On the verge of getting a world-class visual arts museum and famed for being an art auction powerhouse, Hong Kong should better recognise – finally – the amazing talent already in its midst. Edmund Lee gives a shout-out to 22 of our city’s best artists. Photography by Calvin Sit.

What are the most recognisable traits of your work?
I’m always working between different [art forms], like paintings from films, or photos from classical paintings.

Why did you decide to work in this way?
It comes from my trainings. I was taught not in one particular media but all of them. I learnt oil painting, photography, sculpture, Chinese brush and ink, art history and also philosophy, literature, sociology at the same time.

How do you usually find your inspirations?
By research. I read. I seldom do a work just with emotions or feeling.

What’s the best way for collectors to find your work?
In the region of China I am represented by Hanart Gallery. There’re also many collectors who contact me directly.

What have you been up to recently?
Recently I’m doing something quite political. I have been working in the Factory Artist Concern Group, an alliance of different artists from industrial areas. You find artists in industrial areas in many cities; what’s special in Hong Kong is the high land value and policy. We’ve been negotiating with the government. I am working also on the issue about the art representative in the LegCo as it is the election year.

What do you think about the direction our art scene is heading?
It has been changing a lot in these past five years and a bigger change [is still to come]: the West Kowloon Cultural District is coming and the Cultural Bureau will be established. It could be a chance for Hong Kong to have an independent government sector working on arts. It could also be dangerous to have a sector that threatens the freedom of speech.

www.chowchunfai.com

Images:
1) Chow Chun-fai
2) Bodyguards and Assassins, “of the people, by the people, for the people” (enamel paint on canvas, 2011)

| Wilson Shieh | Leung Chi-wo | Ho Sin-tung | Wong Wai-yin | Kwan Sheung-chi | Adrian Wong | Magdalen Wong | Kacey Wong | Chow Chun-fai | Joey Leung Ka-yin | Nadim Abbas | Lee Kit | Stephanie Sin | Stanley Wong aka anothermountainman | Simon Birch | Lam Tung-pang | Ivy Ma | Samson Young | Au Hoi-lam | Pak Sheung-chuen | Tang Kwok-hin | Tsang Kin-wah |