Hong Kong Central Library
Past 2016-12-02 - 2016-12-08
Group Exhibition of 35 Selected Gallery Artists & Book Launch of a Monograph Detailing the Gallery’s History
To be officiated by Mr. CH Tung
Opening remarks begin promptly at 6 PM
Location: Hong Kong Central Library, Galleries 1, 2 & 3 (66 Causeway Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong)
This year, Alisan Fine Arts celebrates its 35th anniversary. On this momentous occasion, we will be presenting a large-scale exhibition at the Hong Kong Central Library, featuring a curated selection of 35 works by 35 artists the gallery has represented throughout its history. Several of these works have never been published or exhibited before. The exhibition showcases significant paintings from important private collections, acquired through the gallery, by canonical Hong Kong, Mainland, Taiwan, and Chinese diaspora artists. Featured artists include Zao Wou-ki, Chu Teh-chun, Chao Chung-hsiang, Walasse Ting, Lui Shou-kwan, Fang Zhaoling, Wang Tiande, Wei Ligang, and Gao Xingjian, among others. This exhibition presents a glimpse into the history of Chinese contemporary art and, more locally, Hong Kong’s evolving art ecology from the 1980s to the present.
Alongside the exhibition, a monograph will be published, dedicated to the gallery’s history, the artistic milieu of Hong Kong from 1980 to 2015, and the accomplishments of Director Alice King. The book will feature works by over 50 artists that have been placed in significant museum and private collections, including the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at Oxford University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In addition to showcasing these artworks, the monograph will include essays by distinguished academics, curators, and collectors of Chinese contemporary art.
Notable contributions include essays by Catherine Maudsley, detailing the gallery's history, and interviews with artists and their families. These include insights from the children of Walasse Ting and Lui Shou-kwan, as well as the wives of Zao Wou-ki and Chu Teh-chun. Reflections by artists Wang Tiande, Wei Ligang, Gao Xingjian, and Xu Lei further enrich the book’s narrative. Numerous pages are dedicated to the artists’ relationships with the gallery, featuring primary sources such as photographs and handwritten letters from our archives.
Additional contributors to the monograph include HC Tang, Mayching Kao, Julia F. Andrews, Martina Köppel-Yang, Jeffrey Wechsler, Lars Berglund, and Tiffany Beres. Collectors Victor Lo and David Pong also share their perspectives on Alisan Fine Arts' role in introducing Chinese contemporary art to the Hong Kong public.