The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organise a guided tour of
Serendipity in the Street at Tai Kwun. We will be guided by Vivian Pan, the Head of Development, and Kwok Ying, the senior curator under Digital and Heritage team.
Serendipity in the Street
The exhibition brings together urban observers and artists as they record tales from everyday life in the Central and Sheung Wan neighbourhood, and capture the complexities of the urban fabric through creative use of living spaces. “Modernologio”, an everyday life observation practice originated in Japan, has been adopted as the research method in this exhibition, to identify the interconnections between people, space and activity.
More information can be found here:
https://www.taikwun.hk/en/programme/detail/serendipity-in-the-street/838
We are pleased to organize a two-part event to explore the spirit of Chinese scholar tradition. The first part is the viewing of an exhibition of contemporary Chinese ink paintings with the title, “The Flow of Ink”, guided by Oi Ling Chiang, Founder of the Chinese Cultural Studies Center and Oi Ling Antiques. The second part is a workshop and demonstration on the Chinese art of using incense conducted by Mei Ling Chiang.
Part 1 – Gallery Tour
“The Flow of Ink” is an exhibition of contemporary Chinese ink paintings which focuses on the different creative approaches adopted by artists to enrich a traditional art form with modern elements. The gallery aims to provide viewers with a spiritual journey of reflection, exploration and rediscovery.
As a prelude to the workshop, Oi Ling will also give a brief historical background of the appearance of a special type of books called pulu 譜錄 (Books on Material Culture and Nature Studies), a subcategory of traditional Chinese bibliographies, specifically xiangpu 香譜（books on incense), in the Song dynasty in China.
Part 2 – The Spiritual Dimension of the Chinese Art of Incense
The workshop will explore how the Chinese literati of old used the art of incense to create special moments to meditate, as well as to explore their intellectual thoughts and inquiries.
Mei Ling Chiang studied incense art under the tutelage of Doctor Liu Ching-Min
(劉靜敏) who in turn was taught by Liu Liang-Yu (劉良佑). For the workshop, Mei Ling will prepare three types of incense to share, including the most valued qinan (祺楠), a high-quality agarwood which will emit an alluring, complex and long-lasting fragrance when heated. She will also share important historical information on the Chinese art of incense use. Participants of the event will have the opportunity to handle different types of incense and censers as well as the paraphernalia related to the art.
The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organise a guided tour of
Tsar of All Russia. Holiness and Splendour of Power with two professional docents
. The exhibition will run until August 29 at the HKHM, last chance to join us for it!
The exhibition will showcase 170 sets of imperial artefacts from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, including staffs, holy relics, harnesses, weapons, articles from foreign diplomats, ornaments worn by queens and toys of princes. By illustrating the life of the Russian court, namely the monarch coronation ceremony, ceremonial departure, military power, diplomacy and court life from the 16th to 18th centuries, the exhibition demonstrates how the political, religious and cultural environment of that era created the glorious monarchy of the Tsar of All Russia.
The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Moscow Kremlin Museums and jointly organised by the HKHM and the Moscow Kremlin Museums. Solely sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
More information about the exhibition can be found here:
https://www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk/en_US/web/hm/exhibitions/data/exid268.html#/nogo
The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organise a guided tour of the newly revitalised Central Market with the leading project architect Vincent Ng.
Central Market Revitalisation Project is a response to the Chief Executive’s Policy Address in 2009. Urban Renewal Authority (URA) was tasked to implement the revitalisation works and turn it into a leisure landmark and open space where people can meet and hang-out. After a four-year restoration process, leading project architect Vincent Ng and his team from AGC Design preserved the original architectural flavours of Central Market while meeting current regulatory requirements. The landmark is now managed by Chinachem Group. It aims to promote Hong Kong brands and art along with its own cultural and artistic features.
More information can be found here:
http://www.centralmarket.hk/en/
Resource Person
Vincent Ng, JP is an award-winning architect and urban designer. He is the recipient of the Young Architect Award and the 10 Outstanding Designer Award. He founded the architectural and urban design practice AGC Design Limited in 1999. His 30-years’ portfolio covers a diverse range of commercial and institutional architecture including residential, offices, universities, churches and healthcare facilities. He is active in public services and has been serving many Government Advisory Boards, particularly in areas of harbourfront planning, land supply, environmental protection and urban renewal. He was President of the Hong Kong Institutes of Architects in 2015-16. He is currently the Chairman of the Harbourfront Commission. He is also a columnist writing regularly on architecture and urban design.
