Hong Kong artists reimagine pop culture icons Stephen Chow, Blackpink in new exhibition
- ‘Trendi Club’ features more than 20 works and three collaborative paintings from local artists Wilson Shieh and Tse Yim-on
- ‘The Boss Cat’ puts a unique spin on the Bruce Lee film ‘Enter the Dragon’, while ‘Golden Soccer’ teams up football greats such as Pelé and Lionel Messi
You can find the “Trendi Club” exhibition at Bonhams in Pacific Place One in Admiralty. Photo: HandoutWhile it’s true that every generation has its own culture with distinct characteristics, they also connect and intertwine in unique ways. A new exhibition from Hong Kong artists Wilson Shieh and Tse Yim-on reimagines trends from the past and explores how they impact today’s pop culture, touching on the artists’ personal experiences.
“Trendi Club” features more than 20 works of acrylic and oil on canvas, including three collaborative paintings. The duo uses their pieces to reimagine some of their generation’s greatest pop icons and symbols, from local icons Stephen Chow and Danny Chan to modern phenomena Lionel Messi and Blackpink.
Curated by Bonham’s Head of Modern and Contemporary Art Asia, Marcello Kwan, the exhibition will take viewers on a journey through time to explore the cultural meaning of various pop icons and examine how trends have evolved since the 1980s.
Check out a few highlights from the exhibition:
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1. “The Boss Cat” (2023)
“The Boss Cat” is one of three paintings Shieh and Tse worked on together. It references a scene from the 1973 Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon when he fights in a mirror maze.
Shieh reimagines the kung fu star as a woman, depicting her in a static, flat painting style. Tse then handles the image processing and colouring to create a strong sense of contrast in the piece.
2. “Four Goddesses” (2023)
Taking inspiration from K-pop group Blackpink, Shieh created this painting to showcase the genre-bending culture of the entertainment industry, revealing how the combination of American-style music and Korean dance moves successfully blends Eastern and Western cultures. It is also one of Shieh’s first pieces to use acrylic and oil on canvas; he is best known for his Gongbi ink techniques, but experimented with the new medium for this exhibition.
3. “Golden Soccer” (2023)
When it comes to football, Tse believed that Pelé, the Brazilian great who died earlier this year, stood out from the crowd. To honour the late player, Tse invited a few well-known football stars from different eras, from Diego Maradona to Lionel Messi, to dress in hanfu and train with the deceased football king in this creative piece.
4. “Yin-Yang Master” (2022)
“Yin-Yang Master” is among the nine “Personalities of Recent Times” creations. In this painting, Boy George, lead vocalist of the 80s British group Culture Club, reads a copy of “A Man Called Hero – Yin-Yang Master,” which features a character inspired by Boy George.
5. “Grand Slam?” (2023)
Even if a person is successful, they may still have unfulfilled dreams. In this piece, basketball great Michael Jordan plays a video game in which he competes against Japanese pitcher Shohei Ohtani, currently making waves in Major League Baseball as a star player of the Los Angeles Angels.
Though Jordan is known for his many accomplishments in basketball, first with the Chicago Bulls and later with the Washington Wizards, he briefly retired to play baseball in 1994 – though he never reached the same heights of success as he did in basketball.
“Trendi Club: New Paintings by Wilson Shieh and Tse Yim On” runs until August 25 at Bonhams, 20/F, One Pacific Place in Admiralty. It is free and open to the public from Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm and on Saturday (Aug 5 and Aug 19 only) from 2-6pm.