff and others – and the graphic elements are the most representational of all in the works and often act as the “way in.”
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/stephen-thorpe-enter-the-forest-at-the-darkest-point/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/OraOra_Stephen-Thorpe_-Primitive-Forest-Sanctuary-of-Trial-And-Initiation_detail-view_03-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221005
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221114
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220928T002159Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220929T065213Z
UID:10018980-1664928000-1668383999@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Peng Jian: Squaring the Circle
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a new solo show by Hangzhou-based artist\, Peng Jian. Titled Squaring the Circle\, the exhibition will take place at Ora-Ora’s Tai Kwun space from October 5\, to November 13\, 2022. \nPeng Jian rose to prominence through his geometric ink-on-paper interpretations of the Chinese architectural teachings of jiehua. He has since developed his themes into canvas\, and at Art Basel Hong Kong 2021 presented a landmark series of NFT artworks titled Harmony X\, a colourful geometric work of agency and dynamism\, fascinating in turn by action and reaction. \nThis exhibition will feature Peng Jian’s works from the Harmony\, Still Life\, Phantom in the Bottle and Growing series. Twists and turns are the common ground across these series of works\, specifically the straight lines and curves that dominate each. Harmony expresses the tortuous relationship between recurring objects and images\, whilst Still Life highlights the twists and turns of the lines themselves. Lengths\, proportions and angles are carefully calculated to support a complex balance and interdependence of objects. Phantom in the Bottle limits those twists and turns to specific images\, making a simple vessel fuller and more ambiguous. The Growing series emphasizes curves\, through the collision of objects and the surrounding environment\, forming an opposing and separate relationship between the object and the self. The English title\, Squaring the Circle\, asks the visitor to reconcile some of the opposing forces of line and curve\, and to find the meanings in the symbolism of Peng Jian’s work. \nPeng Jian\, originally from Hunan\, graduated from the China Academy of Art\, and now lives and works in Hangzhou. Perhaps it was the experience of living abroad that confirmed Peng Jian’s interest in and connection with Western culture\, art\, and ideas. This natural collision of Eastern and Western cultures has subtly influenced Peng Jian\, granting his work more openness and range\, integrating western philosophical thinking with the more traditional eastern Zen “emptiness”\, and gradually forming a set of distinct\, personal characteristics and signature artistic language. \nHarmony depicts “a mountain of varying objects” maintaining balance on a slender line\, reminiscent of an acrobatic performance in a circus. Everyday objects are deliberately divided into geometric shapes in the painting\, so that the first sight of the work will engender a vague sense of chaos\, without a descent into disarray and disorder. The whole work is like a woven net\, rational and powerful. The repeated appearance of different objects in the picture and their interspersed\, overlapping relationships and rich colours create a game-like atmosphere\, hiding threats of chaos within a seemingly playful and relaxed situation. \nWestern influence can clearly be detected in Peng Jian’s Still Life. The rigour and meticulousness of his composition is reminiscent of Raphael\, whilst the beauty of his pursuit of colour and order is reminiscent of Cézanne. However\, in Peng Jian\, behind the flat images there is a touch of oriental humanism. The work focuses on the use of lines as a form of objective depiction\, and the colouring is relaxed and poised. The artist is sensitive to subtle changes in the state of objects\, and then unfolds it directly into a flat abstraction. There is a very real sense of reality hidden in the impression of transformation\, asserting colour as an intuitive phenomenon. The colour in the work has a temperature\, and as time and light changes\, so too does the colour. As the light alters\, and time passes\, a vague and mysterious atmosphere is faintly born under the clear blue background. Phantom of the Bottle is a continuation of this Still Life series\, prompting a focus on the integrity and richness of the internal structure of the object. \nThe series Growing continues the artist’s line of using common objects from daily life as objects of creation. It is divided into four parts: apple\, banana\, orange and pear. The fruit moves and collides at will within the confines of the space. Each collision will form a curved groove\, and makes a sound on impact. Fruits come to represent the individual; when the individual collides with the whole\, the whole demonstrates traces of depression. As such\, the individual’s relationship with society is a subject of investigation. \nPeng Jian’s exploration of twists and turns is not only limited to lines and curves\, but also involves social order\, the hidden tension between objects\, and the overlap between different situations. His works are not completely figurative\, but symbolic: “I define different objects within a limited space\, seeking meaning in restrained symbolism.” This geometric juggling of opposites within the constraints of logic justifies the title: Squaring the Circle.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/peng-jian-squaring-the-circle/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Ora-Ora_Peng-Jian_-Harmony-X-1-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220924
