7 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong 2025 summer exhibitions see young artists explore identity and tradition
A number of exhibitions in Hong Kong this summer offer windows into what emerging artists make of the world they are inheriting, their coping mechanisms and ways of engaging with their adopted materials.
'Art Actions: Our Youth Our Future', a small show at the non-profit art incubator Hart Haus, pairs three Hong Kong awardees of the annual Hart Award with three diasporic international artists.
Elsa Ngai Se-ngaa, who received the Hart Award for promising artists upon graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has a personal style that reflects a solid grounding in Chinese art.
On show at the exhibition, her pair of 2025 works titled Transformation I and Transformation II, painted with mineral pigments, are reminiscent of the faded, ancient murals of the Mogao Caves – a Unesco World Heritage site in
Dunhuang , in China's Gansu province, which has become a popular cultural reference for Hong Kong artists in recent years thanks to more opportunities to study its history and to visit.
Transformation II, by Elsa Ngai, at Hart Haus. Photo: Elsa Ngai
Transformation II, by Elsa Ngai, at Hart Haus. Photo: Elsa Ngai
Ngai's half-formed, sensual nudes in the foreground – playful and organic forms that seem to emerge from the outlines of mountains – are apt symbols of a new artistic identity shaking free of past constraints.
