About art
Hong Kong 2024: Fair Director’s Picks
Check out Regina’s take on Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong, and how these artworks inspire her in colour, texture and form.
Coco Ma Hiu Lam
Tuesday 23 April, 2024
With Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong just around the corner, our editors spoke with Regina Zhang, Fair Director of Hong Kong, on the artworks she is most looking forward to at the fair.
Grey Walls Gallery, Michelle Copini
Michelle Copini, a Dutch photographer based in Hong Kong, finds beauty in details as she wanders the world’s alleyways. Through her lens, crumbling plaster transforms into landscapes of dreams and imaginings, inviting viewers to explore.
Copini’s photographic journey began when she inherited her father’s camera as a young teenager. Guided by instinct, she seeks out the extraordinary within the ordinary, revealing hidden worlds beyond the mundane, and infusing her work with subtle colours and shapes.
Copini’s work invites us to see beyond the surface, to discover magic in the overlooked and the fleeting. With Hong Kong as her family home over the past twenty years, her works, featuring Hong Kong and surrounding Asian countries, insist on portraying places where authenticity can still be felt.
Visus Gallery, Severine Loisel
Introduced to painting early on by her grandfather, Séverine developed a deep-seated joy in manipulating and exploring colours, a trait that profoundly influences her work to this day.
Her artwork, a vibrant explosion of colour reflecting serene and captivating images, owes much to her early inspiration and the foundational skills acquired at the Institute Van der Kelen in Brussels, where she indulged in learning ancestral methods of ornamental painting and graphics.
Moving beyond commissioned works allowed Séverine to explore her individual expression, gravitating towards abstraction—a departure from traditional figurative work. This blend of personal history, technical skill, and an innate connection to the natural world culminates in Séverine’s canvas, revealing a pure and compelling interpretation of nature through abstract art.
Gallery Voxx , Samantha Redfern
An artist who creates colourful, vibrant and exciting abstract expressionist paintings, Samantha works mainly with acrylics. However, given the spontaneous nature of her work, her pieces often include mixed media including spray paint, paper, pastel and makers. She enjoys mark-making, exploring different textures and combining organic with geometric forms.
As a British-born artist currently living in Singapore, Juicy Jungle is a representation of the tropical landscape and climate. The landscape, jungle and botanics and its abundance of colour, act as the artist’s escape from the city life. This is how she finds solace through the tropical landscape and climate.
GEEEPSY’S ART HUB, Pascal Maljette
Pascal, born in 1961, is a well-established French painter. Currently residing in China, Chinese culture inspires him to explore the meaning of life, in which his Western oil paintings are often infused with Chinese elements. The harmony in his works which carries both Western and Chinese culture is what makes his paintings unique.
The Dreaming Girls series feature faces with the eyes closed, as if the children are dreaming about their future. Some of them are also painted from the back, as if they are dreaming or watching something. It is also a way to push the audience to imagine their faces. “If everything is painted the artwork loses its magic”, painting them without a face is a poetic way to observe somebody, to keep a part of magic and mystery.
“More personally speaking, I believe they all represent a little daughter that I’ve never had. They became alive when the artworks became part of my art collectors’ home, and perhaps they are much more than just artworks, but will forever stay as dreaming little girls…”
Pascal Majette
Ginza Gallery G2, Eberhard Ross
You might recognise Ross’s works as some of his paintings and photography have been used as cover art by ECM records, including releases of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and Jan Garbarek.
Ross’ works delve into the essence of emptiness, where his minimal art finds resonance in the parallels between tones and sounds, mirroring the serene compositions of Arvo Pärt and Keith Jarrett, and drawing inspiration from nature—trees, shells, migratory birds.
Ross’s art, a sanctuary of reflection and rest, employs patterns and rhythms found in nature. Through his work titled Fermata, he extends a single sound, aiming for a resonance that transcends visual to auditory, directly engaging the viewer’s mind. His technique involves layering oil paints, scratching the surface before the final layer dries to reveal hidden hues, and using fluorescent colours on panel sides to create an illuminated effect.
Progetto Picassodefi, Gabriel Lass
Gabriel is an architectural designer and visual artist from Murcia.
For Gabriel, art is a form of expression of human internal feelings, which can only be reflected through painting. Believing in the creation process as authentic therapy, a way to abstract and find peace of mind, he combines the abstract style with an impulsive process guided by his own emotions. Inspired by the textures of nature, by the material, combining his designer profile and his knowledge on materials and textures, he captures images on the canvas that evoke our most primitive and irrational feelings.
Mookji Art Contemporary, Mah Chen
Mah Chen, born in 1981 and based in Shanghai, embarked on his artistic journey from a young age. Driven by a desire to address the world’s darker aspects creatively, Chen aims to contribute positively through his art, characterized by vibrant colours and triumphant movements.
Chen’s work explores lyrical abstraction, exploring the intricate dance between complexity and calmness. Each piece is a dynamic mix of colours and shapes, where meaningless doodles create rich, contemplative dialogues with the viewer. This approach reflects his deeper philosophy of finding peace amid chaos and simplicity in complexity. Through layers of paint that resemble life’s layered experiences, Chen invites viewers on a journey of self-exploration and introspection, offering a unique perspective on life’s vibrancy and the continuous cycle of creation and reflection.
In the vibrant silence of these works, audiences are invited to listen closely, not for the clarity of content, but for the resonance of life itself. The artistic process, this cycle of creation and reflection, is where one finds a meditative stillness, a quietude that hums with the vibrancy of life.
Regina Gallery, Seung Hee Hur
Seung focuses on exploring the human experience and expressing emotions through her work, and finds great interest in delving into the innerworld of individuals, capturing their struggles, hopes, and moments of vulnerability.
Her creative process involves applying thick layers of acrylic on the canvas without preconceived plans or intentions. By layering different colours, drying, scraping, and washing them away, she allows colours to blend and interact organically. This process often leads to unexpected forms and colour combinations, with the juxtaposition of solid paint and the background creating a visual interplay that highlights the silhouettes of human figures.
We hope that Regina’s selection of her favourite works has inspired you to join us at Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong from 16 – 19 May at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Snap up a ticket or visit the Hong Kong fair page for more information.