Grotto Fine Art is delighted to present Echoes of Nature, a solo exhibition by Hong Kong artist Chan Kwan-lok, running from March 8 to April 12, 2025. The exhibition focuses on CHAN's latest series of works, created using the traditional biamiao (fine brush painting) technique. Through delicate and refined lines, the artist explores the interplay between permanence and impermanence in nature, showcasing the rhythm of life and profound emotions within the landscapes.

The exhibition title, Echoes of Nature, draws inspiration from the novel of the same name by Yasunari Kawabata. In the novel, the fleeting sound of the mountain evokes a deep reflection on impermanence. Similarly, CHAN Kwan-lok turns to nature as a source of solace amidst personal experiences of loss, observing the cycles of life and decay in insects and plants. Using the biamiao technique, CHAN captures these subtle transformations, reinterpreting mountains as ever-changing living entities, revealing the interconnectedness and continuous flow of life in the natural world. As an essential form of traditional Chinese art, Biamiao emphasizes the use of line work to depict both form and spirit. In Echoes of Nature, CHAN skillfully integrates this classical technique into a contemporary context, capturing the unspoken language of nature and the beauty of life's transitions.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟴, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟮 𝘁𝗼 𝟲 𝗽𝗺.  Additionally, a book launch for CHAN's latest publication, 𝘉𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, will take place on Saturday, March 22, 2025, from 2 to 4 pm.

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

Grotto Fine Art is proud to present ‘The Luminous and Hidden’, a solo exhibition by renowned Hong Kong artist Hung Hoi.
The present exhibition features new works that shatter boundaries or limitations on how a traditional Chinese ink painter addresses abstraction on a conceptual level. Hung Hoi’s new works feature a conceptual abstraction that combines irregular color shapes and patches with intense emotional ideas. The artists want to express thoughts and questions about the environment and time. The paintings do not show clear objects. Instead, shapes, colors, and textures represent concepts. Viewers must interpret the meaning from the work’s visual language.

Opening Reception:
Oct 26 (Sat), 2-6pm

Artist Sharing Session:
Nov 2 (Sat), 3-5pm

Venue: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

One of the most famous dancers of the early 1900s, Loïe Fuller created an extraordinary sensation in Paris with her manipulations of hundreds of yards of silk, swirling high above her and lit dramatically from below. Her work inspired artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Auguste Rodin, and Stéphane Mallarmé, and she embodied many of the decorative themes of Art Nouveau and emphasized the importance of light in expressing forms and movements.

The present exhibition Light & Traces places Fuller in the context of Chinese aesthetic culture and offers a compelling display of the interaction between light, ink marks and movement that includes paintings, sculpture and mixed media works.  Featuring the penetration of light onto the surface as well through the medium in translucent manner, artists place this dual element as indispensable and their interaction as the focus of their works.  This group exhibition adds significantly to today’s notion of the “Presence of Absence”, a nostalgic psychological awareness and longing for something physically lost but spiritually/emotionally lingers.    

Opening reception: September 14 (Sat), 2-6pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

The storytelling technique of "The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige" was regarded as fundamental of illusionist training. While the concept was introduced in the context of stage magic, the structure had been used by artists in their pursuit of narrative and expressive deliveries for many years.

Artists in the present exhibition all involve their works with an abstract composition or challenges the audience's understanding of reality. To make their images more impactful, they employ a structured approach that creates anticipation, surprise, and a satisfying revelation for the audience.

"The Pledge" represents the initial phase of the composition, where the artist establishes a baseline or introduces a seemingly ordinary object, figure, or space. This phase creates a sense of normalcy and sets the audience's expectations, often making them believe nothing extraordinary is happening.

"The Turn" is the pivotal moment in the work where something unexpected and extraordinary occurs. It involves a sudden change, disappearance, or transformation that challenges the audience's perception of reality. The Turn generates surprise and wonder and often leaves the audience in a state of confusion or awe.

"The Prestige" is the final stage of the artwork, where the artist provides a resolution or revelation that reveals the hidden meaning and unveils the true nature of the creative concept. It delivers a conclusion that ties everything together, leaving the audience amazed and generate their own revelations and opinions.

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong

This exhibition examines the dramatic evolution of landscape art in Hong Kong during the first two decades of the new century.  Featuring works by contemporary artists alongside classical works, it presents the complex narrative of an entirely new art system that emerged in the city, independent of official designation or traditional notion of lineage. In the eyes of classical Chinese scholars, the perception of landscape represents the absolute pinnacle.  Yet such standards were challenged and redefined when Hong Kong artists found a new interest in innovations rather than integrations, association not assimilation.  Of particular interest were productions during the Post-Covid era.  After three years of isolation, restrictions, and separation, this momentous transition saw many of the movements that characterized traditional Chinese art, particularly landscape, fall by the wayside; while established artists continued to exert influence, young artists born in the new millennium began to express a new and highly original sensibility, based on personal experience and radical experimentation, that confronted the increasing fragmentation of society.  Fragmentation, to this generation, goes beyond visually or physically breaking apart; it is an internal and philosophical “dissociation” that generates a new artistic genre.

