Works by globally-renowned Hong Kong artists on sale at auction
Tsang Kin-Wah, Let Us Build and Launch A Blue Rocket To His Heaven, 2009, AP-artist print, 90 x 60 cm, Limited edition 86+14 artist’s proof (AP), courtesy of the artist
Works by globally-renowned Hong Kong artists on sale at auction
13 June 2016
Works by globally-renowned Hong Kong artists Au Hoi Lam, Suki Chan, Tsang Kin-Wah and Leung Mee-ping are on sale as part of the Asia House Benefit Auction.
Memorandum (2nd October 2014 Hong Kong) (2014) by award-winning Hong Kong-born artist Au Hoi Lam is a coloured pencil and acrylic painting on wooden drawing board, has been kindly donated by the artist and Osage Gallery in Hong Kong.
Au Hoi Lam’s works are observations of the minute details of everyday life. Autobiographical but also highly metaphorical, she regards her work as a memorandum, a keepsake and highly contemplative medium. Her works often reference everyday objects, calling into question how we might be able to see something uncanny in the familiar.
Concepts such as joining become part of the conventions of her painting format akin to the layout of a chess board, where squares contrast dark with light and colour with tone in the way they relate to one another.
The artist has said that Memorandum (2nd October 2014 Hong Kong) (2014) was created at a time when her attention was divided between taking care of her new born daughter and her preoccupation with the social and political conditions which were currently affecting Hong Kong’s community. Painting provides a way for her to manifest her emotional response to these issues, with this work reflecting a day in the artist’s life.
Au Hoi Lam, Memorandum (2nd October 2014 Hong Kong), 2014, coloured pencil, acrylic, wooden drawing board, courtesy of the artist and Osage Gallery Hong Kong
Hong Kong-born London-based artist Suki Chan’s lightbox Sleep Walk Sleep Talk (2011) is another of the lots currently available as part of the Auction. A film still from her hypnotic video Sleep Walk Sleep Talk (2009), it has been installed in the reception of Asia House since 2014. The piece depicts the urban sprawl of London from an un-intrusive angle, reminiscent of the angle adopted by a surveillance camera.
As a whole, the video tracks the fast-blinking lights and speeding commuters of London, observing the cars and trains that leave luminous comet-trails marking their passage through the night. Through her use of time-lapse photography, Chan captures the nuances at play in a city between the solid mass of its architecture and the fleeting movements of its urban inhabitants. Sleep Walk Sleep Talk draws on Chan’s interest in how urban spaces get planned and her experiences of Hong Kong and Shanghai, particularly the westernisation of the towns and villages in the city peripheries.
Sleep Walk, Sleep Talk was the first project of FREE TO AIR, a major four-year programme by Film & Video Umbrella for London Councils. To read more about Suki Chan’s lightbox click here.
Suki Chan, Sleep Walk Sleep Talk, 2011, Fujitrans and Lightbox, 65 x 112.5 x 12 cm (1/5), courtesy of Tintype Gallery
Chinese-born Hong Kong based contemporary artist Tsang Kin-Wah (b. 1976) is globally-renowned for his paintings, prints and multimedia installations that have been created through the manipulation of text and image to create distinctive pieces shaped by cultural and religious references. Tsang studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Camberwell College of Arts, London.
Currently on sale as part of the Auction is Let Us Build and Launch A Blue Rocket To His Heaven (2009). A silkscreen artist’s proof (AP) print on acid-free paper, it is signed, dated and numbered as part of an edition of 86 and 14 APs. Often considered to be the best prints within the edition, APs can be seen as more valuable than a limited edition as no more of the version in question can be produced.
The piece, from a distance, draws immediate comparisons to the work of William Morris. An intricate floral pattern, it’s visually engaging and aesthetically pleasing. Upon looking closer, the text that makes up the pattern becomes clearer and the profanities, in both Chinese and English, can be read. Tsang’s critically-acclaimed and innovative use of controversial language comments on the ills of materialistic culture, interrogating human morality.
It was announced in March 2016 that Tsang Kin-Wah is among the first contemporary Chinese artists to have been commissioned to create works to enter the collection of the Guggenheim Museum, New York.
His work is exhibited widely and collected in public and private collections across the world. Key collections in which his work is found, including the dslcollection; Deutsch Bank Collection in Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; Museum of Design Zurich in Switzerland; Hong Kong Museum of Art; Camberwell College of Arts, London and the Sovereign Art Foundation in Hong Kong, among others. He has also received a number of international prizes including the Tokyo TDC Prize (2007), Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2005), the Prize of Excellence at Hong Kong Art Biennial (2001) and many others.
Tsang Kin-Wah, Let Us Build and Launch A Blue Rocket To His Heaven, 2009, AP-artist print, 90 x 60 cm, limited edition 86+14 artist’s proof (AP), courtesy of the artist
Kee Wah Bakery by Hong Kong-based artist Leung Mee-ping consists of seven paintings, and is part of her Made in Hong Kong series of souvenir paintings, which the artist undertook as a project to reproduce mundane or ordinary subjects like shop-fronts or toilets to mimic those old master paintings that are reproduced in mainland China for the western market. The piece is available to buy now as part of our Auction.
Leung Mee-ping is a Hong Kong based artist. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art Creativity at the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Leung Mee-ping, Made in Hong Kong series, 58 Kee Wah Bakery, 2014, courtesy of the artist
The Benefit Auction is being held to celebrate 20 years since Asia House was founded in 1996 and to raise funds for its ongoing programme of arts and cultural events.
The 25+ artworks on offer have been generously donated by artists and galleries from across Asia, as well as those who have a strong links to the region and includes artworks by artists who have exhibited at Asia House in the recent past.
A champagne reception and dinner with the theme ‘white gold’ will take place on June 21 at Asia House during which there will be a live auction. Please email mariam.neza@asiahouse.co.uk if you’d be interested in attending.
lucy.tomlinson@asiahouse.co.uk
To place bids for items in the auction click here.
For more information about the Asia House Benefit Auction and the other artworks that can be bid for click here.
If you would like to support us, please consider making a donation towards the Asia House arts and learning programme below. We accept donations by credit card, debit card and PayPal.
