All around Hong Kong, Galleries were doing events alongside the Art Basel. We headed towards Sheung Wan area of Hollywood Road where some Galleries had late open evenings.
First stop: Contemporary By Angela Li Gallery showcasing ‘Shi Jindian: Paintings & Sculptures’. Using fine stainless steel wires, he would wrap and twist around the individual components that make up a bicycle or a motorcycle and re attach together again; creating a 3D wire sculpture. Paintings by Shi is also showcased for the first time, just like the time consuming sculptures, his paintings are of circular shapes painted using a thin paintbrush, building layer upon layer, then removed by scraping the paint off, then painting over again, creating the sense of depth in his paintings.
Second stop: The Cat Street Gallery’s current exhibition ‘Wonderworks ‘showcases over 50 artists from around the world. Here’s a few favourites from that night.
Loved Wolfgang Stiller’s Matchstick men- the oversized burnt matchsticks with casts of human heads.
Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew, Portrait (Little Girls)
We saw Stuart Palm, an event entertainer, he caught our attention by sketching a portrait image of a lady – with a black cloth bag over his head and sporting a metal ski google! She had her hand on his palm but he ‘couldn’t see’ yet the sketch looked like her…..!
I wanted to have a go too… and asked my partner to get him to draw me without him seeing me! 🙂 He asked me all these questions and I tried not to be too detailed or giving too much away and we played The Cube story game; which in the end learnt it was sort of a personality test from the objects I was describing. Seeing the final sketch, I’m sure he could see through the cloth slightly but never the less – it was fun and entertaining!