The top art exhibitions and displays to check out in Hong Kong

Step into the weird, wacky, and wonderful world of acclaimed British artist Gary Card at his first large-scale solo exhibition in Hong Kong titled People Mountain People Sea. Gary's diverse talents span painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, and set design, having worked with some of the biggest artists and designers from around the world. For this exhibition, Gary was inspired by the vibrant fusion of East and West cultures in Hong Kong. Using various objects and elements he's observed during his visits to the city, Gary has crafted a series of bold and unique artworks to transform the historic Oi! Warehouses into a multimedia art space, where animation and sound merge to create an immersive visual and sensory experience. Visit Oi! Street Art Space between now and July 28 to his works and be sure to snap pics of the giant outdoor sculpture on the Oi! Lawn.

Ryo Matsuoka’s second exhibition with WKM Gallery presents a series of embroidered textile works. While the artist has previously done plenty of street art and painting, and even incorporated his work into the fashion scene, working with textiles on a sewing machine for this body of work presents a more restricted frame of vision, but his spontaneous use of fabric and thread has nevertheless created a stunning reflection of joy and a pure expression of particular thoughts and emotions. This theme of spontaneity and abstraction makes his exhibition plenty of fun to look through, and the viewer gets the sense that Matsuoka was at play even while working.

The Stroll Gallery, which focuses on showing Korean artists, will be showing a series of 20 artworks by Jiyoon Jeong where the artist reinterprets digital imagery. Using found web images, Jeong re-expresses them by focusing on painting postures, expressions, and states with beautiful blue tones. It doesn’t matter if the viewer has never seen these images before; the compositions of smiles and gazes give off a sense of familiarity, revealing something of the ambiguous intimacy so often formed in the modern digital space.

This major special exhibition at the Hong Kong Palace Museum highlights the former glory of the Yuan Ming Yuan imperial garden, which was also known as the ‘Garden of All Gardens’. With artefacts such as paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, architectural models, drawings, and prints – many of which are on display in Hong Kong for the very first time – this event provides a great look into the life and artistry of the Qing court. 

The garden-palace was first constructed by the Emperor Kangxi and later fully developed by his fourth son, Emperor Yongzheng, with a total of five emperors continually adding to the Yuan Ming Yuan over the course of more than a century. It was the most favoured imperial residence outside of the Forbidden City and boasted spectacular landscaping, scenery, and architecture. The Yuan Ming Yuan was sadly looted and destroyed during the Second Opium War, but this exhibition aims to transport visitors back to the height of its glory through five thematic sections on its overall layout, the seasonal festivities that were celebrated, its landscaping design, imperial family life within the grounds, and its eventual destruction.

The displays will also be complemented by documentary screenings of The Lei Family, who were the Qing dynasty royal architects over several generations and had worked on the Yuan Ming Yuan. Standard tickets cost $150 and will also grant access to other thematic exhibitions in the Hong Kong Palace Museum, while a special combo ticket costing $220 will allow visitors to also view the Botticelli to Van Gogh exhibition on the same day.

This is the first major exhibition of contemporary artist Bruce Nauman’s work in Hong Kong, with works that span six decades of his artistic career. Nauman is known for working across a wide variety of mediums, from sculpture, photography, and video work, to drawing, neon, prints, and performance art. This institutional survey will showcase drawings, large-scale sculptures, and sound installations, as well as Nauman’s early work with neon all the way to his recent Contrapposto series. 

Villepin is showcasing their summer group exhibition, featuring works by Koji Yamaguchi, Yuri Yuan, Ted Gahl, and Travis MacDonald. Each of these artists capture how reality is a transient concept through everyday scenes, offering a glimpse between the conscious and subconscious human condition. What sort of unseen truths may lie in domestic life? How can the ordinary be veiled in mystery and the mundane made extraordinary? Inspired by designs of Catalonian architectural visionary Ricardo Bofill, these are the kinds of questions this exhibition asks to start a dialogue. 

