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Enid Tsui

Nestled in the shadow of Kap Shui Mun Bridge next to the Park Island private housing estate, Ma Wan 1868 is a surreal “lifestyle destination” built on the site of the historic village of Ma Wan after its previous residents were relocated or evicted.
At the converted pastel-coloured tourist attraction, which is now a year old, the past is obscured by kitsch. The year 1868 was when the village became a Chinese customs station for collecting taxes on the thriving opium trade. Now, the once derelict houses have been painted pink, yellow and blue and turned into art studios, souvenir shops and restaurants.
While the theme park setting does not yell sanctuary for the arts, it is currently home to five visiting Czech artists who are finding inspiration beyond the constant lift music piped through the streets.
Michal Bacak, Patrik Krissak, Marketa Kolarova, Nikola Emma Rysava and Zdenek Vacek are in Hong Kong for a one-month art residency. Coming from a country known for its rich craft traditions, they hand-make their works without short cuts.

The residency marks both an end and a beginning. This is one of the last events overseen by the Czech Consul General Klara Jurcova, a hyperactive and dedicated promoter of cultural exchange who has become a familiar face in the local arts scene during her four-year tenure in the city. This is also a pilot programme for the new WestK Academy, a branch of the West Kowloon Cultural District headed by Winsome Chow, the former head of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
The five artists will be joined by six Hong Kong counterparts – Hung Fai, Rivian Cheung, Vvzela Kook, Tobias Klein, Mari Liew and Jive Lau – in a group exhibition in July.
We visited the Czech artists during an open studio weekend from June 19 to 21 and found them absorbed in making new works that draw inspiration from the surrounding natural landscape.

Kolarova and Krissak both channel their concerns about marine ecology into their art and are delighted to work by the sea, in contrast to their regular studios in a landlocked country.
Kolarova is a “coral gardener” who casts cement sculptures designed as artificial reefs, recently placing them in the Philippines to give coral larvae a stable surface on which they can attach themselves.
In the Ma Wan studio, she is making plaster moulds of her own hands, creating biomorphic frames for paintings of a sleeping woman in various stages of blending in with nature. The green and blue images evoke an underwater quietude.
Krissak also draws from the ocean. “I once had a really high fever, and I was really struggling. That’s when I started to imagine what it’s like for corals to cope with the gradual rise in sea temperature,” he says.

He makes large, abstract paintings of corals using an unconventional technique. “I don’t use brushes. I use a jar that I fill with paint and I put it upside down on the canvas to ‘paint’ with. And then I make marks on top using oil sticks,” he says.
A canvas he is working on incorporates plastic beads – a nod to Hong Kong fashion that also recalls the styrofoam granules and plastic nurdles that are commonly washed up on the city’s polluted beaches.
Sharing the second floor with Krissak is illustrator Bacak, who has brought a piece of the Czech countryside to the island. At home, he makes charcoal sticks from the twigs of his garden’s fruit trees. In Hong Kong, he is using them to make charming illustrations of birds on paper.
He has also pinned up designs he is preparing for the season brochure of the Czech Republic’s National Theatre Brno, including one for Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, a one-act opera based on the biblical story of Noah’s Ark.
“It is really surprising to find a Noah’s Ark right here!” he says, referring to Ma Wan’s best-known attraction just minutes from his temporary studio. “This place is quite amazing. I love the view outside.”

That view – featuring trees, birdlife, the sea and the giant bridge connecting urban Hong Kong to Lantau Island – has also influenced Rysava, whose practice challenges the idea of human-nature dualism and explores the alienation of individuals in urban cities. At Ma Wan, she is showing sculptures of birds and of herself at one with nature, including resin masks with a reptilian appearance.
This commitment to the handmade is echoed in the practice of goldsmith and jewellery maker Vacek, who is also sharing the space.
The fruits of the Ma Wan residency will go on show in a selling exhibition curated by Petr Hajek, founder of The Chemistry Gallery in Prague, and Hong Kong curator Joyce Wong.
“Undercurrents”, Ma Wan 1868 Exhibition Hall, July 12-August 2.


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Why is Hong Kong’s Ma Wan 1868 playing host to 5 Czech artists? We take a visit

Czech artist and “coral gardener” Marketa Kolarova is pictured at her Ma Wan 1868 residency holding plaster moulds of her hands that will be added to works that will be unveiled at an exhibition on site on July 12, 2026. Photo: Enid Tsui

Nikola Emma Rysava holds a resin mask of her face, patterned to look like snake skin, beside a plaster column of pigeons, at her residency at Ma Wan 1868. Photo: Enid Tsui

Ma Wan 1868 is a Hong Kong tourist attraction converted from a historic local village after the original inhabitants left or were evicted. Photo: Enid Tsui

Patrik Krissak sits in front of his new work, The Vanishing (Whip Coral) II (2026), during his art residency at Ma Wan 1868. Photo: Enid Tsui

Illustrator and artist Michal Bacak teaches a young visitor how to make charcoal drawings during the open studio weekend at Ma Wan 1868. Photo: Courtesy of the Consulate of the Czech Republic in Hong Kong

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An exhibition view of Shao’s “The Nature of Things” exhibition at Mirrored Gardens in Guangzhou, which shows his ink paintings on rice paper and furniture sculptures. Photo: courtesy of Shao Fan and Vitamin Creative Space

Shao’s King Chair (1995), which is part of the M+ Sigg Collection at Hong Kong’s M+ museum. Photo: M+

One of Shao’s furniture pieces on show at “The Nature of Things” in Guangzhou, which features the artist’s adaptations of traditional Chinese furniture along with his paintings. Photo: Wen Peng; courtesy of Shao Fan and Vitamin Creative Space

In The Name of the Rabbit 0322 (2022), an ink on rice paper work by Shao Fan, is part of his exhibition at White Cube Mason’s Yard. Photo: White Cube/Theo Christelis

An exhibition view of Shao’s solo exhibition “Refrain” at White Cube Mason’s Yard in London. Photo: White Cube

Fruit 1924 (2024), an ink on rice paper work by Shao that is part of his “Refrain” exhibition. Photo: White Cube

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Lifestyle

Arts

During an open studio weekend, the artists are absorbed in making new works that draw inspiration from the surrounding natural landscape


During an open studio weekend, the artists are absorbed in making new works that draw inspiration from the surrounding natural landscape.


What to do in Hong Kong

Why is Hong Kong’s Ma Wan 1868 playing host to 5 Czech artists? We take a visit

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}During an open studio weekend, the artists are absorbed in making new works that draw inspiration from the surrounding natural landscape

During an open studio weekend, the artists are absorbed in making new works that draw inspiration from the surrounding natural landscape