This exhibition showcases works by the following artists: Bouie CHOI, CHAN Kwan-lok, HUNG Fai, HUNG Hoi, KOON Wai-bong, LING Pui-sze, SHAM Kwan-yi, LAM Yau-sum, Tammy TAM Tip-yin, CHAN Man-yin

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

Grotto Fine Art is pleased to present the solo exhibition “Tin Garden” by Hong Kong artist LAM Yau-sum, taking place from May 13 to June 8 at Grotto SKW. The opening reception is scheduled for May 11th, from 2-6 pm. Artist will be present. In "Tin Garden," Lam ingeniously employs industrial ready-made objects to craft sculptures depicting flowers, trees, bonsai, and various other artistic creations. By skillfully blending digital elements and lighting effects, he conjures a mesmerizing contemporary urban garden landscape. 

Lam's art consistently reflects his deep concern for the transformation of urban ecology, making it a recurring theme in his body of work. The artist finds inspiration in discarded electronic products, copper water pipes, and wires that are left as waste once their original function is lost in the city. Through collecting and painting on these abandoned objects, he transforms them into a series of new cityscapes. 

Opening reception: May 11, Sat, 2-6 pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

“In the year 366 AD, a monk named Lezun embarked on a journey to the Angquanzi Valley, in search of a serene place for spiritual practice. To his amazement, he witnessed a spectacle of golden light emanating from the Three Dangerous Mountains, as if countless Buddhas were revealed within the radiance. He then carved the first cave of the Mogao Grottoes, establishing it as his place of cultivation, with the tranquil chambers on the cliff transforming into celestial abodes of the Buddha.“

This exhibition draws inspiration from the story of Lezun Carving the First Cave of the Mogao Grottoes and aims to “construct” a landscape of interconnected caves. Through a contemporary interpretation of traditional landscape painting, it responds to the absurdity of the world and the inner struggles. The exhibition consists of two parts. The first part visually presents the landscapes inside and outside the caves from a first-person perspective. By deconstructing the conventional visual and traditional landscape patterns, it reconstructs a crowded yet solitary alternate space. This expresses resistance towards the external world while seeking solace for the spirit. The second part further deconstructs the landscapes, presenting them through architectural model accessories. It reveals the fictional and assembled nature behind the creative process, inviting the audience to collectively imagine and "construct" their own caves.

Opening Reception: March 16, 2024, Sat, 2-6 pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

After the pandemic we are able to journey again. William always considers his artwork as a diary through his life. This is a joint exhibition of William and Lavina Lim, to record their journey in 2023, and their journey through life together.

Inspired by the Cantopop song "陪著你走" by 盧冠廷 , which describes a journey of a lifetime together, the exhibition includes paintings by William, photography and calligraphy by Lavina, and marks the debut of Lavina in a gallery exhibition. The three large paintings by William talks about his journey with family, with friends, and with himself. His eleven small paintings, done one per month (the last one will be painted in December), records the changing seasons and changing moods as he journeys through 2023.

Lavina's photography records the journey of Gai Gai, a ceramic chicken the couple collected in Mexico, which they subsequently carry around the world to record their special journey together. Included in the exhibition are also William's sketches on his boarding passes, oil pastels on paper done during his flights, and postcards the couple posted from each place they visited.

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

“The heart of creativity is to reconnect your inner child.”

Artist Wong Yee-ki

“CONNECTA” features a series of artworks that explore the concept of “copying” the works of grandmasters and "learning" innocence from a child. 謰" means confusion and unclearness, and “謰語" is like the non-sense in our sense that a children talks. This exhibition connects various narrative works that may initially appear disconnected or unrelated. However, a discernible discourse becomes evident when these works are brought together.

Artist Reception: 21 Oct 2023 (SAT) , 2-6pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

“Place" not only refers to geographic regions but also represents the spaces we tread upon in our daily lives. Human life is always intertwined with the relationship with place as we seek to define ourselves through different people, events, things, and environments. Unconsciously, "I" and "Place" shape and transform each other, giving rise to a series of customs and conventions that construct the unique culture of a place, perhaps even becoming an unspoken history.

This exhibition takes you on a journey into a world that is both illusory and real, from the perspective of culture and nature. Through the various traces and clues within the artworks, it guides you to explore the imagination and relationship between individuals and our surrounding environments so that we can weave a network of connections between people, space, and geography together. It tells the stories of "I" speaking about "Place" and "Place" narrating the tale of “Us.”

