李展輝是本港著名雕塑家，他的作品以傳統為本，散發中國水墨藝術的精神，藉「山水」意境及現代性手法，傳遞東方美學的詩意和樸素，與環境融合，卻亦擁有自由的領域及創作的無限可能性，構成其獨特且兼容並蓄的藝術語言。李展輝的作品曾代表香港參與亞太經合組織會議峴港雕塑公園紀念項目(越南) 等，亦為香港藝術館、香港文化博物館等收藏。
Photo credit: Danny Lee Chin Fai’s Studio
‘Motherboard’ is the term Hong Kong-based artist Ha Bik Chuen (1925–2009) coined for his collagraph plates. Unlike computer motherboards, Ha’s creations are decidedly analogue. They are assembled from wood and other found material through a highly labour-intensive process. Throughout his life, Ha created over 100 motherboards and kept them away from public view. He used these motherboards to produce over 3,000 editioned collagraphs mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.
About Ha Bik Chuen
Ha Bik Chuen (1925-2009) was a Hong Kong-based artist who made prints, sculptures, collage books, and was also a prolific photographer. He publicly showed prints and sculptures, but kept most of his photographs and all his collage books private. In the 1960s, Ha became an artist and an active participant of the Hong Kong art scene by documenting exhibitions and events through photography. His collection of visual materials forms a crucial part of Hong Kong’s cultural and art history. Ha’s archive has become one of the key resources of writing Hong Kong art history.
About Michelle Wun Ting Wong
Michelle Wun Ting Wong completed her PhD studies in Art History at The University of Hong Kong in 2024, exploring the modernity emerging from Post WWII Hong Kong. From 2012–20 she was a researcher at Asia Art Archive (AAA), focusing on Hong Kong art history and histories of exchange and circulation through exhibitions and periodicals. Her curatorial projects include ‘Portals, Stories, and Other Journeys’ at Tai Kwun Contemporary (2021), ‘Afterglow’, Yokohama Triennale 2020, and 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016). Her writing has been published in Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art, 1945–1990 (2018), the journal Southeast of Now (2019) amongst others. Since 2022, she co-runs the independent art space New Park with artists South Ho Siu Nam and Billy HC Kwok. Wong’s PhD dissertation is an in-depth study of the work and life of Ha Bik Chuen and its relationship to the cultural modernity and artistic modernism emerging from mid-twentieth century Hong Kong. Before returning to graduate school at HKU, Wong was AAA’s lead researcher and part of an archivist team organising and digitising Ha’s archive, which has since become one of the key resources of writing Hong Kong art history.
Please visit https://www.para-site.art/exhibitions/reframing-strangeness-ha-bik-chuens-motherboards-and-collagraphs/ for more information on this exhibition.
Photo credit: Para Site
Dressed by Nature
The development of textile civilization has always been deeply intertwined with the utilization of natural resources. Beyond conventional materials such as silk, cotton, and hemp, many other animals and plants in nature can also be used. Different civilizations have shown remarkable adaptability in clothing materials. Ancient China mastered silk-making, while the Inuit in North America used seal intestine membranes for windproof and waterproof garments. In Jiangnan, palm fibers were used for raincoats, and in Madagascar, golden orb-weaving spider silk was woven into fabric to make capes and scarves.
After the lecture, join Ms. Lee and volunteers for a hands-on silk reeling workshop. Please allow sufficient time to participate.
「來自大自然的衣裳」
服飾文明的發展始終與自然資源的利用密不可分。除傳統認知的絲、棉、麻等材料外 ，大自然界中，還有很多動、植物都可以被利用。
全球各地文明都展現出適應性智慧：從中國古老的蠶絲工藝到北美洲北部的因紐特人(Inuit) 利用海豹腸膜製作的防風防水服飾；又從江南蓑衣使用的棕櫚纖維， 到非洲 馬達加斯加的金色球蜘蛛之金色蛛絲 ，可織成衣料 ，制成斗篷和圍巾。
講座完畢後，在老師及義工的帶領下，大家將體驗「繅絲」（或稱「抽絲剝繭」）的實作活動。敬希各位預留充足時間參與。
Speaker
Lee Mei-Yin’s areas of research include the history, art and costumes of the ethnic minorities of China, Buddhist art, Dunhuang art, silk and embroideries. She previously served as HKUSPACE guest lecturer (2000-2010), as well as a member of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee. She is currently a specially appointed research fellow of Dunhuang Academy, and Vice President of the Friends of Dunhuang (Hong Kong). She also serves on the Board of Dunhuang Grottoes Preservation and Research Foundation of China, and as an expert advisor to the public museums of Hong Kong.
