Hong Kong art exhibitions to catch this week

A new cultural event is debuting in Hong Kong this Art Month, bringing together visual and edible creations for an immersive experience. From March 26 to April 5, Central Yards Edible Art Fair invites visitors to discover a range of unique exhibitions focused around the senses of taste, sight, and sound, and immersive storytelling. 10 galleries dedicated to prominent art movements will feature visual installations alongside specially crafted edible creations, making this a feast for the eyes and the taste buds. You’re not just looking at the food either – visitors get to indulge in nibbles at each artwork! ‘Pop It!’, inspired by neo-pop, features bubble-shaped sculptures and a giant claw machine that visitors can collect an edible confection from. ‘Drip’, inspired by Expressionism, highlights abstract art and comes with flavoured drinks for visitors to try. ‘Go Bananas!’, inspired by conceptual art, sees replica fruits taped to the walls, and encourages guests to find and take a miniature edible banana among the art. With plenty more to see and eat, Central Yards Edible Art Fair promises a multi-sensory experience that’s quite unlike anything else taking place during Art Month. Local artists will also be featured in two special galleries dedicated to New Ink and Hong Kong Contemporary Art. Get your tickets now on edibleartfair.com – entries are timed, so plan ahead and choose a date and time slot when making your purchase. Attendees can also join workshops to make their...

Tucked inside Oi! Glassie, Hong Kong artist Chan Wai‑lap presents Jeremy’s Bathhouse – a dreamy, ceramic bathhouse as an extension of his ongoing ‘Swimming’ series. Inspired by love, connection, different bathing cultures, and the 2016 viral story of Jeremy, the left-spiral snail, the exhibition features a heart-shaped pool installation made with more than 1,200 handcrafted ceramic tiles designed by Chan. Visitors will also find a set of shower cubicles lined with casts of real soap bars that Chan has collected from bathhouses around the world, and every so often, timed release of mist drifts through, softening the edges and shifting the whole atmosphere from crisp clarity to a dreamy haze.

Curated by architectural historian Charles Lai and product designer Kay Chan Wan Ki, this exhibition brings together architects, carpenters, filmmakers, and chefs to examine Hong Kong’s favourite diners from every angle. Highlights include the preserved neon sign of Wan Chai’s Sun Fung Kee, the original door of Sheung Wan’s demolished Hoi On Cafe, and a full-scale beverage station where you can suit up and try assembling orders at cha chaan teng speed. The exhibition is now on view at Airside’s Gate33 Gallery and runs until July 31. Admission is free until March 31, after which tickets cost $20 (except for kids aged three and under).

M+ in West Kowloon Cultural District is honouring the late Ryuichi Sakamoto with a museum-wide programme from now until July. Comprising a site-specific installation, moving image works, a listening experience, and film, ‘Seeing Sound, Hearing Time’ celebrates the enduring legacy of the Japanese composer, producer, and artist. ‘Async–Immersion’ presents a three-dimensional, audio-visual representation of Sakamoto’s personal album, combining sonic experience with optical immersion. Nam June Paik’s ‘All Star Video’ explores Sakamoto’s influences and creative encounters, while ‘Vinyl Sessions with Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto’ allows visitors to engage with his compositions, alongside reflections on his work from three Hong Kong-based sound artists. Additionally, ‘Ryuichi Sakamoto: Music in Film’ will screen two films to allow for an intimate look into Sakamoto’s life, profound artistry, and innovative creative process.

For art lovers who simply cannot get enough of Chinese-French printmaking legend Zao Wou-ki, this major retrospective of the artist’s graphic works at M+ is not to be missed. Highlighting key pieces from Zao’s decades-long career, ‘Zao Wou-ki: Master Printmaker’ collects close to 180 items from 1949 to 2000, including paintings, books, and prints, to introduce new perspectives on his career, artistic process, and creative thinking. ‘Encouraging Printmaking’ reveals Zao’s early encounters with the bold medium, ‘Towards Abstraction’ records his experimentation phase marked by expressive techniques, and ‘No Boundaries’ presents a body of mature pieces that blend Eastern and Western artistic traditions. Alongside these central themes, the exhibition format will also serve to inform visitors about the art of printmaking – the Open Print Studio at M+ is offering interactive printmaking workshops for visitors to simply drop in on weekends to take part in lessons.

