Long to Belong

Contemporary by Angela Li is pleased to present Long to Belong joint exhibition. This exhibition brings together drawings and paintings by three young artists from Hong Kong – Tang Kwong San, Kwong Man Chun and Apple Wong Hiu Fung. Long to Belong offers distinct individual perspectives on the concept of being ‘belong’, examining the essence of their personal experience, in orbit around their views on family, heritage and social existence. This joint exhibition opens on 21 November 2019 from 6pm to 8pm in conjunction with Hong Kong Art Week Art Gallery Night and remain on view through 14 December 2019. The artists will be present during the opening reception. 

Tang Kwong San is the recipient of Fresh Trend 2019 Art Graduates Joint Exhibition Contemporary by Angela Li Award. The award-winning work is a diptych graphite drawing titled Bedroom. This monochromatic work encases a tense atmosphere of melancholy; the scene of a bedroom is almost like artificially constructed, objects depicted freeze in time and transform in meaning. Bedroom is a journey to San’s inner world, reflecting his longing of connectedness and bondedness with the family. Alongside the diptych drawing are San’s oil paintings and installation, where the artist focuses on exploring the intersections of cultural identity and the systematization of social experience.  San holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art, co-presented by The Royal Melbourne Institute of technology University Australia and Hong Kong Art School. He has earned other outstanding awards, among others, Mr. Jerry Kwan Memorial Scholarship (2018/2019), Hidden Space Award (2018/2019), Hong Kong Art School Higher Diploma in Painting Best Artwork (Painting) (2016), the HKSAR Education Bureau Outstanding Performance Scholarship (2015/2016), and the Hong Kong Designers Association Designer Student of the Year (2014).  

Surrealist paintings by Kwong Man Chun harbour a sense of nostalgia. Overlapping sceneries and people from the past with present settings play a large part in Kwong’s work. In his oil painting “Huang Cen Ling and Tenement House”, the artist finds himself peering into his former residence in Huang Cen Ling, China, basing his painting on its relation to his present home at a tenement house in Hong Kong. Greenery of Huang Cen Ling blends seamlessly with the interior setting of tenement house; antique furniture of the former home and a half-faded lady in cheongsam juxtaposed with a bunkbed from the present time. Kwong’s creative process serves as a ritual for gratitude towards his root, each of the elements in the painting reinforces each other, encapsulating the artist’s sentimentality and nostalgic reflection. Kwong holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University. He has participated in exhibitions in Hong Kong, China, Australia and USA since 2013. 

Human being is always at the centre of Apple Wong’s practice. She is interested in exploring self-consciousness and intersubjectivity from another dimension. In Wong’s coloured drawings, the mood and emotion conveyed may evoke a deep sense of loneliness and isolation to viewers, but to the artist herself it is a quest for serenity and to contemplate her inherently social existence. Her monochromatic drawings in contrast, Wong significantly increased the number of nearly identical humans. The physical space between each human is so close, and yet the repeating similar body movements and emotionless facial expressions further amplified the vulnerability of human connections. Through drawing the same subject repetitively, Wong attempts to envision this process as therapy to overcome her anxiety toward interpersonal relationships. Wong received a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the recipient of The Derwent Art Prize 2016 – Young Artist Award, Fresh Trend 2014 Outstanding New Artist Award and Hong Kong Cliftons Art Prize 2011.