Gwo Wai Curated Booths
A platform for innovative projects of up to three artists, Gwo Wai Curated Booths demonstrate a non-traditional approach to the visual display of artworks based on a strong curatorial concept developed specifically for the Fair. Gwo Wai is a term from Cantonese opera describing the movement of performers crossing paths on the stage. Taking direction from the sector’s title, participating galleries may choose to highlight the juxtaposition or dialogue of the artists or works presented–or feature a solo project–within a uniquely staged environment.
GWO WAI 2023
Artemis Art, Kuala Lumpur
Artists: Dedy Sufriadi and Taufik Ermas
A collaborative project between Indonesian artists Dedy Sufriadi and Taufik Ermas, “Future Myth” offers an examination of the perceived decline in analytical comprehension within contemporary society. Technological development saw a shift in literacy from an active reading of physical materials to the mindless consumption of electronic media. Regarding an increasing reliance on technology for the dissemination and acquisition of information, their project points out the narrow lens from which information is now delivered, which could lead to distortion and misunderstanding of the truth. Through their works, Sufriadi and Ermas question the superficial understanding of history as a predominant characteristic of future contemporary societies, creating what they refer to as “future myths” about the past through artifacts from the present.
Taufik Ermas, Echo Chamber Effect 3, 2022, acrylic on modified canvas, 100 x 100 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Artemis Art.
Literati Artspace, Hong Kong
Artists: Dickson Yewn, Chen and Zhang and Ho Siu Chong
The exhibition places conceptual photographic works by Dickson Yewn, inspired by the ceremonial vessels and jade of the Warring States period (475 BCE – 403 BCE), in conversation with the collaboration work of artists Chen and Zhang, which offers a conflicting-secular view set in a historical background based on the romance of the Three Kingdoms (220 – 280 AD). The booth exhibit also introduces the works of Ho Siu Chong, a skilled craftsman whose collection actualises an orthodox perception of beauty in Chinese history, synthesized by the thoughts of Confucius.
Dickson Yewn, 11:03 in no man’s land, 1998, gelatin silver print, 50 x 80 x 3 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Literati Artspace.
Suomei M50 Gallery, Shanghai
Artists: Ms. Dyu、Olga de Dios、Xing Wei
The works of Ms. Dyu, Olga de Dios and Xing Wei actively seek to disrupt traditional ideas of art, offering guiltless characters and hopeful dreams in the form of childhood memories to combat the anxiety of everyday life. The artists’ use of identifiable personae and images introduces a new approach to modernism through references to mass media and popular culture. Strong social and political undertones are intertwined with the artists’ use of vibrant colors and unconstrained styles, alluding to times of significant cultural change and upheaval, whilst soothing and healing the viewer’s mind.
Ms. Dyu, Take Off Your Pink Glasses, 2023, oil on canvas, 120 x 130 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Soumei M50 Gallery.
GWO WAI 2022
Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong
Artists: Kim Young-Hun, Kim Sun-Doo, Lee Kyou-Hong and Song Kwangik
Soluna Fine Art showcases the artworks of three contemporary artists from South Korea: Kim Young-Hun, Kim Sun-Doo, Lee Kyou-Hong and Song Kwangik, demonstrating a diversity of aesthetic approaches – from traditional Korean landscape painting to Dansaekhwa, minimal mixed media work and contemporary abstract painting.
Lee Kyou-Hong, Breathing of light (detail), 2020, painting on acid-etched mirror and laminated glass, 60 cm diameter. Courtesy of the artist and Soluna Fine Art.
Square Street Gallery, Hong Kong
Artist: Lousy
Building upon his recent studio residency with EJAR|Ragora, Hong Kong-based artist Lousy presents a new body of work in a special solo project for the Gwo Wai Curated Booth sector of Art Central 2022. An interruption from his standard practice, the artist, while creating his signature figures, expands his iconography and moves towards a central tenet to his practice: a desire to locate the universality of culture through its interconnections.
Lousy, Mask 3, 2022, spray paint and found objects on card-board, various dimensions. Courtesy of the artist and Square Street Gallery.
Literati Artspace, Hong Kong
Artists: Dickson Yewn and Ho Siu Chong
Titled “Yewn Residence 2068”, Literati Artspace presents a continuation of the artist’s vision of the future, particularly of his family’s bloodline amidst envisioned socio-political changes and an imagined environment in the 2060s. Combinations of mediums and techniques – such as precious metal sculpturing, precious stone setting, contemporary enamelling, wood sculpturing, wood inlay, and lost wax casting with oil painting – exemplify the rare art forms championed by the gallery.
Dickson Yewn, Residence 2068 (Artist’s illustration and technical sketch), 2022, gold, silver, copper and diamonds, 90 x 70 80mm. Courtesy of the artist and Literati Artspace.
