A quick digest of the coolest weekend happenings in Hong Kong.
Friday, June 14
Chopsticks present: Rebirth by Aruta Soup
PopArt muralist Aruta Soup is known for blending animation culture, black humor and street culture in his paintings and graffiti. He’ll be holding his debut Hong Kong exhibition this weekend, and showcasing some new paintings, which features famous cartoon characters as viewed from the artist’s “ironic point-of-view.” Aruta Soup will also hold a live painting exhibition from 3pm to 5pm on Saturday.
10am to 7pm until Wednesday, July 17 at Lucie Chang Fine Arts, 26 Tai Ping Shan Street, Sheung Wan. Free.
Begin the weekend with a night of local hip hop and rap. Featured artists include JB, Young Hysan, Lee Roc, Realistic & DJ TMC.
11pm to 2am at Acyo Linx Avenue, 3-4/F Silver Fortune Plaza, 1 Wellington Street, Central. HK$300 (at the door) HK$250 (early bird).
City Poetry By Romain Jacquet Lagrèze
As the government ramps up efforts to take down many of the city’s iconic street signs, some groups have been working to save some of these signs from the landfill — while photographers rush to document what’s left of them.
Hong Kong-based photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze will be holding a solo exhibition called City Poetry, which has been described as his most personal project to date. Jacquet-Lagrèze has been taking photos of some of the city’s visually striking street signs, taking them home and having them translated by his wife. City Poetry shows a number of signs taken around Hong Kong made up of different materials that have been put together to form phrases or sentences.
11am to 6pm until Sunday, July 14 at Blue Lotus Gallery: G/F 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan. Free.
This themed exhibition is the third installment of Pace Gallery’s Chewing Gum series, following Chewing Gum (2015) and Chewing Gum II (2017). The exhibit looks at the individual creative states of contemporary artists from different regional and cultural backgrounds, with a special focus on the relationships between people and objects. The exhibition will include work by Lee Ufan, Louise Nevelson, Joel Shapiro, Kiki Smith, and Song Dong, among others.
11am to 7pm until Thursday July 4 at Pace Gallery, 12/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central. Free.
This exhibition will for the first time display drawings, paintings, and notes by artist Lee Wen dating from 1978 to 2014. Lee is a Singaporean performance artist often credited with being the man who shaped the development of performance art in Asia and introducing contemporary art to Singapore. One of Lee’s most notable works is The Journey of a Yellow Man, a series of installations and performances that evolved from a critique of Orientalism into a mediation on freedom, climate change, humility, and religious practices. This exhibition is in memory of Lee, who died last month.
10am to 6pm until Saturday, June 29 at Asia Art Archive, 11/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan. Free.
Saturday, June 15
Chinese Calligraphy Workshop with Master Cathy Ho
As part of the City Poetry exhibition it’s holding, the Blue Lotus Gallery will also be hosting a Chinese Calligraphy workshop for those who want to learn more about the history of the art. Participants will also get to try their own hand at writing some Chinese characters. The workshop will be hosted by calligraphy master Cathy Ho. Materials will be provided. Sign up by emailing: christina@bluelotus-gallery.com.
3pm to 4:30pm at Blue Lotus Gallery: G/F 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan. HK$350.
Participants of this workshop will be taught the basics of dip pen calligraphy, and will receive one-on-one guidance before going off to create your own personally-calliagraphed cards. There are spots still available since the time of this article’s publication — could be a good one if you’re looking to do something creative this weekend.
10am-1pm at Kalo Make Art, Room 201, Ivy House, 18-20 Wyndham Street, Central. HK$950 (per person) HK$1,600 (for two).
Opening Raimund Girke, The Silent Balance
The Axel Vervoordt Gallery presents this exhibition featuring the work of Raimund Girke, the late German artist who was once described as being at the forefront of “Analytical Painting.” This is the third exhibition featuring Girke’s work to be hosted at this gallery, and The Silent Balance builds on the gallery’s exploration of his monochrome paintings and work from the last two decades. There will be an opening brunch reception on Saturday.
11am to 2pm at Axel Vervoordt Gallery Hong Kong, 21/F, Coda Designer Centre, 62, Wong Chuk Hang Road. Free.
Peel Fresco: The Midnight Ramblers Gig
Five-piece blues rock band Midnight Ramblers will be performing some tunes for those night owls who don’t want to go home after a night out in LKF just yet.