講者簡介
李美賢女士的研究範圍包括中國少數民族（民族史與服飾）、佛像藝術、敦煌藝術、絲綢與刺繡（歷史與賞析）。曾任香港大學專業進修學院導師（2000-2010），香港非物質文化遺產諮詢委員會委員。現任敦煌研究院特聘研究員、香港敦煌之友副主席，也是中國敦煌石窟保護研究基金會理事、香港博物館之專家顧問。
Photo Credit to Lee Mei Yin
Supported by the Van Cleef & Arpels Patrimony Collection and the Van Cleef & Arpels Jewelry Culture Fund—established in 2019 for research, presentation and educational purposes— along with loans from the Lalique Museum in France and private jewellery collections in Hong Kong, the exhibition showcases a remarkable selection of nearly 100 drawings alongside 13 exquisite jewellery pieces. It illustrates France’s long and influential tradition of jewellery making and highlights individual achievements by tracing the creative journey from initial sketches to gouaché renderings to finished masterpieces.
Speaker
Dr. Florian Knothe is the Director of the University Museum and Art Gallery and an Associate Professor in the School of Humanities, HKU. He serves as the MA in Museum Studies programme director and has taught Museum Studies at undergraduate and post-graduate level for more than 15 years. Florian trained in conservation, art history and heritage law, and lectures and teaches internationally. With the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, he held a Mellon Foundation grant to investigate and initiate Museum Studies at HKU.
Image Credit: French May Arts Festival
About the exhibition:
“2084” features over thirty whimsical artworks across mediums, including woodcut paintings, ink paintings and drawings by local artist, Michelle Fung.
With five imaginary countries, “2084” is the world in fifty-nine years created by Michelle, which she has been developing for the past decade. This exhibition marks an important milestone of Michelle’s ten years of research and hard work; and a focus on her continuing chapter on two fantastical realms: Contradictoria (Polluta) and Northlandia. With thorough research, creativity, and the ability to articulate, each of these countries offers some in-depth and multi-dimensional narrative. Blending irony, imaginary fiction, and complex visual metaphors; “2084” is both a reflective tale and a whimsical re-imagining of the future, challenging our perceptions of reality, environmental crisis, and human agency.
About Michelle Fung:
Hong Kong Canadian interdisciplinary artist Michelle Fung’s lifelong interdisciplinary oeuvre revolves around a grand dystopian world-building narrative in year 2084. In recent years, she has focused on woodcut drawings and paintings of imagined future worlds. Made with detailed carving and layers of rendering, these sculptural paintings on wood feature surreal landscapes, dotted with magical animals, with intricate texture and carved pattern. These imagined worlds offer a glimpse of how our future would look had we continued a path of unfettered consumption.
Photo credit: Sin Sin Fine Art
Lecture: Towards a New Future for Art Conservation at The University of Hong Kong
Synopsis:
This lecture will present Art Conservation and Conservation Science as disciplines at the forefront of investigating the materiality of cultural objects across time and space. Case studies will be presented from a variety of different conservation and scientific projects undertaken by the speaker across the world and will culminate in a discussion of the new activities that are now underway at The University of Hong Kong in this area, including the establishment of a MA course, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, as well as plans for laboratories at the University Museum and Art Gallery dedicated to conservation treatments and analyzing art objects.
Guest Speaker:
Marc Walton is a professor in the Museum Studies Program at The University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, he held senior leadership positions at Hong Kong’s M+ (Head of Conservation and Research) and in academia as co-director of Northwestern University’s Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts where he was also Research Professor of Materials Science. He has led numerous scientific projects investigating art objects in collaboration with cultural heritage institutions representing a broad range of disciplines (from anthropology to contemporary art) and geographical reach (both U.S. and internationally). He has also held positions at the Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) after receiving training in art history, conservation and archaeological science at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts and the University of Oxford. Professor Walton’s most recent research is on developing and using imaging technologies in the field of conservation science to better understand how artworks were made and deteriorate.
