Alisan Fine Arts is excited to announce our participation in the inaugural edition of ART SG where we will be showcasing a variety of works by 10 Chinese contemporary artists ranging from established to emerging. Hailing from mainland China, Hong Kong, US and Canada, they include renowned diaspora artists, Walasse Ting (1928-2010) and Chinyee (b.1929), Hong Kong ink master Lui Shou-Kwan (1919-1975), contemporary ink artists, Nan Qi, Tai Xiangzhou and Wei Ligang, sculptors Ming Fay and Kum Chi-Keung, as well as emerging female artists Tiffanie Ting, and Wang Mengsha. Each artist has a unique visual language with a different art form that respond to the roots of their Chinese culture.
Highlights include ink master Lui Shou-Kwan’s two semi abstract lotus paintings; never been seen before works by Walasse Ting as well as new works created specifically for Art SG by Tai Xiangzhou, Wei Ligang and Wang Mengsha.
Artists Biographies
Chinyee (b. 1929 Nanjing), belongs to the first generation of Chinese diaspora artists. She is best known for her creations combining Eastern spirit and Western expression. In 1947, Chinyee received a scholarship to study at College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1951. She then obtained a Master of Arts in Art Education from New York University in 1953. In the 1950s, she began experimenting with semi-abstract art, then later, total abstraction. The spontaneity of touch, the sense of excitement in compositions, and the unexpected bursts of colours are all genuine expressions of her emotions and life experiences. Chinyee’s outstanding works have been honoured by UNICEF in its educational films, and selected for US Department of State program “Art in Embassies” several times, exhibiting at US Consulate in Hong Kong from 2014-2016. Important exhibitions include Asian Traditions/Modern Expressions touring in 1997-1999 with catalogue published. In February of 2023, she will also participate in a travelling group exhibition of female abstract artists held by the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.
Alisan Fine Arts has been representing Chinyee since 2004, and has organised her 50-year Retrospective at Shanghai Art Museum in 2007; solo exhibition at Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2013; and more recently, at our Central gallery to celebrate her 90th birthday in 2018, with two important catalogues published.
Her works have been collected by numerous private collectors, UNICEF, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Nankai University, Tianjin; and St.Regis Nanjing Hotel, Nanjing, China.
Ming Fay (b. 1943 Shanghai, China), is an internationally renowned Chinese diaspora sculptor, installation artist, and professor. His artworks which draw on his extensive knowledge of both Eastern and Western horticulture and mythologies, primarily comment upon the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature, as seen in the iconic large fruit sculptures and hanging Money Tree installations that will be displayed at our booth. Born in Shanghai in 1943 to artist parents, Fay grew up in Hong Kong, moving to the US in 1961 to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design. He received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since then, he settled in New York to develop his artistic career.
Fay has exhibited extensively around the world, including Whitney Museum of American Art; National Academy Museum, New York; Łódź Biennale, Poland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; Hong Kong Museum of Art. He also had numerous permanent public artworks across the US, including the mosaics of the Delancey Orchard and Shad Crossing at Delancey / Essex Subway station, New York, 2004; Whitehall Crossing at Staten Island Ferry Terminal, New York, 2005. Currently, his work is on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, until June 2023.
Alisan Fine Arts has been representing Ming Fay since 1985, and has organised four solo exhibitions for him, particularly the latest Journey into Nature in 2022-2023 with his monograph published. Important group exhibitions such as New Ink Art: Innovation and Beyond, curated by gallery founder and director Mrs. Alice King, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2008; and Art Basel Hong Kong in 2019, 21 and 22, which won great successes and public attention.
Fay’s works have been collected by various international institutions, including Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus; Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey; Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA; Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei; He Xiangling Art Museum, Shenzhen; Hong Kong Museum of Art, and M+, Hong Kong.
Kum Chi-Keung (b. 1965 Hong Kong) is well known for using sculptural installations in the shape of birdcages to explore social, cultural and environmental issues. His latest sculpture Flying Journey is currently on display at Hong Kong International Airport. Kum has participated in numerous important exhibitions and biennials, including Inside Out: New Chinese Art, Asia Society New York, USA; Mexico; Australia; Hong Kong, 1998; 11th Biennial of Sydney International Contemporary Art Exhibition, 1998; 9th Seoul Fringe Festival, 2006; Solo exhibition, Hong Kong International Art Fair, 2012; China8, NRW-Forum, Dusseldorf; Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany, 2015; Classic Remix: The Hong Kong Viewpoint, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2019.
Kum has been given numerous awards by the Hong Kong Government, including Urban Council Fine Arts Award, 1996; Fellowship for Artistic Development, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, 1999; Persons with Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Arts and Culture, Secretary for Home Affairs, 2014.
Alisan Fine Arts included his works in group exhibitions DESIRING- Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art, 2017; Uniquely Hong Kong, 2020; Asia Society Hong Kong Sculpture Exhibition, 2020; as well as Art Basel Hong Kong and Art 021 Shanghai.