11:59pm to 2am at Peel Fresco Music Lounge, 49 Peel Street, Soho, Sheung Wan. Free.
Sunday, June 16
This newly-opened Cantonese opera house is holding guided tours for anyone who has always been curious about the art form and wants to know more. This one hour guided tour will be held in English, and will take guests on a journey through the history of the center, give you insights into the architecture and design of it, and also a history of Cantonese opera.
11am to 12pm at Xiqu Centre, West Kowloon Cultural District, 88 Austin Road West, Kowloon. HK$100 (general) HK$50 (adult HKID card holders) HK$15 (concessions HKID card holders).
This Polish avant-garde black metal band has a sound that has been described as a blend of “the fierceness of traditional black and death metal with a subtle dose of ethereal melodies” (check out their song The I) — and the band’s making its Hong Kong debut this weekend. They’ll also be joined by two local melodic death metal band Insects Wake, who have just released their new song Erosion, and all-female metalcore band Kyanos, who will be opening the show.
7:30pm to 10:30pm at MOM Livehouse, B39, Seven Seas Shopping Centre, 117-121 Kings Road, North Point. HK$330 (advance) HK$380 (walk-in).
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese artist known for blurring the line between high and low art, and blending Japanese artistic traditions with post-war Japanese culture and society. Tai Kwun Contemporary presents this exhibition which will feature over 60 paintings and sculptures from his large-scale post-apocalyptic works to his optimistic flower pieces, and then to his contemplative Enso paintings, offering Buddhist visions of enlightenment. This exhibition will also showcase some of Murakami’s iconic and outlandish costume designs, which visitors will experience alongside other important video works, samples from his private art collection, and Murakami’s spectacular wall and floor art, which serves up a forceful yet complex visual impact.
10:30am to 7pm until Sunday, September 1 at Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Rd, Central. HK$75 (general, walk in) HK$60 (general, advance) HK$55 (concession, walk in) HK$45 (concession, advance).
Chen Danqing: Disguise and Paintings from Life Opening Reception
Tang Contemporary Art will present the opening reception for a solo exhibition by Chinese-American artist Chen Danqing. The Shanghai-born artist who started his trajectory as an artist creating propaganda posters depicting Mao Zedong’s feats was later inspired by the realist paintings of western artists like Jean Francois Millet — and it’s this combination of Western aesthetics and Chinese culture that makes his portraits so visually striking. This exhibition will mark Chen’s first major solo presentation in Hong Kong, and features a series of oil paintings of live models.
6pm to 8pm until Saturday, June 29 at H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central. Free.
The exhibition “Van Gogh Alive” has traveled to many corners of the globe, from Anchorage t0 Alaska to Singapore, and it’s now in Hong Kong. Running until July, this immersive exhibition will display more than 3,000 artworks on LED screens, floors, ceilings, and walls, set to a classical music score that will take visitors on a journey through Arles, where he painted his famous bedroom; Saint-Rémy, where he entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum and painted his famous Starry Night, depicting the view from his window at night; and to Auvers-sur-Oise where he painted Wheatfield With Crows and many other works until his death in 1890.
10am to 9pm (Mon-Thurs) and 10am to 10pm (Fri-Sun and public holidays) until Sunday, July 7 at 1/F, FTLife Tower, 18 Sheung Yuet Road, Kowloon Bay. Free (children under the age of 4), HK$190 (children aged 4-15, full-time students and concessions) HK$230 (aged 15 years and over) HK$550 (family tickets for two adults and one child).
Audrey Hepburn is one of the most famous Hollywood icons of all time, and Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby made a name for himself capturing candid photos of stars. To mark the 90th anniversary of Hepburn’s birth, and the 10th anniversary of Willoughby’s death, F11 Foto Museum will be holding an exhibition presenting 90 of Willoughby’s photos of Hepburn. Each photo — one from each year since Audrey’s birth — features a number of behind the scenes shots of some of her most well-known movies, to rare candid photos of Hepburn as a mother. This exhibition has been curated by F11’s founder and director Douglas So with the help of Willoughby’s son Christopher. Guided tours will also take place on Saturday (2:30pm for English, 4:30pm for Cantonese).
2pm to 7pm until Saturday, July 27 at F11 Foto Museum, 11 Yuk Sau Street, Happy Valley. HK$100 (adults), HK$50 (students and seniors aged 65 and above), free for children aged 11 and under, and disabled persons.
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