Photo credit: HK01
Join us as we immerse in the unparalleled beauty and learn of the historical significance of these masterpieces that epitomise the technical mastery, artistic innovation and imperial patronage that extend over three remarkable eras.
Speaker
Pola Antebi is Deputy Chairman and International Director of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Christie’s Hong Kong. Her areas of expertise include imperial ceramics, jades and works of art from the Yuan to the Qing dynasties.
Photo courtesy of Christie’s Hong Kong
The first exhibition – Wondrous Rivers: Exploring Chinese Landscape Paintings invites visitors to immerse themselves in the captivating world of Chinese landscape paintings from the collection of the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), The University of Hong Kong. As a sequel to the 2024 exhibition Momentous Mountains: The Artistic, Philosophical and Cultural Engagement with Chinese Landscape Painting, this showcase presents a diverse series of paintings spanning from the early Qing dynasty (17th century) to contemporary times. The artists, hailing from different time periods and various regional cultures and training backgrounds, collectively exemplify the multi-faceted evolution of this painting genre.
The collection of Chinese landscape paintings constitutes the foundation of UMAG’s educational and research efforts. Since establishing the collection and making it publicly accessible in the 1950s, UMAG has been closely connected to the development of twentieth-century Chinese painters, actively documenting and studying the evolution of local artistic talents and the Hong Kong art scene. We would like to thank our community of donors—both artists and collectors—for their generosity and for being part of this fascinating journey. Finally, this exhibition would not have been possible without the financial support of the University of Hong Kong Museum Society and HKU’s Endowment for Music and Fine Arts Fund.
Speaker
Dr. Shou 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.
The second exhibition – “8 Times 8”: Stories Series Systems in Mythology & Art.
Bats represent good luck, while pine trees symbolise longevity due to their resilience. Many of us can quickly identify the 8 Immortals, yet remembering their individual names and attributes is more challenging. When faced with artworks from ancient times, we often find ourselves astonished by the intricate ornaments, marvellous signs and rich symbolic language. We can sense the deep meaning behind them, yet the stories they tell and the secrets they hold are no longer widely known or taught.
In both mythology and this exhibition, the number 8 plays a crucial role. The symmetrical shape of the number 8 symbolises an endless cycle, a constant flow of energy, balance, harmony and infinity. While in Cantonese-speaking communities the number 8 stands for wealth, in Christian numerical symbolism it signifies new beginnings and resurrection. And since 8 is a Fibonacci number, it can be found in nature all over the world. In Asian art this can be seen, for example, in the 8 trigrams of the I Ching, the 8 Immortals, the 8 Buddhist symbols or Auspicious objects. These interrelated elements are often depicted as a group of 8 in the form of a serial narrative, which are supplemented by motifs of pairs, figures or scenes from stories, landscapes, plants, flowers, animals, ornaments and symbols.
Speaker
Dr Harald P. Kraemer taught Art Market courses and wrote for many years about Art Basel and other art fairs for the Vienna-based online magazine Art magazine. As a student, he had his first (painful) experiences as a gallery owner in his hometown and later developed survival strategies for some artists in the art market. He currently teaches Museum Studies at HKU and works as an exhibition curator for UMAG.
Image Credit: Courtesy of UMAG
Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919) asserted themselves as two of the greatest masters of French painting. As icons of the Impressionist art movement in France, the two artists sought to reinvent the art of their time with their innovative depiction of the rapidly changing modern world. Along their artistic journey, they forged a lasting friendship and became influential figures for the new generations of painters, including Spanish master Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973).
This is the first large-scale exhibition of the two Impressionist masters Cézanne and Renoir in Hong Kong, showcasing 52 masterpieces from the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée d’Orsay in France.
Speaker
Professor Greg Thomas earned his Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University in 1995 and has taught at HKU since 1999. A specialist in 19th-century French painting, he has published Art and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century France: The Landscapes of Théodore Rousseau (Princeton UP, 2000) and Impressionist Children: Childhood, Family, and Modern Identity in French Art (Yale UP, 2010). Subsequent research has focused primarily on artistic interactions between Europe and China in the 18th and 19th centuries, including a current book project focused on the palace of Yuanmingyuan. At HKU, he teaches an introductory survey of western art history and advanced courses on 18th- and 19th-century art and architecture.
Photo credit to HKMOA