Using archival materials as a starting point, this exhibition brings together new works from six groups of local artists and collectives, focusing on one specific day in Hong Kong’s past. Another Day in Hong Kong was inspired by Oscar Ho’s One Day in Hong Kong exhibition back in 1990, which collected photographs taken by Hong Kong citizens on a single day. This new show expands upon its predecessor by exploring new dimensions to capture the diverse people and events that occur within 24 hours.

The Indra and Harry Banga Gallery at the City University of Hong Kong is showcasing an exhibition on the 2,000-year history of silk. Around 150 exhibits have been gathered to tell the story of silk, from its emergence in ancient China all the way to its current evolution. Undoubtedly the most stunning part of this exhibition is the collection of Chinese imperial robes from the Tang to the Qing dynasties, highlighting changes to the artistic and creative styles of these beautiful silk garments. Entry is free, but prior registration is required.

Paris-based South Korea artist Lee Jin Woo is exhibiting a series of artworks at White Cube that are mainly monochromatic yet anything but boring. To fully appreciate his works, an understanding of their making is essential. Lee burns wood to create charcoal and ash, overlays it with hanji – traditional handmade Korean paper – then pounds and scrapes the surface repeatedly with wire brushes to create his pieces of light and shadow. Lee is truly a forerunner in the new wave of Korean Dansaekhwa painting, well worth a visit to see for yourself before his major solo exhibition opens in Shanghai later this year.

Hong Kong is getting a newcomer to our arts circuit with the very first edition of the Art021 Hong Kong contemporary art fair launching in August. Boasting a new art fair format that features projects across multiple venues, Art021 Hong Kong will have five sections in collaboration with iconic art locations in town. 

The Galleries section will be in West Kowloon; Videos will be hosted in the Asia Society Hong Kong Center; Sculpture will be shown at Victoria Park and the Fringe Club; and the Expansion section sees special exhibitions, live performances, forums and more organised with the Fringe Club. Lastly, the Greater Bay Area Art Week (GBA Art Week) section is a platform for galleries, art museums, and institutions in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau area to connect and promote visibility.

The Art021 Group has been running the Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair since 2013, so we’re excited to see what sort of art conversations they’ll be bringing to Hong Kong. Check back for details on the programme and exhibitors when they get released. Visit Art021’s official website for more info.

This year marks a century since the birth of Dr Louis Cha, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, the literary giant who wrote numerous hit martial arts novels that earned a place among classic Chinese literature. Starting from March 15, there will be a range of events and exhibitions that pay tribute to Jin Yong’s work and legacy, as well as to create unique cultural intellectual property that tells Hong Kong stories.

‘The World of Wuxia’ at Edinburgh Place will present 10 sculptures of Jin Yong’s most iconic characters, created by sculptor Ren Zhe. Apart from figures of Xiaolongnü, Yang Guo, Abbess Miejue, the Golden Wheel Monk, and more, there will also be a Mongolian yurt inspired by The Eagle-shooting Heroes, where visitors can recreate famous scenes with audio guides and AR technology. A larger exhibition of Ren Zhe’s sculptures will also be on show at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin from March 16 to October 7, along with seminars, talks, immersive experiences, and a manuscript display.

As the birthplace of Jin Yong’s wuxia novels, Hong Kong has always been known as a city of diverse peoples and cultures. The organisers of his centennial events have therefore collaborated with international institutions and foreign consulates in Hong Kong to create interactive artistic experiences that promote Jin Yong’s novels as a way to appreciate Chinese culture and tell Hong Kong stories. While most Hongkongers will already have vivid shared memories of Jin Yong and his famous works, younger generations can now also be  introduced to these literary classics.

In collaboration with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) presents a special exhibition on French fashion and jewellery from the late 18th to early 20th century. Featuring close to 400 items of clothing, jewellery, and accessories, The Adorned Body also marks the first time the historic Fresh fashionwear collection from the Parisian museum has ever been displayed in Asia, with some never even shown outside of Paris or France. 

