Katie de Tilly of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Central Hong Kong launches a new art space in Hong Kong. The first of its kind, the 10 Chancery Lane Gallery Annex, is a dedicated, New York style, warehouse exhibition space. The Annex located in Chai Wan, is 2000 sq ft, with 16ft high ceilings, is a unique addition to the already well-established 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Central. To launch the space, a suitably spectacular group show will start on September 29th through November 15th. Hong Kong’s leading artist, Simon Birch, will curate the exhibition of leading regional artists.

The 10 Chancery Lane Gallery Annex in Chai Wan (2,000 sq. feet) will open on September 29th with a group show curated by artist Simon Birch. There will be 3 simultaneous spaces (2,000 sq. ft + 1,000 sq. ft. + 1,000 sq. ft.) used to hold the exhibition that will include painting, photographs, installation, video and performance by a renowned group of artists. The Chai Wan exhibition is located in Chai Wan Industrial City Phase 1, which is turning out to be a budding artist’s district of small artists’ studios. The 10 Chancery Lane Gallery would like to expand and promote this idea by creating a presence amongst this already existing artist’s area. The space will be used as an on-off shoot and the expansion of the current gallery shows not only an off beat but also a funky space to be given to use by local artists and both local and international curators. An artists-in-residence space will be provided in the same building to invite artist’s from abroad to work in Hong Kong.

O.C.P. - Outside Context Problem

Artists confirmed:
Simon Birch – UK/Hong Kong
Huang Rui – China
Li Wei – China
Cang Xin – China
Wing Shya – Hong Kong
Anthony Lam – Hong Kong
Stanley Wong/ Anothermountainman – Hong Kong
Tatsuyuki Tanaka – Japan

Venue:

10 Chancery Lane Gallery Warehouse Annex - Warehouse Exhibition Space
Chai Wan Industrial City Phase 1, Warehouse 614
60 Wing Tai Road
Chai Wan
Hong Kong

Date:
Reception and launch September 29th 7pm-11pm
September 29th – November 15th 2006

After November the show will move to 798 Beijing Dashanzi Art’s district, China

About the Exhibition – O.C.P.

“It’s a great opportunity to curate at a space such as this. To be able to bring together artists in such an impressive gallery is a very exciting thing. I chose artists that could relate to the theme who are strong both conceptually and visually, and that could rise to the challenge of the scale of the space present. The theme for the show is about sudden and unexpected change; change that has a lasting affect on the individual or an entire culture. To me, the theme clearly has relevance to this selection of artists. All are dealing with social, political, or personal change. The theme is reflected in the space, which marks a turning point in our local art scene. Further to this, the theme has much resonance in contemporary Asian society.”

----- Simon Birch

The title of the show, ‘O.C.P.’ (Outside Context Problem) is like any problem outside a society's experience, with an immediate, ubiquitous and lasting impact upon an entire culture. A OCP is "outside the context," as it is generally not considered until it occurs, and the capacity to actually conceive, or consider the OCP in the first place, may not be possible, or of very limited restraint (i.e. one may not have the knowledge or ability to realize that the OCP can arise). An example of OCP is an event where a society does not consider the possibility that a much more advanced society can exist, and then if encounters one or, when an unexpected event happens that drastically changes the situation in a given culture. About the artists: Simon Birch

Born in Brighton in 1969, Birch began painting at a very early age under the guidance of his parents. His mother is an accomplished painter and art teacher and his father, a graphic and interior designer. Birch moved to Hong Kong in 1996 where he eventually took up a professional career as an artist. He is now well established as a leading Hong Kong contemporary artist, who is fast building a reputation internationally as both a painter and a multi-media artist with his finger on the pulse of street culture. Winner of 2004’s Schoeni Asian Art Award awarded by the Sovereign Group - he is known for his painting; in particular his portraits which have drawn attention due to a number of high-profile commissions. He has also held a series of extremely successful solo exhibitions in the past few years as well as finding time to curate one of Hong Kong’s largest group shows with over 30 artists involved. He has also become a target of speculation with his graffiti projects around the city of Hong Kong, and his exciting collaborative works with designers and photographers. His current projects include not only curating this inaugural exhibition at the new 10 Chancery Lane Warehouse space, but also a large scale collaborative project with photographer Wing Shya and Japanese fashion brand Evisu, an upcoming solo exhibition and a number of substantial commissioned works.

Huang Rui

HUANG RUI is a Beijing artist that has been both famous and active in the Chinese Contemporary art scene for the last 27 years. He is one of the leaders of the famous “STARS MOVEMENT” (XING XING 星星), where in 1979 some thirty protestors demanding artistic freedom opened the doors for the entire contemporary art emergence that is exploding in China today (other artists in this group include Wang Keping, Ma Desheng, Ai Weiwei etc.). He is also the backbone of the Dashanzi Festival in Beijing’s FACTORY 798 art’s district, where galleries, artist’s atelier and performances vibrate into a rich cultural exchange that is being talked about and oscillates worldwide.

Huang Rui’s works convey a daring simplicity, captured by the clean geometry and symmetry of his installation works and the consistent reliance on primary colors in his paintings and sculptures. All of his works stand alone as objects of beauty. At the same time, Huang Rui is a highly socially engaged artist who incorporates important political and historical references into his works. He has a particular fascination with Chinese political slogans from the 1980s reform era, which, using tidy, controlled brushstrokes, are deliberately enlarged on stark white canvases. Nearly three decades since the formation of the Stars, and fifteen years since his return from self-exile in Japan, Huang Rui’s works continue to be inextricably linked to the society that he lives in.

Li Wei

LI WEI takes performance at its starting point. These are stagings of chaotic situations, impossible actions, and unlikely occurrences, all of which are treated with large doses of irony and an acid sense of humour, and are used by the artist to confront diverse social and political topics with a language and code that is easily understandable by anyone anywhere in the world. The final result is photographs and videos made during the performances that are later digitally manipulated.

Li Wei (born Hubei, 1970) lives and works in Beijing. Since 2000 he has regularly shown his work in China, the U.S. and Europe in private galleries, museums and institutional centers. Exhibitions include Open Art Platform at the Performance Art Festival, 2000, Constructed Reality - Beijing/Hong Kong Conceptual Photography at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Scar - Chinese Conceptual Photography at the Exhibition Hall of Capital Normal University, 2001, and Flying – Performance, Photography, Videos, Beijing Red Square, 2002.

Abroad he has been included in shows in France, the Prague Biennial, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Cesena, Bologna Italy. Other recent exhibitions include Tiananmen, in Paris, and MMAC Japan, Artificial Merriment Melbourne Australia, 2004, and at the Seattle Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

CANG Xing - Born 1967 Suihua, Heilongjiang province

Cang Xin is a Beijing-based performance and conceptual artist active since the mid-90s, when he was one of the "East Village" community of experimental artists who became notorious for the sometimes extreme physicality of their performance work.

A participant in the group performance To Add One Meter to an Unknown Mountain, which has since become one of the defining images of Chinese contemporary art, Cang Xin began to find his own artistic identity in the 1994 work Trampling Faces. Like much of his later work, it explored issues of Self and Other in a way that was both ceremonial and spontaneous, always depending on the participation of others for completion. In the Communication series, ongoing since 1996, the artist has used his tongue to experience elements of the material world from small everyday items to monumental cultural symbols. China is one of the world's most gastronomically obsessed cultures - so much so, says Cang Xin, that 'You could say that happiness in China is very much about the mouth.' In his Communication series, begun in 1996, he explores the impulse to experience things with the mouth. These performance-based photos feature the artist licking a variety of objects that are emblematic of Chinese material culture.

Wing Shya 　

Wing Shya is a Hong Kong-based photographer who works in the field of fashion, film, and art. He started his career as a graphic designer after having studied at the Emily Carr Institute in Canada. He also worked with Pentagram in The United States. Upon his return to Hong Kong, Wing set up Shya-la-la Workshop, an award- winning design studio.

Wing is also the exclusive photographer and graphic designer for Wong Kar Wai’s films that included Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046.

Wing also contributes to numerous international fashion and art magazines such as iD (UK), French Vogue, 32c (Berlin), Big Magazine (US), More or Less (Japan), Men's Non-No (Japan) and recently in TIME Style and Design (Spring 2005). And worked with clients like Louise Vuitton (Fall 2003+Spring 2005 Editorial) Lacoste (Fall 2002+Spring 2003), Christophe Lemaire (Fall 2003), A bathing ape (Japan), Tiger Beer (International Campaign), Hennessy V.S.O.P. 2005, Nike (Asia Women's Wear 2005) and Dior Skin Care (Asia 2005).

Aside from photography, Wing is also a recognized director. He has directed several music videos for artists such as Karen Mok, Eason Chan, Jacky Cheung and Vanessa Mae. He has also worked on TV commercials with brands like Tiger Beer, Sony and Olympus.

He has just held his own exhibition in March 2006 in Roppongi Hills Japan and is in the process of more collaborating with other organizations.

Anthony Lam

Born in Hong Kong in 1964, Anthony Lam received his formal education in the UK where he completed both his BSc. (Arch) and BArch., and degrees at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, University of Dundee. Returning to Hong Kong in 1991, he continues to practice architecture until the present. He is among the second cohort of graduates from the Bachelor in Fine Arts Degree, jointly offered by the Hong Kong Art Centre and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, where he graduated with distinction in 2002. While still an undergraduate at the RMIT, his work had already been collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. His work was also selected to exhibit at the 13th, 14th & 15th Contemporary HK Art Biennial Exhibition in 2001, 2003 & 2005 respectively. He has been awarded twice a finalist of the Philippe Charriol Foundation Annual Art Competition. Anthony has held a number of solo and group shows in Hong Kong

Stanley Wong/ Anothermountainman

Stanley Wong, alias Anothermountainman, was born in Hong Kong in 1960. He’s spent over 15 years in the advertising; he’s worked at Modern Advertising Ltd, Gery (HK) Advertising and J. Walter Thompson, nearly half that time as creative director. In 1996, Stanley left Hong Kong to join Bartle Bogle Hegarty (Asia Pacific) in Singapore as Regional Creative Director, where he became the first Chinese to undertake this oversea position in Asian Advertising Industry. He returned to Hong Kong in 1999 to take up the position of Chief Executive Officer and Executive Creative Director of TBWA Hong Kong. In 2000, Stanley jointed Centro Digital as Chief Creative Officer/Film Director. In July 2002, Stanley set up threetwoone film production limited.

In the past, Stanley has won close to 300 Hong Kong, Regional and international graphic design and advertising creative awards. He has won a record amount of design and photography awards in HK in the past 2 years.

Besides advertising, Stanley exerts genuine interest and involvement in fine art and photography, focusing on human rights and social issues. His talent in the photography field has been recognized by numerous exhibitions and awards. His works are found in several prestigious private and public collections. Most recently, Stanley represented Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale.

Tatsuyuki Tanaka

Tatsuyuki Tanaka is a Japanese artist famous for manga style illustrations and animations. His first remarkable work was producing the original pictures for the animation film "AKIRA", undoubtedly the finest example of manga ever. He joined as a key animator. He also published a collection of his works "CANNABIS WORKS". In recent years, he made an animation "Wonder 'Bout" which is promotion Video for Utada (a Japanese singer) as well as producing work for Sony Playstation video animations. He is currently producing work for the omnibus animation film "Genius Party" and the comic "BOILED HEAD". Science fiction, cyberpunk, alternate realities, fantasy, robots, and fantastic machines, these are just a few of the themes covered by famed artist and illustrator Tanaka. Having done the image boards for Fushigi No Umi No Nadia (The Secret of Blue Water), character designs for the video game Linda Cubed, and tons of storyboards for Studio 4C (famous for it's work on Spriggan, MEMORIES, and Vampire Hunter D, as well as Grasshoppa and Vermilion Pleasure Nights), he is a truly remarkable artist ranking with the likes of Range Murata, Jun Tsukasa, Nihei Tsutomu and Masamune Shirow.