About art
The Age of Digital Art — Hong Kong Edition
You can’t underestimate the creativity of technology and the arts. Read on for an understanding of digital art, including some recommendations and help on where to start.
Cleo Tse
Wednesday 27 April, 2022
With jargon such as NFT and AI Art exploding in the art world, it seems like there are a lot to learn before we can thoroughly understand what digital art is. In this blog, we will look at its fundamentals and also introduce you a few digital artists, who you can find at the Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong on 4 – 7 August at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. (Or, if you want to see some digitally created art now, you are just one step away!)
What is digital art?
Digital art is not a novel idea and its first appearance can be traced back in 1960s. However, it was not unanimously celebrated by artists as it met resistance from traditional types of art, such as painting and drawing. The advance of technology helped people to realise the potential of digital art, including how it could transform creativity and enhance the experience of audiences.
Digital art takes many different formats, from entirely computer-generated or it can be adopted from other sources, such as photographs and scanned graphics. Click here to see our digital art collection.
Further on the development, digital art is no longer two-dimensional. Artists have extended their imagination and artworks can be three-dimensional, immersive, or even in another realm! The augmented reality project “Break The Chain” by A.L.A.N. (Artists who Loves Animals and Nature) back in our Hong Kong 2021 fair is an great example.
With scanning, augmented reality will appear and wild animals will be roaming at the fair on the mobile phone screens.
Artists exploring the digital dimension…
We understand that Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong has a role to play in breaking down barriers and democratising the art world and its various mediums, including digital art! We have handpicked a few new and emerging artists who focus on, or start to explore the digital dimension – keep scrolling for more!
CAROLINE TRONEL, AKA THE FRENCH GIRL FROM THE WOMEN ARTISTS COLLECTIVE
The contemporary & NFT artist Caroline Tronel a.k.a. THE FRENCH GIRL is a curious person by nature, and explains why she was a perfume school graduate but now a full-time artist.
March 2021 was the moment when she decided to dedicate herself to her art career, and also when the NFT trend started to boom.
While traveling is difficult for everyone around the world, Caroline has figured out a new way to reach new audiences and the digital world has helped a lot.
“Digital art intrigues me because it is a new medium to play with. It is about creating new textures with new tools and generating new feelings and emotions. This new technology also allowed me to create a concept bridging the gap between my physical practice and the digital world. NFT technology allows artists to reach a new crowd of cryptocurrency owners and enter the Metaverse. It will definitely offer endless opportunities in the future. I also foresee that within 5 years max, every home would have a screen displaying NFTs at home. Digital art will be part of our everyday life!”
The French Girl
YIHONG HSU FROM GALLERY JEEUM
Korean artist Yihong Hsu‘s artworks are definitely no stranger to our Hong Kong audience. She has been exhibiting with our family gallery Gallery Jeeum and has been a popular artist at the fair. Her signature style of bold and brightly coloured plants come in various sizes, all harmoniously composed on canvas.
This year at our fair, Yihong will be collaborating with an art technology partner Art4Raise to digitalise her artwork “Decisions” to be a large-scale digital installation. The original painted work is HUGELY impressive in size: 520cm in width and 180cm in height!
Acrylic on canvas in real life and converted to 2-dimensional animation, visitors will be able to see the plants blooming and growing in their own paces and speed, just like different people in the world with various characteristics in the surroundings.
“There is always a story that plays out in my head as I paint. Therefore I am super excited to animate and digitalise my work because I get to see that story come to life!”
Yihong Hsu
EUGENE LUN FROM LOVE, NOT COMPLEX
Presented by one of the new exhibitors, Love, not complex, artist Eugene Lun specialises in illustrations and printmaking and was awarded the HKOP Award in Printmaking (2021).
He did not just stop at the static graphic and was further inspired by artist Mateusz Kolek (exhibiting artist at our fair in 2021), whose solo exhibition collaborated with Augmented Reality (AR).
“Screen-printing allows me to use vivid and flat colours in the artwork; printmaking itself is a long-history art technique and I think integrating the old and new techniques together would be fun to work with. Therefore I started applying AR to my prints”
Eugene Lun
Graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Visual Arts in 2021, Eugene’s practices are inspired by pop culture and daily life issues. He opens up to the playfulness and bizarre sides of people through art.
“Prints can only capture a static graphic or picture, while integrating AR could achieve a higher completion for the artworks and provide more details and plots for the audience,” Eugene adds on the reason why he uses technology with the traditional ways to art making.
As an upcoming and young Hong Kong artist, Eugene is now actively freelancing with experience in the advertising industry.
There are a lot more to be provided later this year at Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong 2022. Stay tuned, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. So you won’t miss out any news from us including top galleries to look out for at the fair and activities for your family and friends!
Or, if you can’t wait until 4 – 7 August to visit the fair in person, why not browse our sister site AffordableArt.com to check out more digital works of art right away – happy shopping!
