Wai Pong-yu was born in Hainan Island, China in 1982 and moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of 2. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2006. Wai has developed his own artistic style using ink from a ballpoint pen on paper, creating continuous lines that intertwine and multiply in a rhizomatic manner, reflecting his emotions and thoughts. His subject matter often explores concepts related to the cosmos, time, and nature, employing juxtapositions and metaphysical forms. He currently resides and works in Hong Kong.
Wai has actively participated in various major exhibitions showcasing ink art, such as Boundless Reverie: Chinese Savoir-Faire and Contemporary Art, K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, 2024; Wild Imagination: Contemporary Ink Art in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao from 2000 to 2022, Guangdong Museum of Art, 2020; Macao Museum of Art, 2022; The Spirit of Ink: 12 Hong Kong Artists, and New Ink, An Exhibition of Ink Art by Post 1970 Artists from Yiqingzhai Collection, both at Sotheby's Gallery, Hong Kong, 2013. Wai's works were selected for Cathay Pacific Airline's “Gallery in the Skies” project in 2024, a curated exhibition program for the business class cabins of a new fleet of commercial airplanes. Wai has also exhibited at prestigious art fairs such as Art Basel Hong Kong (2013-2023); Kathmandu Triennale 2077 (2022), Ink Asia (2015-2019), Fine Art Asia (2014-2021), as well as Asia Week New York (2015) and SCOPE in New York (2012, 2013). Currently his series A Rhythm of Landscape is on view at M+ as part of the group exhibition, titled Shanshui: Echoes and Signals.
Alisan Fine Arts presented Wai's works for the first time in the exhibition POP ROCK, Hong Kong in 2021, and then exhibited his works in another group show Themes and Variations, New York, 2024.
His works are currently in the collections of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, USA; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, UK; M+, Hong Kong.
BIOGRAPHY
1982 Born in Hainan Island, China
1984 Moved to Hong Kong with his parents
2006 Graduated from Fine Arts Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2024 Selected for Cathay Pacific Airlines project "Gallery in the skies", Hong Kong
Present Lives and works in Hong Kong
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
2013
2009
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
20252024
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2006
2005
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