The HKU Museum Society is delighted to organise a visit to the studio of artist Elizabeth Briel at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei. During the tour, she will share insights on her artistic practice that has brought her crisscrossing the world.
Elizabeth was born in California (1974). Her prints, paintings, and installations begin with materials imbued with meaning—papers devastated by a typhoon or made of military uniforms, paints of bone and lead—and frequently incorporate architectural elements. She received a BFA in Painting from the University of Minnesota, has exhibited on four continents, and has been awarded fellowships or residencies from China Exploration and Research Society (Shangri-la), Universiti Sains Malaysia (Penang), and Grabart (Barcelona). Briel has lived, worked and traveled in Hong Kong since 2006, where she runs EBriel Studio in HK’s JC Creative Arts Centre.
The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organise a guided tour of an upcoming exhibition,
High Gothic: Christian Art and Iconography of the 13th–14th Century at the University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU. We will be guided by exhibition curators Dr. Florian Knothe and Ms. Tullia Fraser.
High Gothic: Christian Art and Iconography of the 13th–14th Century
This exhibition aims to display the richness of Gothic artforms in both private and public spaces. It presents highly sophisticated representations of Christian narratives, such as the Life of Christ and a broad spectrum of workshops and styles from across Western Europe that date between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Talented craftsmen worked in stone and wood, constructing many of the best-known European Churches that were decorated exuberantly with sculptures and stained-glass windows. Religious services related to the depicted imagery incorporated elaborate liturgical dress and crosses that were used during formal festivities and processions.
This exhibition is kindly supported by the McCarthy Collection, the University of Hong Kong Museum Society and The University of Hong Kong Endowment Funds for Music and Fine Arts. More information can be found here:
https://www.umag.hku.hk/en/exhibition_detail.php?id=5344146
Speakers
Dr. Florian Knothe teaches the history of decorative arts in the 17th and 18th century with particular focus on the social and historic importance of royal French manufacture. He has long been interested in the early modern fascination with Chinoiserie and the way royal workshops and smaller private enterprises helped to create and cater to this long-lasting fashion. Dr. Knothe worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art focusing on European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and on European and East Asian glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, before his current position as Director of the University Museum and Art Gallery at HKU.
Ms. Tullia Fraser is currently a Project Associate with the University Museum and Art Gallery at HKU. Ms. Fraser has field experience in British archaeology, investigating Romano-British to modern England; as well as public communication and collaboration in archaeological science. Her museum experience across both Hong Kong and the United Kingdom has a particular focus on Chinese collections. Her current research interests lie in the archaeology of Hong Kong, and the movement of Chinese archaeological finds into European museum collections in the 19th-20th century.
Join us on a viewing of these beautiful masterpieces, with special opening remarks delivered by HKMoA’s Amy Chan, Assistant Curator of International Programmes. Participants will view the exhibits at their own leisure afterwards.
The exhibition showcases over 100 diversified art pieces and archive material by significant surrealist artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Joan Miró, and Max Ernst.
Furthermore the HKMoA has invited young local artists to contribute original works for the exhibition. New media artist Keith Lam delves into the interface between art and technology, and the nuanced relationships between reality and simulation in his robotic installation work “Artificial Reality”. Artist Hazel Wong created an illustration booklet and the animation “Dreaming in Hong Kong” with a storyline as well as Hong Kong scenery blended with works featured in the exhibition.
The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the French May Arts Festival, and is jointly organised by the HKMoA and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, with major support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
Confirmed attendees are required by the HKMoA to use the “LeaveHomeSafe” mobile app or provide their personal contact details onsite.
More information about the Surrealist exhibition can be found here:
https://hk.art.museum/en_US/web/ma/exhibitions-and-events/surrealism-and-beyond-masterpieces-from-centre-pompidou.html
The Executive Committee is pleased to organise an evening lecture dinner with Catherine Maudsley, a leading independent fine art professional and one of the Society’s earliest Exco members.