Presented in five thematic sections, the exhibition explores the way French aristocrats used jewellery, costumes, and accessories to assert their social standing, how Neoclassicism and Romanticism influenced fashion, fashion trends and new technologies, the birth of haute couture, and designs from the European golden age known as La Belle Époque.

See historical attire brought to life by being showcased alongside movie excerpts from specific time periods, and ‘try on’ French clothing across the years through illustrated standees in the interactive ‘dressing room’ area. The audio guide for The Adorned Body exhibition is also narrated by acclaimed singer and fashion icon Karen Mok in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin Chinese.

At $150, the regular tickets will grant access to the HKPM’s thematic exhibitions, while a special combo ticket that costs $220 will allow visitors to also enter the Yuan Ming Yuan special exhibition on the same day.

Celebrate the father of graphic design at this special exhibition which highlights some of Steiner’s most significant projects from the 60s to the present through more than 200 objects from M+ and Steiner’s own collection. For the uninitiated, Henry Steiner designed the red-and-white hexagonal HSBC logo, the Standard Chartered banknotes, as well as logos for many Hong Kong companies, and has lived in Hong Kong since 1961. Split into two sections, the exhibition covers Steiner’s formative years, his leaving Austria and arrival in Hong Kong, setting up his own company here, as well as how his designs reflect the development of our city. Tickets are available for $120, and will grant entry to four other M+ exhibitions as well on the same day.

M+ will host the first full-scale retrospective of renowned Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, his life, his philosophy, and his works, presented through various mediums. Better known as I. M. Pei, he is the mastermind designer behind some of the world’s most recognisable works of modernist architecture, including the glass-and-steel Louvre Pyramid, the Miho Museum in Shigaraki, and Hong Kong’s own Bank of China Tower. Sorted into six themes that place Pei’s architecture within sociocultural contexts, the exhibition will consist of over 300 items on display, most of which have never been exhibited before. Several international photographers have also been commissioned to photograph Pei’s buildings, and architectural models of some of his most significant projects have also been made. 

The exhibition will open on June 29 with a free public talk featuring Pei’s son, Sandi Li Chung Pei, as well as Pei’s close collaborators Calvin Tsao and Aslıhan Demirtaş – they will discuss the relevance and impact of Pei’s life and work across various cities. Tickets for this special exhibition are priced at $160, with concessions available. Ticket holders can also access all general admission exhibitions at M+ on the same day.

Created by American architectural group Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Joyful Trees (Arbores Laetae), is an art project at Oil! featuring 16 Chinese Junipers, three of which are placed on turning planters at a 10-degree tilt. As the trees rotate, the movement channels a rhythmic rustle and evokes discourse about human’s role in nature from Anthropocene’s perspective. Planting a movable landscape, the installation also reinterprets nature as ever-changing and never static, creating an unusual artistic perspective.

The three-dimensional installation can be viewed from eye level on the ground; by the adjacent pedestrian ramp; on the footbridge across the site; from the gallery window in the Oi! Glassie building; or even from the skyscrapers above. 

M+ Museum’s new thematic exhibition aims to explore the connection between landscape and humanity in our post-industrial and increasingly virtual world. Literally translating to ‘mountain and water’, shanshui is a Chinese cultural concept that has inspired Asian ink paintings across millennia. Almost 130 works split into nine thematic sections will reimagine landscape through art, moving images, sound, design, architecture, and other large-scale mediums from a range of international artists, architects, and creators.

Visit this special exhibition at M+ to see more than 60 masterpieces by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso spanning from the late 1890s to the early 1970s. Co-curated with the Musée national Picasso-Paris (MnPP), which holds the largest repository of Picasso’s work in the world, this is the first time that pieces from the MnPP are being shown together with works from an Asian museum collection. By placing Picasso’s work in dialogue with Asian contemporary art – approximately 80 works by more than 20 Asian and Asian-diasporic artists – the master’s enduring influence on art to this day is highlighted. This exhibition will only be in town next spring, so check out for details and ticketing information.