His works are collected by Christian Dior, Paris; Louis Vuitton, Taipei; Opposite House, Swire Group Hotel, Beijing; YK PAO School, Shanghai; Hong Kong Museum of Art; Hong Kong Heritage Museum; K11 Art Foundation; Deutsche Bank, Hong Kong; Bank of China, Hong Kong; Henderson Land Development, Hong Kong; New World Development, Hong Kong.
Lui Shou-Kwan (1919-1975), recognised as Hong Kong’s pioneer in the New Ink Art movement, has had a far-reaching influence on Contemporary ink painting. Born in Guangzhou, Lui’s interest in painting was inherited from his father Lui Canming (1892-1963) from early on. His father was a scholar-painter and owner of an antique shop. Lui studied Chinese painting by copying classical works by past masters as well as studying the works of Western artists, in particular JMW Turner’s atmospheric landscapes. He moved to Hong Kong in 1948 and began working as an inspector for the Hong Kong and Yaumatei Ferry Company in 1949. While working on the pier, he often observed mountains and harbour scenes, which later often appeared in his landscape works. He also experimented with abstraction and symbolism based on Chinese philosophical theories, ultimately leading to his unique Zen Painting. In the 1960s, under the patronage of Sir Geoffrey Barker, he held many solo exhibitions in the UK. In 1971, he received an MBE from the British Government.
Alisan Fine Arts has been representing Lui Shou-Kwan since 1984, and has held 6 solo exhibitions for him. We have also organised two historical group exhibitions at Hong Kong Arts Centre, in 1995 and 2015 respectively, tracing Lui’s career and legacy and the works of his students. In 2019, the gallery, as well as Ashmolean Museum, organised a centenary show for the artist.
Through Alisan Fine Arts, his works have been collected by Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Taipei Museum of History, Taiwan; Art Museum of Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hong Kong Museum of Art, M+, Hong Kong.
Nan Qi (b. 1960 Yongkang, China), is famed for works composed of "halo dots" and interpretations of Chinese cultural icons such as female soldiers and multi-national bills in a Pop Art style. After serving in the military, Nan Qi graduated from the Chinese Painting Department of the People's Liberation Army Art Academy in Beijing with a passion for the painting of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Drawing inspiration from the camouflage of military uniforms and repetitive patterns popularized in Pop Art, he invented his own "halo dots" that allows viewers to experience the effects of 3-D visual imagery. He has had several important solo exhibitions in Singapore, including Luxe Art Museum in 2015 and 2017. Other major exhibitions such as China New Ink Painting Exhibition 1978-2018, Minsheng Modern Art Museum, Beijing, 2018; Being and Inking: Documenting Contemporary Ink Art 2001-2016, Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou, 2016. In recent years, he has turned to the classical themes of landscape and bamboo, as we can see from the paintings on display at ART SG.
Alisan Fine Arts organized Nan Qi's solo exhibition Borrowed Landscapes in 2019 and has included his works at Art Basel Hong Kong and Fine Art Asia.
His works have been collected by Luxe Art Museum, Singapore; Foundation of Chinese Art Development, Singapore; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; UBS AG Shanghai; Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai; Consul General of France in Shanghai; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Timide Maus Collection Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Lohas Park, Nan Fung, Hong Kong.
Tai Xiangzhou (b. 1968 Yinchuan, China) is well-known for his "Cosmoscapes" paintings that emphasise nature's grandeur and beauty. He explores ink art from the perspective of cosmology and astronomy, and is especially inspired by the ancient master Fan Kuan's (c.950–1032) Travellers among Mountains and Streams of the Song Dynasty. Tai was born to a scholarly family and started studying calligraphy with Hu Gongshi (1912-1997) when he was 7 years old. He graduated from the Department of Digital Media, Media Design School, New Zealand in 2001. Despite his successful career in media design and conservation, he decided to further his studies in painting and received a Ph.D. from the Department of Painting, Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2012. He has had more than 30 solo and group exhibitions around the world, including USA, Germany; Netherlands; Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Macau. The Art Institute of Chicago and Four Seasons Macau held solo exhibitions for him in 2021, and currently, his works are on display at Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a new solo exhibition in Beijing.
Alisan Fine Arts held a joint exhibition One with the Universe for him in 2017 with catalogue puablished; and included his works at Art Basel Hong Kong, Ink Asia, and Fine Art Asia.
His paintings have been collected by Brooklyn Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; Seattle Art Museum; The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C.; Arthur M Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Arthur M Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, Peking University, Beijing; Exhibition Gallery of Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Macau.
Tiffanie Ting (b. Vancouver, Canada) was raised in Vancouver and received her B.A. with Honours in art history and psychology at the University of Toronto. She then went on to receive a Master of Education in art and museum education, and Doctor of Education in culture, communities and education, both at Harvard University. In recent years, she has had exhibitions in Hong Kong and the US and has received numerous research and teaching awards. She says about her landscape oil paintings, "I aim to construct views of specific locations that manifest as vaguely familiar but curiously vacant. They become mere backdrops without the action and meaning we ascribe to them through our lived experience. In other words, we need people and relationships to complete the scene. I hope my paintings invite you to consider these ideas in conversation with your own experiences and sentiments."