Lecture synopsis:
Collecting is a vital and engaging art form, full of creative energy. At its best, it is informed and guided by passion, principles, and best practices. In this talk, Catherine will introduce The Art Gallery of Ontario’s African art collection, built over several decades by Dr. Murray Frum whose vision and passion created one of the world’s most significant private collections of African art. The Frum Collection is an excellent example of passion and principles. To highlight important collecting practices, Catherine will also consider The Studio of Gentleness and Ardour private collection of dye-resist textiles, examining the questions about what to acquire, why to acquire, and social impact responsibilities.
Speaker:
Catherine Maudsley is a trusted senior advisor and curator to private, museum-caliber private collections in Hong Kong and globally. An art historian, art advisor, curator, writer, and educator, she has lived in Hong Kong for four decades. She is the recipient of over 20 awards for academic excellence, Catherine was a Connaught Research Scholar at the University of Toronto (School of Graduate Studies); a Canada-China Scholar in Beijing (Central Academy of Fine Arts); a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Hong Kong (Department of Fine Arts) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grantee (Hôbôgirin Institute, Kyoto).
Her recent curatorial practice includes: “Intimate Encounters: Handscrolls and Albums from the M K Lau Collection”; “Wesley Tongson: The Journey”; and “Rendering Change: The Art of New China”.
Art collector Murray Frum (1931-2013)
Photographer: Jeff Coulson
Image source: copyright The Globe and Mail
The HKU Museum Society is delighted to organise a visit to Sin Sin Fine Art, a gallery that focuses on contemporary art from all over the world that is spiritual and inspiring. We will be welcomed by Sin Sin Man, founder, owner and director of “Sin Sin Atelier – Fine Art – Villa” who will personally guide us through their current exhibition Roots. A creative free-spirit, she will share insights of the works of two contemporary artists Lee Man Sang and Wensen Qi.
Following the tour of the exhibition, a small group of 11 members will enjoy a refreshing lunch with Sin Sin in her gallery. As space is limited, please sign up early.
Roots
This is a duet exhibition featuring the works from Hong Kong artist, Lee Man Sang and Chongqing-based French artist, Wensen Qi (Vincent Cazeneuve). An inner dialogue with roots, values & identity.
Both artists’ surreal displacements in the dynamic cities symbolise the sense of magical realism, their artworks become part of the fabric of normalcy, interspersed throughout everyday real life. The artists challenge the definition of ‘roots’. Roots are not born of nature but made and crafted by the human mind. They are shaped by the values, principles and core spirituality that make us who we are.
The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organize a guided tour to visit the exhibition The Atlas of Maritime Buddhism with Dr. Isabelle Frank, Director of the Indra and Harry Banga Gallery at City University of Hong Kong.
The Atlas of Maritime Buddhism is a cutting-edge exhibition that traces the religion’s development along the Maritime route from India across Asia, providing a dazzling visual immersion into major historic Buddhist sites. The integration of virtual scenography, 3D stereoscopic visualizations, and physical sculptures, generously loaned from Hong Kong collections, defines the new approach to museology presented by the Atlas of Maritime Buddhism. It gives visitors an intense visual and auditory experience of Buddhism in its richly varied forms, as it was developed throughout Southeast Asia, and in China and Japan. The Atlas of Maritime Buddhism is a crucial reminder of the continued importance of the Silk Road, which stimulated economic, social, and cultural development across Asia, today revived in the Belt and Road initiative.
Professor Jeffrey Shaw, Chair Professor of Media Art at CityU, and Professor Sarah Kenderdine, Professor of Digital Museology at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, are responsible for the original concept of the exhibition, and were assisted by a team of scholars in realizing this ambitious project, initially, at the Fo Guang Shan Museum of Buddhism in Taiwan and, now at City University of Hong Kong.
Speaker
Dr. Isabelle Frank focuses on curating exhibitions that combine technology and the arts and bridge Western and Asian cultures. An art historian by training with a PhD from Harvard University, she first taught at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts and was then Associate Dean for Academic Affair at The New School, and Dean at Fordham University’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. She has published on Italian Renaissance art and decorative art as well as edited many exhibition catalogues for the City University Exhibition Gallery, including Cabinets of curiosities, Art Deco. The France-China Connection, and most recently Leonardo da Vinci: Art & Science, Then & Now.