Gold – a new “laboratory of ideas” in Wong Chuk Hang – presents its inaugural group exhibition as an exploration of the notion of uncertainty. Drawing inspiration from artist-composer La Monte Young’s ‘Composition 1960 # 10’, the artistic experimentation brings together artists from Hong Kong and abroad across various media and disciplines. From celebrating deviation and investigating the beauty of unpredictability, ‘Certainly’ navigates the space between systems and structures, questioning the ‘straight line’ of expectations and reframing the concept as a starting point rather than an ending. Artists featured in the exhibition include Tozer Pak Sheung-chuen, Lousy, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Santiago Sierra, Shinro Ohtake, Peter Robinson, and more.

M+ and Leeum Museum of Art are teaming up to present a comprehensive exhibition featuring the groundbreaking works of influential South Korean contemporary artist Lee Bul. More than 200 pieces will be shown, spanning the artist’s career from the late 1990s to the present to trace the evolution of Lee’s artistic approach. Split into three sections, ‘Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now’ interrogates ideas of utopian and dystopian existence, the relationship between body and technology, and Lee’s creative process. M+ Cinema will also screen a number of Lee’s performance works during the exhibition period. ‘Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now’ opens on March 14 and will be commemorated with a talk at the Grand Stair; Lee herself will be present to speak about her artistic vision.

Hong Kong’s ‘Grande Dame’ unveils the lineup for its ‘Art in Resonance’ programme this year, inviting leading artists Angel Hui, Albert Yonathan Setyawan, and Dr William Lim to transform the hotel with their creative practices. Coinciding with Hong Kong Arts Month, the site-specific commissions span embroidery, ceramics, and architectural installation. Hui brings Chinese gongbi-style delicacy to a vibrant façade artwork of embroidered goldfish. ‘Swimming in Light’ takes over the first-floor windows of the hotel to welcome guests and visitors in a playful, poetic manner. Setyawan’s ‘Metamorphic Modulation’ presents repeated forms painstakingly handcrafted through modelling and casting to investigate its sculptural effect and the beauty of raw colour and texture. Lim’s live-in-environment installation is based on his ‘A Bright Future’ oil piece, translating the artwork into a large-scale, hand-tufted tapestry that challenges dimensional awareness.

Focusing on non-solid media, multi-disciplinary artist Zheng Jing’s first solo show in Hong Kong uses water, sound, air, and light to transform several warehouses into a surreal world that invites viewers to wander through. In Warehouse 1, visitors will feel as though they are submerged beneath Victoria Harbour, with mirrored installations that let you look up at wave movements through the manipulation of light. There’s also a giant vessel featuring a video projection of a human figure endlessly diving, plus a suspended cube from which light beams are projected outward in multiple directions. Stepping out onto the lawn, visitors will also discover five golden sculptures modelled after Taihu stones, placed in an elemental cycle of ‘breathing’ to allow energy and spirits to flow through continuously.

Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander presents her latest commissioned work at M+ Façade, exploring the historical traces of power and trade and their entanglement through a cinematic tableau of hand-painted animations. ‘3 to 12 Nautical Miles’ follows the maritime trail that linked the British East India Company, Mughal-era India, and Qing-dynasty China, examining the connections between empires and complex dynamics. Sikander’s practice brings the art of miniature painting to the big screen, allowing the medium to communicate to audiences on a different scale. Painted gestures, objects, and symbols are magnified through animation, revealing the nuanced history of the region. On March 26, the artist herself will lead a free illustrated lecture about the artwork at 5pm.