YIU Tung-wing, Wenda graduated from BA in Fine Art at RMIT University (co-presented with Hong Kong Art School), majoring in painting. Her artworks were collected by private collectors. Yiu shown up her works on Art Basel, Fine Art Ink Asia and held a number of exhibitions in Hong Kong. Yiu pays attention to nature and humanity. She likes to borrow different motifs to show the alternative of Hong Kong and wants to reserve what is being disappeared and forgotten. She combines the old map with a contemporary approach, she blurs the outline of the history and tries to redefine what is the meaning of our culture.

Opening Reception: 2023.09.09 (Sat), 2-6pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

“Home and Away cont.” is an exhibition focusing on the pervasively uncanny changes that have occurred in the past years. At its core, it is a reflection of the artist’s mentality towards these unpredictably shifting times. Yet in retrospect, Chak's paintings and drawings are not aimed at conveying a particular message. Rather it can be considered as an open-ended search-- an introspection for who we are. Through the process of rationalization, the artist and the audience are being transformed; while we try to decipher the meaning behind the visuals, we have been reconstituted by becoming a part of the recreation, or the outcome of the contextual internalization.

Such a conclusion has come to fruition in Chak’s paintings. In depicting the coastlines and islands of Hong Kong, the artist has transfigured them into a bunch of no man’s land. There are only trees, hills, rivers and skies. The lonesome island has reverted back hundreds of years to a time when inhabitants did not exist. The physical realm has been reduced to pure aesthetics and pictorial elements (forms, lines, composition and color). Without the secular, issues of subject vs. object, governor vs. governed, and the turmoil of Hong Kong’s colonial history are all wiped clean. What is left are the cold breeze and the brightly lit moon, leaving civilians’ to wonder the utmost triviality of their everyday concerns.

Opening Reception: 2023.06.10(Sat), 2pm - 6pm

Gallery address: 2/f, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

“One said, ‘Whether a mountain is defined as a mountain depends on how the local people define it.’

Long time ago, ones were building sand dunes on and off, piling till a high ridge of beachy sand pile. They piled up a mountain and a pile of stories. Nowadays, ones are tied up of trying to create, maintain, discover and recreate all these stories. One day, by meeting up with the one who was born on the mountainside, from his words, he has no particular feeling about this mountain at all.” - Argus Fong.

“Hilltop” is a retrospective exhibition of local artist Argus Fong. The exhibition features the artist’s work between 2016 - 2023, where landscape is the main theme. The collection tells a story whereby the viewers are able to see the thoughts, transition and meticulous arrangement by the artist. Whether it be the develop in creative technique or concept, to mastering and exercising control of different painting elements, the artist manages to use a limited palette to present delicate and complex pieces.

The collection mainly features grand compositions with a perspective that places the viewers at a far-off distance. One can’t help but be curious when majestic mountains are met with a sense of desolation. For instance, a station without any trace of it’s passengers or means of transport; to large tunnels that only whisper a gust of emptiness and unease.

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

Grotto Fine Art is pleased to present 'Crossing the Nights Filling the Lines', the fourth solo exhibition of artist Bouie Choi Yuk-kuen, taking place from March 8 to April 1 at Grotto SKW. The opening reception is scheduled for March 11th, from 2-6pm.

“Sometimes I paint the day as night and the night as dawn. So ‘the moments’ are migrated into a carrier trapping time.” “Imagine time as a series of lines: like alternating bars of light and shadow; like the first stroke of charring on carbonized wood; like the crosswalk at an intersection; like the line differentiating day and night on an infinite timeline…Confronting these demarcations, I think I can try to fill the gaps between the red lines.”

'Crossing the nights Filling the lines' represents the latest chapter in Choi's journey of artistic discovery. The dynamic urban imagery in this exhibition, constituting an ethereal journey of scattered lights which Choi forges from her vocabulary of forms, lines, and edges, evokes the shifting positionalities of identities and interpretations of this idea called ‘Home’.

In Bouie Choi’s new painting, alongside her delicate sensibility, urban landscape is not just a stage, it plays a part in the narrative rather than simply providing a backdrop for it. She depicts a temporally unstable landscape where different periods of time merge and meet. A landscape is never finished nor fixed.

Opening Reception: 2023.03.11 (Sat), 2pm - 6pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

LEE Danny's sculpture sources from the spirit of Chinese ink art and the ‘Landscape Series’, surrounds the dualistic propositions between the nature and the city. The series reveals Lee's humanistic concerns by possessing the humbleness and introspectivity of Eastern aesthetics, while retaining a faint playfulness, making Lee's artistic language distinctive. 

