Contemporary Chinese ink artist tips hat to Anita Mui, Cantopop diva, in Hong Kong show
Artist Hong Wai’s exhibition ‘No Way To Be Good’ pays homage to the late Cantopop diva and to Hong Kong’s ‘golden age’ of entertainment
Ever since she was a teenager, artist Hong Wai has made it her mission to show that Chinese ink painting and calligraphy are not historical relics but powerful tools for self-expression and contemporary dialogue.
“[Ink art is seen to represent] power, tradition, and cultural influence but my work challenges these ideas,” says the 42-year-old artist, whose creative fingerprints have been left at galleries from Melbourne to Miami to Montreal.
Born in Shanghai, raised in Macau and living in France, Hong’s art explores the fluidity of cultures and identities in a way that breaks boundaries and challenges social norms. In fact, ever since her first exhibition in Macau at the age of 17, she has vowed not to be a good, obedient student of the old masters.
That sense of rebelliousness is on show in her new Hong Kong exhibition, “No Way to be Good”, at Soho House in Sheung Wan.
