Leo Gallery Hong Kong is pleased to present – Untitled, a solo exhibition of renowned contemporary Chinese artist Yan Bo.

Seeking freedom in art forms, Yan Bo uses mineral material as the foundation in his work; distances himself from the boundary of rectangular or square canvas and creates works in irregular shape. To him, this is how an artist seeks freedom in creation. Each creation process is a wander to the unknowns. The initial setting was repeatedly tampered, and finally the work is completed with psychological and visual satisfactions.

Yan Bo introduces abstract shapes and colors to his work. After polishing and layering the mineral colors and other mixed materials, the works he accomplished turned into solid objects with multiple dimensions. He constantly tries all sorts of colors and materials to obtain his own painting language, as a result, his work brings us a fresh, genuine and dreamful experience.

Lacquer has become the foundation of Duan’s works since his graduation. It is a traditional material with long history of nearly 8,000 years and a profound cultural background. Mastering lacquer paint requires high level of skills, Duan has spent years to build up a strong foundation and started his artist independent creation in the second half of the pursuit of his Master’s Degree, gradually formed the series of artworks presenting in this exhibition.

In Common, Hong Kong
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Leo Gallery is delighted to present “In Common”, a solo exhibition by Chinese Contemporary artist Xiao Jiang, showcasing a series of 16 oil paintings.

Xiao’s works are often reminiscent of paintings by American realist artist, Edward Hopper. If Hopper’s paintings captured the character’s melancholy state of solitude, then Xiao’s works are a demonstration of their tediousness in daily life.

“This series is derived from my daily life and personal experiences: faces under dimmed lights, people wandering among the mountains, they’re relaxing, napping, or appreciating the landscape… I would like my artworks to be less straightforward, they appeared to be ordinary yet are in fact with a hint of implication. This helps leaving rooms for audiences to have their own interpretation. With a bit of life attitude, all the ups and downs are in fact ordinaries.” – Xiao

PFAD (Dào) can be translated to “path” in German. A path that varies from individual to individual, filled with different experiences, values and approaches to life. Max Huckle’s works can be read in various ways, depending on which path you find yourself walking on. His paintings lure one in multifarious ways – from meaningful abstraction, a deep understanding of composition, to brittle yet powerful lines. Through his paintings, Max evokes a glimpse of the ephemeral nature of physical reality, while he still manages to leave enough space to the observer.

The exhibition “Chill Out!” is inspired by the three “Chill Out” installations that included marble drops combined with a table, a chair, and a bench, bringing Lai Chi Man’s spirit and artistic achievements back to his hometown. Amanda Wei Gallery hopes that through curating this exhibition, a multidimensional display from paper to three-dimensional, from outdoor to indoor, could achieve a harmonious scene with the oriental spirit and natural image embodied in it. Let‘s return to the fundamentals of human beings and experience the attitude of beauty and peace by gazing at those still drop sculptures: between heaven, earth, objects, and subjects, chill out and ride through uncertain situations.

This exhibition will display CEET’s latest series including works on canvas, 3D prints, and sculptures, to present the new creativity and exploration spirit that served as artist’s latest inspiration. The dynamic representation of the edge lines of the Chicanos make them look more lively. The flexible use of colors gives to audience a vivid visual impact. The experiments with new materials and techniques serve as a reminder that our relative reality is always in motion and changing.

In the exhibition Twisted & Tangled, Eric Niebuhr gathers his inspiration from everyday scenes across Hong Kong streets. Twisted & Tangled showcases a selection of his latest works and the behind-the-scenes painted studies. The artist plays the line between the figurative and abstract forms. It challenges with a familiar sense of perception but leaves indefinite readings in the viewers’ mind.

Axel Vervoordt Gallery Hong Kong is pleased to present an exhibition by the Korean photographer Bae Bien-U featuring a selection of intimate, small works. Bae Bien-U is renowned for creating meditative landscape photographs, which have an almost calligraphic quality about them. The leitmotif behind his photographs is a reflection on communion and the possible osmosis of man with nature – the source of life – with which we must live in harmony.
This exhibition is comprised of sixteen small works, all hand-printed by Bae Bien-U. Every photograph is unique, as no other editions were ever printed in this small format. They consist of different series: Seascapes, Sonamu (Pine Trees), and Orum (Windscapes). Two works are photographed in Olympic Park, Seoul, and HIA in Hyang-il am, Yeosu along the southern coast. All pine trees were taken in Gyeongju, the Sea- and Windscapes were all photographed in Jeju, a volcanic island with a particularly unique climate as a result. In each photograph, Bae captures the energy of life that is believed to pass through them. The ritual of coming and going, of man’s short “encounters” in life and nature.

Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to present the second solo exhibition by Jaromír Novotný (°1974, Český Brod, Czechoslovakia) in the Hong Kong location. The exhibition invites visitors to experience the silent and seemingly monochrome creations, which, through the use of colour and materiality, enable the power of memory and remembrance.

In modern days, there’s a strong tendency to rely only on what is seen. The act and ability to see may result in an illusion or misconception of things and situations. However, Novotný’s works and his creative process gently reminds viewers that human intuition has great potential, perhaps more than may be realised. The word ‘tactile’ was derived from Latin for ‘that may be touched, tangible’. It refers to the physical act of feeling; the experience of touching – for example, the skin. Novotný’s work bears the traces of the human hand and presents itself as a skin around the frame, or a membrane that blocks certain aspects or sensations of vision while allowing others.

For his upcoming exhibition HERE COMES THE ROOSTER at Over the Influence, Hong Kong, Ryan Travis Christian creates a menagerie of characters using anthropomorphism as a humorous route through a dark world view. The exhibition features new charcoal on paper works, alongside canvas paintings, a medium which the artist is exhibiting for the first time.

Ryan Travis Christian’s work draws influence from vintage political cartoons and hand-drawn animation used in a cheery yet ominous fashion to comment on politics, drugs, and the contemporary life of suburban America. As the chaos of 2020 unfolds amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Christian has, like many of us, pushed himself to break free of the self-imposed constraints of his practice. For his first solo exhibition in Asia, he has employed charcoal on paper in a freer version of the tightly intricate pencil drawings for which he’s known. The new body of work embraces the rough and residual marks of the artist left behind by a dirty fingertip or careless elbow and embodies the artist’s feelings about the state of the world – a world that is messy and unpredictable.