This is the first time Alisan Fine Arts is exhibiting Ting's oil paintings and the first time Ting and her grandfather, ink master, Lui Shou-Kwan's works are displayed in the same venue.
Walasse Ting (1928– 2010), a Chinese diaspora artist, is celebrated for his colourful and bright depictions of sultry women, horses, flora and fruits. Born in Wuxi, Ting briefly studied at Shanghai Art Academy in the 1940s before leaving for Paris in 1948 at nineteen. He became associated with artists from the avant-garde group CoBrA, including Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Pierre Alechinsky. In 1957, he traveled to New York, where he befriended the American artist Sam Francis; here Ting became strongly influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. In 1964 he wrote One Cent Life, which involved collaborating with twenty-eight masters such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Joan Mitchell. In 1977, he won Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his drawings. By the 1970s, Ting began experimenting with figures, developing the distinctive style that we are so familiar with today. Cernuschi Museum organised a large-scale exhibition in 2017 for Ting and currently have included his works in their group show Ink in Motion: A History of Chinese Painting in the 20th Century.
Alisan Fine Arts organised Ting's first solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 1986 and has since then held more than ten solo shows for him. Most recently, a joint exhibition of Walasse Ting & Sam Francis Celebrating a Friendship which marked Alisan's 40th anniversary celebration in 2021. Through Alisan Fine Arts, Ting's works were exhibited in Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, 2021; Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai, 2017; and Shanghai Art Museum, 1997.
His works have been collected by Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Art Institute of Chicago; Musée Cernuschi, Paris; Tate Gallery, London; Shanghai Art Museum; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Hong Kong Museum of Art, and M+ Hong Kong.
Wang Mengsha (b. 1982 Wuxi, China) is an emerging woman artist who humorously depicts ancient Chinese ladies or couples in garden scenes in bright colours with a unique "freehand brushstroke", a practice that combines Chinese painting with stylistic traits of Pop Art. Wang grew up in an artistic family. In 2006 she graduated from the Xi'an Academy of Fine Art, having studied animation. Since then, she has completed advanced studies at Griffith University, Queensland Australia, and the University of Southampton, UK. After returning to China, she became a full-time artist. Akin to the eminent artist Walasse Ting, with whom she shares a hometown, Wang is inspired by Ting's use of bright colours and calligraphic strokes. However, as a female artist, she applies a feminine perspective to examine the past and the future in ways that redefine contemporary ink art in history and modern culture. Recently she has cooperated with mainland Chinese brands to design packaging for home fragrance brand To Summer and launched a limited edition of a cat figurine.
Wang has been honoured with many awards, including Top 10 Artistic Value Award, Beijing, 2021; Golden Star Prize, National Arts magazine, Beijing, 2013; The 100 Most Favourite Artworks of the Year, Bazaar Art, 2011; China's Young Artists Most Deserving of Immediate Media Attention, Chinese Painting magazine, Beijing, 2009. Currently, her work is on display at the New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge University, UK, a collection of art that focuses solely on female artists.
Alisan Fine Arts held her solo exhibition Gardens in 2016, with catalogue published. Group shows include Beyond the Jade Terrace (2014), HOPE charity exhibition, and art fairs such as Art Basel Hong Kong, Art 021 Shanghai, and Asia Now Paris. For ART SG, Wang has created new paintings depicting a dream with peonies and Chinese gardens.
Wei Ligang (b. 1964 Datong, China) is best known for creating abstract art merging traditional and modern calligraphy that evokes a contemporary feel. Wei initially trained in mathematics at Nankai University, Tianjin in 1981, and practiced classical calligraphy under Tianjin calligraphers Li Henian (1895-1969), Wang Xuezhong (1925-2013) and Sun Boxiang (b.1934). After he settled in Beijing in 1995, he tapped into his analytic genius to revolutionize traditional calligraphy into purely abstract art. Wei was a recipient of the 2005 Asian Cultural Council Fellowship for Visual Art. He was featured in the group show Brushes with Surprise: The Art of Calligraphy in Modern China, British Museum in 2002, and solo shows at Shanghai Art Museum, 2006, and National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 2007. His latest extensive retrospective Universality was held at Zhi Art Museum, Chengdu, in 2019.
Alisan has worked with Wei Ligang since 2004 and has held three solo exhibitions for him, with catalogue published. We have also included his works in the group exhibition of Asian Cultural Council Fellows, 2011, 2018; and numerous art fairs such as three times at Art Basel Hong Kong, Art 021 Shanghai, Ink Asia, and Fine Art Asia.
Important collections include British Museum, London; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Cernuschi Museum, Paris; National Art Museum of China, Beijing.