Mwimbi Fine Art, Lusaka
Artists: David Makala, Lee du Ploy
Race, power, place and identity are deeply woven into the artistic practices of Zambian artist David Makala and South Africa-born, Hong Kong-based artist Lee du Ploy. Both Makala and du Ploy methodically layer time to visually record discussions that reveal personal memories, traditions and reflections on race.
David Makala, The Black David, 2021, monoprint, 60cm x 45cm. Courtesy of the artist and Mwimbi Fine Art.
Create Drive, Hong Kong
Artists: John Wong, Joey Chiang, Leung Wai Yin
New Ink Art, as an experimental application of Chinese ink in art-making, tends to explore possibilities of contemporary expression, conceptually, technically and visually. Collaborating with a trio of New Ink artists from Hong Kong – John Wong, Judy Chiang and Leung Wai Yin – Create Drive aims to engender a space that interprets the unity of man and universe, from the Taoist concept of 天，地，人 (Sky, Earth, Human).
Judy Chiang Yu-Ting, Flirting with the Flowers No. 7, 2017, ink and colour on paper, 61 x 48 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Creative Drive Limited.
GWO WAI 2021
Contemporary Crafts Centre
Giant Year Gallery, which is dedicated to contemporary ceramic arts, joins forces with Gallery by SOIL, which specialized in contemporary lacquer art, to present a show of three female artists utilising various traditional media to create artworks in the contemporary realm. Solan Chiu turned her ceramic practice away from utility to focus on the aesthetic and artistic value of ceramic wares. Nina Pryde incorporates western materials and media in her ink paintings to create works that are more modern and closer to her understanding of art. Sakurako Matsushima creates sizable abstract sculptures with urushi, or Japanese lacquer, pushing the boundaries of traditional techniques and bringing this millennium-old medium into the modern era. These three female artists inject new energy into these traditional media while attempting to advance their practices and keep traditions alive.
Sakurako Matsushima, undercurrents VII, 2009, natural lacquer, hemp cloth, bamboo, gold powder, gold foil, inlays of shells, 78 x 53 x 5 cm.
Novalis Contemporary Art & Design
Trained as an architect, Shiro Kuramata established Kuramata Design Office in 1965 and went on to become one of the most influential industrial designers in post-war Japan. He and his collaborators – including Tadao Ando, Issey Miyake and Tadanori Yokoo – are amongst the founding figures of Modern Japanese design. Feeling choked by modernist colours and form, Ettore Sottsass and fellow designers started to produce eccentric designs as a reaction and an attempt to transcend Modernism. The group called themselves Memphis, and Sottsass invited Kuramata to join their crusade in transforming modern design. Novalis Contemporary Art & Design’s booth brings together furniture design art by these two maestros after the formation of the Memphis Group in 1980. The selected works show how their ideas, hailing from the East and West, respectively, cross-pollinated to become the leading trend in post-modernist design – where form and function are treated with equal importance.
Shiro Kuramata, Imperial, 1981, cabinets with internal shelf in wood, 35 x 40 x 150 cm.
Art Projects Gallery
Art Projects Gallery presents a trio of artists who all incorporate very small components in their works to form a vision and reveal their inner voice. Damon Tong’s works use texts on tiny stickers to form much bigger pictures of texts or images, creating visual hyperbole which pokes at the insecurity that the artist has felt in recent years. Ryota Unno uses Japanese traditional mineral pigments and techniques to create detailed paintings that are akin to traditional Japanese murals. His paintings are based on scenes from his observations of daily life, taken with a humorous twist. Yuriko Morimoto’s meticulous drawings combine different techniques that draw on her study of printmaking, such as intaglio and copperplate printing. Morimoto’s subjects – often innocent children covered in rustic, animalistic masks – reveal her desire and fear of youthfulness.
Yukiko Morimoto, Hunter 1, 2019, copperplate print, ink, pencil, acrylic and toner on paper, 30.3 x 24.2 cm.
LEE & BAE
Individual desire is the driving force of the history of mankind. The three artists presented by LEE & BAE exhibit their desires in the work that they created. YouMee Lee’s sculptures visualize human emotions and the comforting energy that a person’s actions can bring. The Chandelier series of Sangsun Bae continues her exploration of abstract lines, but this time her work is a chaotic one. Each of the chandeliers in her photos is, upon inspection, a different set of knots – a tangled mess that is simultaneously beautiful and disturbing. The mountains in JinWook Yeom’s work are covered by vegetations that seems to be constantly waving under strong gusts of wind. Rather than depicting the stillness and calmness of the landscape, his work shows an active scene that presents mountains as constant, shifting subjects.