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Notice is hereby given that the Thirteenth Annual General Meeting of The University of Hong Kong Museum Society Limited will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 7 June 2023, at the Drake Gallery, 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 94 Bonham Road, Hong Kong. 

After the Annual General Meeting, we are pleased to present a lecture and guided tour with Dr Shuo Hua, curator of Re-visiting 20^th Century Chinese Oil Paintings, an exhibition sponsored by the HKUMS 30^th Anniversary Endowment Fund.  This will be followed by dinner at the Ming Pavilion, Senior Common Room, 14/F, KK Leung Building.

Across Time and Space:  Re-visiting Twentieth-Century Chinese Oil Paintings  
This talk will shed light on twentieth-century Chinese oil paintings currently on view in the UMAG’s latest exhibition, revealing the art historical and cultural significance of this important medium.  Dr Hua will discuss how oil painting evolved from a non-indigenous medium when it first entered Chinese art academies in the early twentieth century to an important and increasingly popular channel for artists to explore cross-cultural dynamics and individual forms of expression. The talk will explore new ways of looking at and appreciating Chinese oil paintings through the works of iconic painting masters and influential art educators within the narratives of art history.

Speaker
Dr Hua received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong.  She was a visiting PhD fellow at the Cluster of Global Art History, University of Heidelberg.  Her research centres on modern East Asian paintings, art market studies and exhibition history in a cross-cultural context.

Image: 
Liu Haisu (1896-1994), Sunflowers, oil on canvas, 1963, Gift of the artist, collection of UMAG, HKU.P.1997.1145

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present a guided visit to Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong with Mary Zhang, Fair Manager for Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong.

The annual Affordable Art Fair (AAF) is celebrating their 10^th Anniversary at their 2023 fair. AFF has been active in promoting local art and providing a platform for local art lovers to discover new and emerging Hong Kong artists and their thought-provoking works. 

Join us for a personal introduction and overview to the upcoming art fair ahead of its opening to the general public. And get ready to browse a wide array of inspiring, cutting-edge artworks from around the world.

2023 marks Sotheby’s 50th anniversary in Asia, a milestone for which Sotheby’s will launch a year-long campaign of extraordinary exhibitions, events, and auctions in Hong Kong and beyond. Headlining the Contemporary auctions are a masterwork by Yoshimoto Nara, In The Milky Lake, as well as works from Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Calder, Huang Yuxing, Hao Liang, and many more.

Please join us on a guided viewing of the Contemporary works of art, as Sotheby’s unveils its Spring auctions and spearheads its year extraordinaire. The tour will be presented by Ms. Florence Ho, Head of Day & Online Sales, Contemporary Art.

 

Photo Credit:
Yoshitomo Nara, In the Milky Lake, 2012
Courtesy of Sotheby’s 

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present an artist talk with Chinese national treasure Zhang XiaoDong and guided viewing of Zhang’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong: Flow.

This exhibition will showcase Zhang’s internationally acclaimed works Dragon scale binding “Diamond Sutra in 32 zhuan (seal) fonts” and “Dream of The Red Chamber” in Accordion-Dragon scale binding, there will also be 4 works that were never-before-exhibited that signposted the transformation and breakthrough in Zhang’s artistic career.

As the successor of the intangible cultural heritage Dragon scale binding and inventor of Accordion-Dragon scale binding, Zhang XiaoDong steadily created 8 binding works. From the Buddhist classics Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra to “Dream of The Red Chamber” and “Poetry & Calligraphy of Mao Zedong” etc, Zhang brought the Dragon scale binding that budded in Tang, bloomed in Song and revived in the modern days to an international stage, and had his solo exhibition in the La Biennale di Venezia as a guest artist.