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220926
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220919T000316Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220919T000316Z
UID:10018936-1663977600-1664150399@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Sophie Cheung: Erasing Time: Eraser Story - Children workshop
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is marking the occasion of Hong Kong artist Sophie Cheung’s first solo exhibition at the gallery with unique art workshops for children aged 4 to 12. \nSophie has recently returned to Hong Kong after completing an MA in Applied Anthropology and Community Arts at Goldsmiths\, University of London. The artist will be leading the workshops personally: with experience as a teacher in Hong Kong\, Sophie is passionate about an inclusive approach to education and openness to all abilities. \nThe artist was recently the subject of an article in the South China Morning Post highlighting her use of erasers and newsprint to explore the passing of physical landmarks and cultural memories. These are themes currently on display at her Ora-Ora solo exhibition Erasing Time until September 25. \nThe workshop will last 45 minutes and include a three-stage pathway to learning\, fun\, and creative imagination. In the spirit of Sophie Cheung’s practice\, children are asked to bring alone from home some of their own used erasers to contribute to the artist’s research and collection. In exchange\, the children will be provided new erasers from the artist\, which will be used to create artworks together during the workshop. There will be the chance to make friends\, draw\, and appreciate the sensory experience of handling artistic materials. \nDate | 24 and 25 September 2022\nTime | 3:00 to 3:45 pm (for age 4 – 8); 5:00 to 5:45 pm (for age 9 – 12) \nRemark: A reminder that children should bring along some used erasers to contribute to the artist’s ongoing collection and research. In return\, the children will be provided new erasers during the workshop to take home.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/sophie-cheung-erasing-time-eraser-story-children-workshop/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Children
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/WhatsApp-Image-2022-09-14-at-6.38.47-PM.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220824
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220919
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220816T071719Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220816T071719Z
UID:10018743-1661299200-1663545599@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Sophie Cheung Hing Yee: Erasing Time
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce its first solo show with multi-disciplinary Hong Kong artist Sophie Cheung Hing Yee. The exhibition runs from August 24 to September 18\, 2022. \nTitled Erasing Time\, Sophie Cheung investigates states of “in betweenness\,” incarnating situations of permanent uncertainty\, and breathing life into transience and ephemerality. In so doing\, she dismantles seemingly inevitable\, unmoveable forces of time and location\, offering alternative perceptions of the world\, and new possibilities. \nA life-long advocate and activist for disability rights and mental health causes\, Sophie Cheung’s practice undermines perceived boundaries and demarcations\, empowering the inanimate or overlooked with properties of agency and self- determination. \nIn subtle allusion to the Chinese proverb of crossing the river by feeling the stones\, she seeks pathways which navigate their way between past and present\, between her home and other places she has lived\, and between opposite viewpoints of history and current affairs. Her artworks are in a state of motion\, not inhabiting either pole\, merging time and place and forging new ways forward. \nSophie Cheung invests items of mundanity with eerie charisma. Artworks including Erasing News: Flash of Light (2022) were completed during her master’s degree at Goldsmiths in London. The artwork constitutes 600 erasers with the newsprint of UK newspapers published between December 2021 and March 2022. The act of rubbing newspapers with erasers involves the transference of ink from the former entity to the latter. This is a transformative process for the two protagonists\, a simultaneous effort of addition and subtraction of matter. The erasers\, at first with the distant impenetrability of stone or marble\, gradually reveal their softness\, and their inherent imperfections upon contact. Responding to the urgency of news across the political spectrum with a simple act of erasing\, Sophie Cheung both preserves and eradicates. As if urging calm by force majeure\, she intervenes to lessen the impact of the written message whilst elevating its materiality into an object of artistic scrutiny. \nThe erasers become subjects of their own destiny\, capable of eliciting empathy. Like bars of soap\, they occupy the space between hard and soft\, they lose their shape and strength even as they take on the characteristics of the bodies they interact with. Coming together in one artwork\, they assume a group identity whilst retaining their individual stories and motives. The result hovers between the past and the present\, a synthesis of viewpoints\, sorrows and celebrations\, merged into a state which is constantly temporary. \nAs a counterpoint to the UK-sourced publications\, Erasing News: Eternal Colour (2022) is composed of ink erased from Hong Kong newspapers\, created on the artist’s return to her home city\, a time of fresh energy\, reappraisal and inspiration. Erasing News: London Hue (2021) combines the newsprint of both cities. The cacophony of history\, alternate vantage points and strident assertions is synthesized\, reduced and commemorated in a state of suspension. Existential threats\, discord\, dissent and division are silenced but leave their trace. Ranged together in a frame\, the united front of the erasers is a unity that contains the constant threat of breaking apart. \nThere are several artworks within the show which extend the concept further. Vicissitude I and II (2022) and Frozen Fire (2021) are ballpoint pen drawings directly onto the eraser. The works exploit the unique materiality of the surface\, which dissolves ball pen ink and transform its presence into new colours. Red\, when applied\, takes on the shimmering hue of the light at sunset or sunrise over the skies of London; black is transformed into blue\, redolent of the still popular chinoiserie designs of UK domestic crockery. \nVestiges of the past come forward ineluctably\, with occasional residues of the shan shui landscapes and ceramics of the classical past visible in her work. Consistent with the artist’s unwillingness to accept confines of time and place\, the use of ink is a recognition and realization of the validity of heritage and history. The versatility of the medium mirrors the millennia-old journey of ink itself\, with the eraser converting the prosaic and the tangible into abstract formations.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/sophie-cheung-hing-yee-erasing-time/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Multimedia
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SC_Erasing-Time-Petrichor-of-Plants.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220629
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220808
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220622T071941Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220622T071941Z
UID:10018530-1656460800-1659916799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Huang Dan: When you Rise
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a thrilling new solo show by Beijing-based artist Huang Dan at its Tai Kwun gallery in Hong Kong. The show runs from June 29 to August 7\, 2022. \nTitled When You Rise\, Huang Dan presents her new Gold Series for the first time in a gallery exhibition (some of the series were recently shown at Art Basel Hong Kong in May 2022). The series is made of gold leaf on canvas\, which represents a new approach for an artist previously known for her ink on paper. \nThe title is a reference to 1969 Beatles’ classic “Golden Slumbers”\, a paeon to the carefree days of childhood and the peaceful night of sleep that only a child may know. The lyric “When You Rise” alludes to waking for a new day. In paintings Tranquillity and Composure\, the artist portrays that empty midpoint between calm inaction and active agency\, which is analogous to the moment of waking. We all leave the world of infancy behind to challenge and navigate the world on our own terms\, and “Golden Slumbers” is a title of optimism and of possibility\, befitting a new day\, and fresh evidence of Huang Dan’s quest to frame her philosophy in bold new ways. \nIn When You Rise\, Huang Dan references the use of gold in iconography\, and its later contemporary manifestations by artists such as Gustav Klimt. Where gold was once used as a background\, bathing the mortal in the shimmering light of heavenly rays\, she instead places gold centre stage. \nHer subjects include themes and motifs that are central to Huang Dan’s practice: horses\, snakes\, monkeys and mountain ranges are all represented. Alchemizing ink into fluid gilt\, she continues to deny any narrative or motives on the part of the creatures traced and illustrated. Huang Dan once described this journey towards the minimal\, “from much\, to half\, to less… to none.” In this show\, the artist depicts states of separation and of unity with the same dispassionate eye. Even group scenes are devoid of story or intent. Where animals appear together\, such as in Parallel and Equanimity\, Huang Dan simultaneously radiates the aura of affection and family\, whilst continuing on a path towards her nothingness and abstraction. \nFor an artist whose handling of ink on paper has been a lifelong commitment\, the radical pivot to gold creates inherent opportunities. Visually\, this is a surface which reflects\, denies transparency and obviates scrutiny. Symbolically\, this is a medium which projects power. Emerging from a dark background\, gold looms from the twilight\, both illuminating and dominating. \nHuang Dan’s use of gold is itself an acknowledgement of the lasting fascination and value of this most desired commodity. The artist’s constancy in her choice of imagery forms a natural echo with the immutable attractions of gold itself. Huang Dan’s horses\, whose contours form a subliminal connection to the shan shui paintings of the classical past add to a sense of the timeless and the immoveable. In the thousands of years that gold has been sourced\, mined and craved by mankind it retains a powerful combination of warmth\, power\, mysticism and portable value to those that collect it. From “Goldfinger” to the Gold Standard\, it straddles the cultural and economic sagas of our recent memory. \nWhilst gold represents solidity of form and constancy of value\, it is also adaptable\, fungible and versatile. Visitors to the show are encouraged to come back repeatedly\, to observe how light changes the paintings themselves at various times of day. As Huang Dan seeks the patterns and rhythms in life\, she creates images which constantly morph and reform according to the prevailing light and shades. The animals become a proxy for the vicissitudes of a changing universe\, forging their own path\, at once static and unpredictably varied. \nAs Huang Dan journeys towards abstraction\, these paintings are a departure and a continuation all at once. The title “When You Rise” allows the visitor to reflect on new beginnings\, possibilities\, dreams and intentions\, as the world wakes up.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/huang-dan-when-you-rise/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OO-HuangD-132-image.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220428
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220606
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220413T054050Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220413T054344Z
UID:10018121-1651104000-1654473599@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Thesis/Antithesis: Part 2
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce the line-up for Part 2 of its thrilling two-part exhibition entitled Thesis/Antithesis. The show is curated by Sovereign Art prize finalist Gary Mok Wai Hong with support from Kris Fan. Following the success of Part 1 (which featured artists Chen Yingjie and Huang Yulong)\, Part 2’s artists are contemporary Chinese artists Cai Yaling\, Xu Hongxiang\, Yan Heng and Zhang Yexing. \nThesis/Antithesis: Part 2’s artists represent a subtle\, linear progression from past masters\, channelling language of the past to probe interwoven generational connections\, the overwhelming force of memory\, or the wondrous absurdities of seduction or human agency. Visitors will be urged to address their own experience and personal history as an impetus or hinderance to their own momentum. \nCentral Academy of Fine Arts-educated (“CAFA”) Zhang Yexing presents works of oil on canvas\, gathering the flotsam of our common memories. Ranged before him in the studio are images from film\, from political events\, or from family history\, creating “painting as a continuous work\, with the accumulation of materials over time.” What emerges is a stuffed larder of noise\, emotions and thoughts. Zhang Yexing’s artworks reflect the willingness of all four artists to delve into the treasures of yesterday\, to challenge contemporary assumptions through the might of learning and of history. His painting process is one of layering\, of correcting himself\, eventually presenting a completed painting which is itself a layered excavation\, thick and replete with oil. \nXu Hongxiang’s art has a distinctive sense of place\, born from his selectively cropped presentation of the scenery and landscapes he interprets. Creating scenes which hint at fauvist colour schemes\, he forms a patchwork of hues and textures which are rooted in a subjective scent of milieu and ambience. Also a CAFA graduate\, his metalwork practice lends a distinctive materiality to his painterly depictions of people\, trees and flora. \nThesis/Antithesis Part 2’s artists dissect contemporary life through a lens of admiration for the pioneers that preceded them. In the words of Sir Isaac Newton\, if they have been able to see further\, it is by “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Each of these artists draws the red line from inspiration to the inspired\, channelling imagery or materials from the past\, to comment on the present and the human condition. Boundaries form an inspiration rather than a limitation. In the words of Zhang Yexing\, “There is a lot to explore and discover on canvas\, so I choose to stay within one medium and explore the rules of painting.” \nArtist Cai Yaling is currently under the tutelage of ground-breaking artist Xu Bing at CAFA. Her work We Are No Different (2020) weaves biological connections between generations. Photographing her hair\, her mother’s and her daughter’s hair to