The best events happening in Hong Kong this February

The famous Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris have collaborated with the Hong Kong Museum of Art to present this special exhibition on two of the greatest masters of the Impressionist art movement: Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 

This is the first large-scale exhibition of the two Impressionists in Hong Kong, showcasing 52 masterpieces on loan from France. See how the pair found innovative ways to reinvent the art of their time, how they viewed the world, and how they captured the rapidly changing times around them. Cézanne and Renoir were also longtime friends and likely influenced each other’s works, as well as later becoming beacons of inspiration for later painters such as Spanish surrealist master Pablo Picasso.

The Cézanne and Renoir exhibition will run from January 17 to May 7. Tickets are priced at $50, with concessions available. Note that the Hong Kong Museum of Art is closed on Thursdays as well as the first two days of Chinese New Year (January 29-30).

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The Hong Kong Space Museum is now screening a new 3D dome show at its Space Theatre, immersing viewers into the Arctic wilderness through the year’s seasons, offering intimate glimpses of its wildlife such as polar bear, seals, and walruses, and bringing awareness to the impacts of climate change.

Follow walruses as they go through their annual molt during summer, made more difficult by ever-increasing temperatures; young harp seals as they grow from white furry bundles into sleek swimmers; the indigenous Inuit people as they make their increasingly dangerous journeys with sled dogs across the thinning sea ice; and more. Unless you’re the Steve Irwin type, this is probably the closest immersive experience you’ll get to being in an animal documentary.

This Arctic 3D show will be screened from January 15 until October 13, at 2pm and 6.30pm on weekdays, and 12.30pm and 5pm on weekends and public holidays. Tickets are priced at $30 for front stalls and $40 for stall seats. There’s lots of time to catch this immersive show, but note that the Hong Kong Space Museum is closed on Tuesdays, unless it falls on a public holiday.

The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) is currently holding a joint exhibition with the Palace of Versailles with approximately 150 magnificent pieces to peruse. This is the first time that treasures from the Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles – both World Heritage Sites – will be featured in one exhibition in Hong Kong.

With themes spanning culture, arts, science, technology, and beyond in the royal courts of France and China, visitors can expect to admire portraits, porcelain pieces, glassware, enamelware, textiles, books, scientific instruments, and more. Look out for first-grade national treasures from the Palace Museum in Beijing, such as a chrysanthemum teapot gifted to the Qianlong Emperor that was recently discovered to be made in France, and a quiver and bow case with French-made brocade. Highlights flown over from the Palace of Versailles include a perfume fountain – the only Chinese porcelain piece that Louis XV was known to have owned – and a portrait plaque of Qianlong that Louis XVI had displayed in his study.

Tickets for this special exhibition are priced at $150, with concessions available. Holders of HKPM’s Full Access Ticket can also access The Origins of Chinese Civilisation exhibition at a combined price of $180.