The curator of this exhibition — Sin Sin Man— put the focus on Zhang’s enlightenment of the heart and his inheritance of old to develop the new in his contemporary works. Zhang’s binding works are exquisite and demand great patience and self-cultivation for their making. The 4 new works are the extensions of the artist’s personal work “Thousand Pages” series, using tension-filled visuals and details that are intricate yet orderly, he leads the audiences into his world, voyaging through the abstract and the figurative, the intervention and the laissez-faire.

 

Photo credit:
Dragon scale binding “Diamond Sutra in 32 zhuan (seal) fonts”
Courtesy of Sin Sin Fine Art

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present a guided viewing of Fusion 2, a sculptural exchange at Asia Society Hong Kong. This tour will be guided by Artist Cynthia Sah and participating artists.

In collaboration with Arkad Foundation of Seravezza in Italy, Fusion 2 is the latest result of the Fusion project which received enthusiastic support from the Italian Cultural Institute and Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong and the City of Seravezza. The exhibition brings together 10 talented young artists: five artists from Hong Kong and five of different nationalities, who lived and work in Italy.

Emphasizing the concept of “fusion”, specifically in integrating marble and wood, sculptors in Italy worked in marble while sculptors in Hong Kong worked in wood. Each artist was able to choose their preferred collaborative partner, working not only on their own sculptures but also on their partners’. The sculptural works are therefore the result of an unprecedented collaboration between artists who, with humility and enthusiasm, have accepted to place their own creations in the hands of another artist they have never met. 

 

Speaker

Born in Hong Kong in 1952, Cynthia Sah grew up in Japan and Taiwan. After receiving her Master’s degree in the U.S., she has chosen to work in Italy where she lives since 1979. Her sculptures reflect the Chinese philosophy of essential equilibrium, often translated into marble or bronze, which takes shape as lightness and fluidity in space. Her artworks are in private and public collections such as Taipei Fine Art Museum, Farum International Sculpture Park in Denmark and Azuchi-Cho Cultural Center in Japan.

The HKU Museum Society is delighted to be extended a private viewing of Eternal Enlightenment: The Virtual World of Jiajing Emperor with Collector Anthony Cheung Kee Wee and  Curator Hilda Mak, and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Joan Miró – The Poetry of Everyday Life with Assistant Curator Amy Chan.

Eternal Enlightenment: The Virtual World of Jiajing Emperor

2022 marks the 500^th anniversary of the Jiajing Emperor, Zhu Houcong’s (1507 – 1567) ascension to the throne. During his reign, the Ming Dynasty was plagued by internal strife and foreign threats. In the 21^st year of the Jiajing period (1542), the emperor moved to West Park and lived there until his death in 1567. After retreating to the West Park, built to resemble an immortal land on earth, the Jiajing Emperor devoted himself to pursuing immortality and building temples and palaces. The imperial porcelain designs during this reign were greatly influenced by his Daoist belief. A total of nearly six hundred thousand pieces were produced during this period. The forms and patterns of these wares reflected the hopes and wishes of the Jiajing Emperor and mirrored the predicament and uncertainties of reality at the time. Through his design of the West Part, usage of vast quantities of wares, and practice of Daoist rituals, the emperor was seemingly building his idealized immortal world just like a virtual world nowadays, where he could one day transcend the temporal realm and achieve immortality.

Joan Miró – The Poetry of Everyday Life

As one of the most renowned Spanish artists of the 20th century, Joan Miró’s love for all kinds of everyday objects and their intrinsic poetic qualities is apparent throughout his long and fruitful career. Linking art to life was one of his greatest aspirations, which was realised by his unique ability to perceive the poetic qualities possessed by the most humble of objects. This exhibition presents 94 artworks (including paintings, sculptures, drawings, textiles, lithographs, posters) and audio-visual materials, many of which come from the Fundació Joan Miró, an institution founded by Miró himself in 1975.

To complement the exhibition, the Museum has invited local artists GayBird and Leelee Chan to create installations in response to Miró’s art, and local illustrator Zoie Lam to create Miró-inspired illustrations for an education booklet and a special display with elements of augmented reality effects. Artworks from the Museum’s own collection are also showcased in juxtaposition with Miró’s art to create a unique dialogue between the East and the West.

 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Hong Kong Museum of Art

Charger with the Three Friends of Winter and fu character design in the underglaze blue
Ming dynasty
Collection of Hong Kong Museum of Art

Sobreteixim 6
Collection of Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

 

Join us on a special visit led by Joyce Ng, Executive Committee Member of HKU Museum Society.

Art Central’s eighth edition will host a diverse group of ambitious galleries from around the globe – from Hong Kong to Busan, Johannesburg to New York, Madrid, Tokyo and beyond, Art Central 2023 will be a truly multicultural event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This year’s fair will also host an exhilarating five-day programme of talks, performances, and media art in partnership with Asia Society Hong Kong Center. 

 

Mr. Cheng Po Hung, a renowned Hong Kong historian, will guide us on a fascinating sightseeing journey on board the Green Antique Tram.  This private tour will take us along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island from east to west, through bustling streets, ultra-modern cityscapes and attractions as Mr. Cheng shares stories tracing their early history and development, connecting Hong Kong’s colourful history and modern culture.

Route (round trip):     Whitty Street > Shaukeiwan > Happy Valley > Whitty Street

*Itinerary is subject to change with or without prior notice

 

「電車全景遊」

鄭寶鴻先生是一位著名的香港歷史學家，他將與我們乘坐一輛綠色古典電車，沿港島北部由西到東，穿梭於港島鬧市中心，經過超現代城市景觀及熱點，以引人入勝的歷史和發展的故事，把香港豐富多彩的歷史跟現代文化聯繫起來！

雙程路線:
屈地街電車廠 > 筲箕灣 > 跑馬地 > 屈地街

*行程改動可能不作預先通知

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to present a meaningful workshop “From School to Stage” to create your own unique wooden lamp that is being used on stage.  The aim of the workshop is to provide a place to connect with different groups to positively address social issues and the environment, and to support women and groups in need through art & craft. 

Handcrafted wooden lamps and decorative material will be prepared by CEDAR-Workshop, a social enterprise owned by Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired and operated by their own alumni.  Participants will design the collage for the lamp with recycled necktie and scarves material and will be supported by sewing mothers trained by Les Beatitudes. The workshop will also explain the project of creating 108 lamps specially designed for the famous Cantonese Opera The Floral Princess for their 65th-anniversary performance at Xiqu Center in June 2023.

This project is a collaboration between Les Beatitudes Foundation (a non-profit organization) and CEDAR-Workshop. A portion of the cost of the workshop will be donated to CEDAR-Workshop and Les Beatitudes.

 

More information about CEDAR-Workshop can be found here: https://cedar-workshop.com/

More information about Les Beatitudes Foundation can be found here: https://www.lesbeatitudesfoundation.org/en/ 

Join us on a special gallery tour led by Joyce Ng, Head of Gallery and Exhibitions at Asia Society.

The Prix Pictet is the world’s leading prize for photography and sustainability. Its purpose is to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to critical sustainability issues that threaten humanity- and the planet that we share with the rest of the natural world. The ninth cycle of the award takes the theme of Fire.

Over 600 photographers were nominated for this photography prize by a global network of nominators. After a rich debate the international jury arrived at a final shortlist of 13 artists, now being presented at Asia Society Hong Kong Center.

As a group, the 13 artists appearing in this cycle present fire as the most capricious of the elements – the bringer of life but also the author of terrifying destruction. Their work is a vision of what lies ahead: not only what has been but what is to come.

Since opening its doors in 2012, Asia Society has hosted a variety of arts and culture, business and policy programming and exhibitions for the wider community in Hong Kong.

More information about Asia Society’s photography exhibition can be found here: https://asiasociety.org/hong-kong/exhibitions/fire-huo