build a spliced cross-generational narrative that resembles the liquid history of the sea\, she writes a chronicle which is both eternal\, universal and resolutely personal. Her practice is rooted in the notion that all women are connected\, forging a positive message of communion\, sisterhood and solidarity. We will also be presenting BITCHES (2020)\, a provocative artwork of beads and stainless steel. The painfully layered word is explored in full sight\, inviting visitors to contemplate the shadow it casts as much as the word itself. \nYan Heng presents images which draw on varied narratives of our forebears. Embodiments of glamour and seduction are paired with Salvador Dali-esque mischief and gentle ribaldry. Bright young socialites from yesteryear are lost in a reverie of the previous night\, creating a double layer of memory and distance. The artist playfully explores the wayward and powerful effects of Absinthe on artists and creators in the early 20th century\, merging history with a dose of the fantastical. He deploys monochrome and a full colour palette with equal ferocity to illuminate astonishing juxtapositions and seeming contradictions\, creating memento mori of menacing frivolity. He draws inspiration from Paris\, endorsing Ernest Hemingway’s nostalgia for the city\, “for Paris is a moveable feast.” Just as the city of light continues to inspire Yan Heng – reminiscences of the past crowd onto the canvas in the present. Yan Heng poses the question: do these remnants preclude or encourage innovation and human agency? \nIs the human experience one of gentle forward progress in careful appreciation of yesterday\, or one of fresh departures and disruptive innovations? This exhibition ponders two Chinese idioms\, 长江后浪推前浪 and 姜是老的辣. Firstly\, whether the waves of the Yangtze beat onwards anew\, leaving the past behind\, or alternatively\, whether our elders may have understood more than we. The title of the exhibition alludes to a thesis as an academic text\, where students cite past research and publications in patient pursuit of an academic qualification. Antithesis is its opposite: in this case\, a bold breakout into dangerous new terrain. Thesis and antithesis are the two strands of dialectical reasoning\, as pursued by Aristotle and Hegel. Visitors to Thesis/Antithesis: Part 2 may apply the question to their own lives – is the force of the past holding me back from accomplishments today\, or does it inspire me to change\, to achieve\, and to rise higher? \nThe gallery’s interior will morph from its current presentation of urban contemporary reality in China\, featuring Part 1’s artists Huang Yulong and Chen Yingjie\, to a staging which presents past and present less as two distinct constructs\, but as one time. The setting invites a conversation between what has gone\, what is now\, and what will come to pass. \nBy Appointment Only\nEmail: rsvp@ora-ora.com
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/thesis-antithesis-part-2/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Multimedia,Painting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Screenshot-2022-04-02-at-2.02.47-PM.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220224
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220328
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220221T033138Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220221T072554Z
UID:10018006-1645660800-1648425599@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Thesis/Antithesis
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a thrilling two-part exhibition in its new Tai Kwun gallery\, curated by Sovereign Art prize finalist Gary Mok Wai Hong and entitled Thesis/Antithesis. \nThe exhibition showcases China’s most raw and exciting artistic talent\, presenting new frontiers of artistic creation at their most vibrant and relevant. Formed of two parts which will run consecutively\, the first part will present new work by two leading and widely admired Chinese artists\, Chen Yingjie and Huang Yulong. Infusing the gallery space with the fizzing energy of a street scene\, the vitality and potency of today’s urban counterculture will be given free rein. Both artists explore the raw colours of the streets\, harnessing motifs and imagery from youth culture. The second part of the exhibition presents a group of artists from academia\, together with the influences which have preceded them. In so doing\, Ora-Ora asks whether artists must seek their learnings from patient education and knowledge of the past\, or whether each generation must discover its muse afresh\, drawing immediate inspiration from the contemporary world. This question poses a challenge to the gallery’s own mission statement of being “academically rigorous and philosophically minded.” \nThesis/Antithesis is Ora-Ora’s first major show of 2022. Part 1 will run from February 24 to March 27\, with Part 2’s details to be announced at a later date. \nIn Thesis/Antithesis: Part 1\, the gallery will host a unique collaboration between two of China’s most dynamic street artists\, Chen Yingjie and Huang Yulong. Chen Yingjie’s celebrated “Breaking Loong” series and “Stay Hungry” series are inspired by the Chinese symbolism of the dragon and the lion dance. His tools are urgent and contemporary\, spray cans\, gold foil and acrylic\, but keep faith with the qi and energy of traditional ink painting. \nHuang Yulong\, a graduate of the renowned Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute in China\, melds past and present in an inverse relationship to that of Chen. Huang predominantly presents sculptures of contemporary\, tribalist society at its urban core\, from hoodies to weaponry\, and does so with traditional tools of ceramics\, bronze and steel. The artists have in common a willingness to build a bridge between eastern and western culture\, from past to present\, driven by a passion for the irreverence\, exuberance and authenticity of the contemporary urban experience. Ora-Ora’s commitment to trailblazing and innovative means of expression places these two artists at the vanguard of the gallery’s exciting 2022 programme of events. \nThesis/Antithesis: Part 2’s artists (details to follow later) represent a subtle\, linear progression from past masters. Their depiction of contemporary life is rooted in admiration for the achievements of the previous generation\, and those pioneers that preceded them. In the words of Sir Isaac Newton\, if they have been able to see further\, it is by “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Each of these excels in their individual expression of classical form and language\, and the dual exposure of student and master allows visitors to draw a red line from inspiration to the inspired. \nThe exhibition will open at Ora-Ora’s new premises in Hong Kong arts and heritage hub\, Tai Kwun. This landmark redevelopment in the centre of Hong Kong dates from the 19th century and has been at the heart of Hong Kong civic life since its inception. The gallery demonstrates the versatility of its new space by means of a transformation of interior into exterior\, transplanting the raw power of urban streets into this historic setting. In so doing\, the curation embodies the clash/conversation of old and new which is at the heart of life in Hong Kong in general\, and of Tai Kwun in particular. By showcasing two artists who bring the streets into the gallery construct\, Thesis/Antithesis underscores the remit of Ora-Ora to promote dialogue and to drive the academic conversation into new and undiscovered paths. \nIs the human experience one of gentle forward progress in careful appreciation of yesterday\, or one of fresh departures and disruptive innovations? This exhibition ponders two Chinese idioms\, 长江后浪推前浪 and 姜是老的辣. Firstly\, whether the waves of the Yangtze beat onwards anew\, leaving the past behind\, or alternatively\, whether our elders may have understood more than we. The title of the exhibition alludes to a thesis as an academic text\, where students cite past research and publications in patient pursuit of an academic qualification. Antithesis is its opposite: in this case\, a bold breakout into dangerous new terrain. Thesis and antithesis are the two strands of dialectical reasoning\, as pursued by Aristotle and Hegel. This approach places two different points of view alongside each other for argument and counter-argument\, with a view to making synthesisand progress. \nVisitors will be invited to compare two paths of contemporary interpretation\, and to navigate their own lives in the spirit of either of these two forces. \nBy Appointment Only\nKindly note that visitors will be required to pre-schedule their viewing with the gallery prior to their visit.\nEmail: rsvp@ora-ora.com
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/thesis-antithesis/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting,Sculpture
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cultureplus.asia/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ora-Ora_Thesis_Antithesis-I_InfoPack.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220117
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20220214
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20220114T040649Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220117T075111Z
UID:10017533-1642377600-1644796799@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Poetic Enigma - Part II
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce an exciting two-part exhibition of leading-edge Non-Fungible Token (‘NFT’) artworks\, entitled Poetic Enigma. Poetic Enigma I is at Q9 Crypto Hub until January 21\, featuring NFT innovators such as Peng Jian\, Cindy Ng and Ernest Chang among others. The venue for Poetic Enigma II is Ora-Ora’s Tai Kwun gallery space\, where it will run from January 17 to February 13. \nPoetic Enigma alludes to a tendency to romanticize that which we do not understand or cannot directly experience\, giving full rein to the attractions of mystery\, the unattainable and the unrequited. Fast technological change habitually stands in opposition to this tendency\, often provoking feelings of disturbance\, disorientation or resentment outside the circle of trusted initiates. Poetic Enigma places innovation in our immediate and familiar orbit. In so doing\, it invites visitors to dispel suspicion and give way to naivety\, wonderment and romance\, mindfully deferring understanding and revelling in sensory abandonment. \nOra-Ora’s quest to the frontiers of the possible