In his hands, the medium of sculpture has reached a realm of free and openness; unleashing infinite possibilities by blending with the surrounding environment and ultimately opening up to a artistic dialogue. Lee's sculptures could be seen as a contemporary and three-dimensional interpretation of the Ink Art aesthetics, through which combines the East with the West; the contemporary with the traditional, and ultimately crystallizes different value systems into a coherent embodiment.

Opening Reception: Dec 10 (Sat), 2-6 pm

Artist sharing: Dec 10 (Sat), 4:30pm
Guests:
Kurt Chan 陳育強
Ho Yuen Leung 何遠良
Margaret Chu 朱卓慧

Gallery address: 2/f, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

Grotto Fine Art is pleased to present the solo exhibition “Where have all the flowers gone” by Debe Sham. The exhibition features three series of works, including Clothespin Doll Series, Lucky Windmill Series and The City and Its Toy Series.The three series of works revolve around the artist's imagination of childhood games, machinery, the city, and the medium of sculpture, presenting a creative style full of childlike delight and wonder.

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

For scientists, identifying and examining the approximately 37.2 trillion cells of the human body one by one under a microscope may well be simply a matter of time and technology. The latest scientific research even shows that only 43% of those 37.2 trillion cells originated in the human being. The rest belong to microorganisms. Using the cell images of these various organisms as the source of artistic creation has given Ling Pui Sze a glimpse of the larger world. 

Over the past several years, Ling ’s creative expression has taken the form of printing, tearing, and shading. She tears up images of cells collected from the internet, then pieces together the treated fragments using her intuitive understanding of nature. Ling further used her own cell images and x-ray films in her new series of works, which shift from exploring the exteriority of the world to the interiority of the self. Compared to the orderly arrangement of the actual cells, her newly constructed versions appear deconstructed and haphazard, organised according to her non-scientific logic. Yet at the same time, they contain the unpredictable power of life. Ling has further intervened by drawing lines intended as the multiple retracings of her body’s rhythms. These follow no inherent pattern, but instead attempt to embrace life’s messiness and seek out the equilibrium of the self in the unprecedented time. 

Gallery address: 2/f, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

A Chronicle of Mountain Making
The Beginning
In October 2020, I wrote five pieces of text about “mountains” to consolidate the main concepts relating to the works of the mountain making series. Grouped under the main title of A Chronicle of Mountain Making, the five pieces are Pangu, The Five Great Mountains, The Three Mythical Mountains, The Kunlun and The Sumeru, and the story starts with the creation of land and sky. In the writing, I imagined myself travelling back to the very beginning when the universe was a void, where I witnessed the death of Pangu, whose body became the land, and I saw the first formation of mountains and rivers. The Five Great Mountains indicating the five directions of the world (east, west, south, north and the centre) were a wonder of creation, and they would become the goals of explorers and conquerors, and inspiration for poets and writers in the years to come. Mountains are not only part of the Nature, but also a testimony of history and the humanities.

Opening reception: Sept 3 (Sat), 2-6pm
Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No.17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

Artists in the past took multiple roles as inventors, diplomats, poets or writers. As time evolved, what does it mean to be a teaching artist?

The exhibition Transmission ／ Transmutation - Seven Hong Kong Teaching Artists is a collaborative project of seven Hong Kong artists ／ teachers: Ho Siu Kee, Lam Laam Jaffa, Tam Wai Ping Lukas, Tang Ying Chi, Tse Ming Chong, Wong Lai Ching Fiona and Yu Wai Luen Francis, exploring the contemporary significance of the ‘teaching artist’.

Art is not mere creation, it reflects the evolving humanity over time; Education is not a single channel to dismiss knowledge, it broadens one's mind and stimulates questions that lead us to the future. Criticality and pioneering co-exists in art and education. A teaching artist explores the possibility of nurturing students with ones’ philosophy and practice.

Opening reception: 6.08 6-7pm

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No. 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

Time defines the human order. Our ancestors invented tools and systems for the measurement of time; standards of managing activities and as a medium for interpretation of our very own existence. With such a unit of insight and inference, we built tension as we venture across borders, into the void and towards the great beyond.
Apart from the lightness and heaviness brought to many of us by Kundera, artists have come to realize the push and pull, physical mechanics, psychiatric hallucinations and other unknown forces.

<Day Day to Day Day> presents to you the creation of 10 artists with the thoughts, observations in our daily lives, and reflections of the life they accumulated over time.

Curated by Hong Wah & Kwan Siu Yu
Featuring: Fok Pak Hin, Issac Wong Hong Tik, Kimmy Tam, Lau Ching Hei, Li Tsz Mei, Mui Hoi Ying, Tsz Chung Taylor Chan, Yeung Lok Yiu, Hong Wah, Kwan Siu Yu

Opening and Performance: 3pm 9 July (Sat); Guide Tour by the artists: Same Day at 4pm

Gallery address: 2/F, 17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan