Hong Kong 2025 summer exhibitions see young artists explore identity and tradition
'Art Actions: Our Youth Our Future', a small show at the non-profit art incubator Hart Haus, pairs three Hong Kong awardees of the annual Hart Award with three diasporic international artists.
Elsa Ngai Se-ngaa, who received the Hart Award for promising artists upon graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has a personal style that reflects a solid grounding in Chinese art.
On show at the exhibition, her pair of 2025 works titled Transformation I and Transformation II, painted with mineral pigments, are reminiscent of the faded, ancient murals of the Mogao Caves – a Unesco World Heritage site in
Dunhuang , in China's Gansu province, which has become a popular cultural reference for Hong Kong artists in recent years thanks to more opportunities to study its history and to visit.
Transformation II, by Elsa Ngai, at Hart Haus. Photo: Elsa Ngai
Transformation II, by Elsa Ngai, at Hart Haus. Photo: Elsa Ngai
Ngai's half-formed, sensual nudes in the foreground – playful and organic forms that seem to emerge from the outlines of mountains – are apt symbols of a new artistic identity shaking free of past constraints.
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