is embodied at the beginning of 2022 by this two-part exploration at the forefront of the ever-changing NFT landscape. The combination of artistic and technological pioneering forms the springboard for the ingenious\, the unforeseen and the deftly innovative. \nOra-Ora has partnered with Q9 Capital\, a leading full-service crypto investment hub for individuals and institutions. \nTaking place at the Q9 Crypto Hub\, Poetic Enigma I is an exhibition of NFTs created by three of the most innovative contemporary artists and four NFT creators established in the digital world. \nPoetic Enigma II will include new work by Ernest Chang\, as well as additional contributions from Ora-Ora’s artists. The entire exhibition constructs a unique crucible of innovators highly attuned to the dynamically evolving digital landscape in the worlds of art and technology.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/poetic-enigma-part-ii/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Digital Art
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20211006
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20211128
DTSTAMP:20260514T155141
CREATED:20210916T062200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210916T062200Z
UID:10017391-1633478400-1638057599@cultureplus.asia
SUMMARY:Fernando Botero: Living with Botero
DESCRIPTION:Ora-Ora is pleased to announce a landmark exhibition at its new Tai Kwun gallery space\, a blockbuster solo show by renowned Colombian artist Fernando Botero. Living with Botero is Ora-Ora’s major autumn show and will open October 6 – November 27\, 2021. The gallery will be styled as a recreation of the artist’s apartment in New York\, allowing visitors the privilege of stepping into the everyday life of Fernando Botero. The exhibition will present a way of life\, a unique combination of passion\, serenity and community. It is an open invitation to everyone\, one of immersion and interactivity\, as visitors enter the familiar surroundings of the artist at work. It will comprise paintings and drawings never-before-seen in Hong Kong\, most of which the artist lived with and counted among his personal favourites. \nHighlights of the exhibition will include the artist’s dialogue with Vincent van Gogh\, entitled Sunflowers (oil on canvas\, 1977) and his enormous 191cm x 127.5cm painting\, Woman in the Bathroom (oil on canvas\, 2002). His unique\, voluptuous interpretation of van Gogh’s legendary still life references Botero’s belief that “For an artist\, the quality of the art you create\, is a function of who you admire.” Woman in the Bathroom is the artist at full throttle\, the heady\, vibrant colour palette\, paired with the loving\, tender portrayal of size and volume. Its subject is both coy and red-blooded\, both protagonist and startled reactionary\, a festival of wavy lines and curved vivacity. Here is a sense of mischief and life at its most animated and ebullient\, the painting turned up to a higher decibel than everyday life as we may know it. This is one of many paintings on display which were previously hung in the artist’s home (Woman in the Bathroom hung in his New York apartment); other examples include Snake (from Botero’s Bogota home\, oil on canvas\, 1979). \nAdditionally\, a range of Botero-themed collectibles have been designed specifically for this show\, and will be on sale at the gallery throughout the exhibition period. Running alongside will be a number of tailored events\, specially created by Ora-Ora in consultation with the artist and his family. More details to follow. \nThis much anticipated solo show brings four decades of Botero’s work to Hong Kong\, as Ora-Ora brings this global phenomenon to a new audience. In so doing\, Ora-Ora resumes the dialogue which was so memorably established by the acclaimed China exhibitions at the National Museum of China in Beijing in 2015 and the China Art Museum of Shanghai in 2016. Although the pandemic has prevented the artist from travelling to attend the exhibition\, it has been a personal ambition of Fernando Botero to present these works in Hong Kong\, and he has spoken recently of the special place that Hong Kong has in his heart. \nThis exhibition brings visitors a new sense of intimacy with an artist who has never shied away from a fight. It also seeks to bring calm in difficult times. Visitors are invited to call their own troubles\, struggles and obstacles to mind when they contemplate the exhibition. How to describe the life of this artistic luminary who emerged from poverty in his beloved Colombia to occupy a global stage? A life of adventure certainly. He spent two years at a bullfighting school\, was once expelled from high school for his staunch defense of Picasso\, he protested injustices at times of war\, and yet brought the bright warmth of South America to the world. Those who seek satire\, retribution and anger at the world’s calumnies will find a spirited fellow activist\, and those who long for peace and tranquility will find those havens in Botero.
URL:https://cultureplus.asia/event/fernando-botero-living-with-botero/
LOCATION:Ora-Ora\, Barrack Block\, Tai Kwun\, Central and Western\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Painting
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