These ten must-see shows in Hong Kong reveal the power of visual culture in shaping ideas on body, spaces, ecology, and the cosmos
Ranked as 2024’s most unaffordable city on earth, Hong Kong is a city of superlatives that boasts of an energetic and electrifying art scene wherein international, regional, and local artists present compelling and stimulating works of diverse mediums, processes, subject matters, aesthetic and cultural sensibilities, and conceptual persuasions.
Beneath the glitz, grit, and dynamism of Asia’s city that never sleeps lies a nuanced and complex urban soul with a penchant for visual poetry, conceptual discipline, and lighthearted humor.
From exploring the awe-inspiring M+ Museum, Asia’s first museum of contemporary visual culture in West Kowloon; the thriving creative community that is Tai Kwun along Hollywood Road; the exciting selection of international galleries in H Queen’s located in the heart of Central; and the hole-in-the-wall gallery that is Odds and Ends in Sheung Wan, there are exhibits that bear poignant, poetic, humorous, and experimental themes that zero in on the human body, mankind’s relationship with nature, the parallels between architecture and human life, the inextricable relationship between materiality and mutability, the mystery of the cosmos, and the “schizophrenia of modern life.”
1. I.M. Pei, “I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture” at M+ Museum
“The first full-scale retrospective of Ieoh Ming Pei (1917–2019), I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture properly appraises for the first time the work of one of the greatest architects of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Pei’s high-profile projects were realised over seven decades with an exceptionally wide geographic reach, including the National Gallery of Art East Building in Washington, D.C., modernisation of the Grand Louvre in Paris, Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and Museum of Islamic Art in Doha.
These iconic landmarks solidified Pei’s position in architectural history and popular culture. His life and work weave together a tapestry of power dynamics, geopolitical complexities, cultural traditions, and the character of cities around the world, and his transcultural vision laid a foundation for the contemporary world.” —M+ Museum
“I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture” runs from June 29, to January 5, 2025 at M+ Museum, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong
2. Various artists, “Shanshui: Echoes and Signals” at M+ Museum
“Shanshui: Echoes and Signals is a thematic exhibition of works drawn from the M+ Collections that explores the complex connections between landscape and humanity in our post-industrial and increasingly virtual world.
Shanshui (‘mountain and water’) is a cultural legacy integral to Chinese philosophical thinking and poetic imagination, and motivates a millennium-old tradition of ink painting across East Asia. Although commonly translated as ‘landscape’, shanshui can take us far beyond observable reality. It manifests invisible resonances—between stillness and motion, vision and imagination, the fleeting immediacy of experience and the persistence of history and memory.
The exhibition reimagines shanshui through sculpture, moving image, sound, design and architecture, and ink painting, searching for signals across contemporary mediums.” —M+ Museum
“Shanshui: Echoes and Signals” is currently on view at M+ Museum, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong
3. Henry Steiner, “Henry Steiner: The Art of Graphic Communication” at M+ Museum
“Presented as part of the Pao-Watari Exhibition Series, Henry Steiner: The Art of Graphic Communication features the work of the father of graphic design in Hong Kong. The exhibition celebrates Henry Steiner’s (b. 1934) influential graphic language with a selection of some of his most iconic projects tracing the city’s development from the 1960s onwards.
Born in Austria in 1934, Henry Steiner immigrated to the United States where he trained at Yale University under the renowned American graphic designer Paul Rand, learning the art of storytelling through images. After moving to Hong Kong in 1961, he found the city vibrant with a complex culture, a place on the cusp of transformation into an international centre for manufacturing, trade, finance, leisure, and tourism. As he applied his training in the principles of concept and contrast, Steiner pioneered a new form of graphic communication that gives equal weight to juxtaposing multiple cultural elements. Often playful, unexpected, and intriguing, Steiner’s methodology enables his designs to reach broad and diverse audiences.” —M+ Museum
“Henry Steiner: The Art of Graphic Communication” runs from June 15 to November 10, at M+ Museum, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong
4. Movana Chen, “Movana Chen: Knitting Conversations” at M+ Museum
“Knitting Conversations is a monumental installation by Hong Kong artist Movana Chen (b. 1974) reflecting on female labour, personal and shared memories, material transformation, and time. Originally conceived as a participatory work, Knitting Conversations was first exhibited in 2013 where audience members were invited to contribute to the work by bringing along a treasured book.
“Books and paper have been used for millennia to transmit knowledge and experiences. Chen transforms books by shredding the books’ pages, abstracting and decontextualising their content, to turn them into ‘yarn’, a medium traditionally for craft. Through her conversations with collaborators while knitting the work, the artist makes new and intimate connections that transcend language, politics, culture, and gender. Her process creates safe and nurturing situations where the focus is on spending time together, sharing experiences, emotions, and ideas, and the wonder of learning something new and unexpected.” —M+ Museum
“Movana Chen: Knitting Conversations” runs from February 17 to August 18, at M+ Museum, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong
5. Bruce Nauman, “Bruce Nauman” at JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun
“Curated in collaboration with the Bruce Nauman Studio, and based primarily on works from the Pinault Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as loans from Tate, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), Dia Art Foundation, and The Sonnabend Collection Foundation, Tai Kwun Contemporary’s exhibition takes the form of a survey covering aspects of the artist’s entire career, and is the first show of this kind to be presented in Hong Kong….
From the 1960s to the present day, Bruce Nauman (b. Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1941) has constantly been experimenting with various artistic languages — from photography to performance, sculpture to video — probing their potentialities and producing a body of work that questions the very definition of what constitutes artistic practice.” —Tai Kwun Contemporary
“Bruce Nauman” curated by Carlos Basualdo (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Caroline Bourgeois (Pinault Collection), and Pi Li (Tai Kwun Contemporary) runs from May 15 to August 18, at JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
6. Hejum Bä, “I want to buy unseen eyes” at MASSIMODECARLO
“Hejum Bä ’s first solo exhibition at MASSIMODECARLO Hong Kong bears a provocative title – a nod to the viral Korean internet meme – I want to buy unseen eyes – referencing the constant stream and influx of content we consume in the digital age, whether we intend it or not. These thoughts, feelings, and emotions are laid down on canvas as a response to the artist’s perceptiveness.
Hejum’s paintings are not mere random arrangements of lines and colour fields. Rather, they represent a meticulous dissection and abstraction of the peculiarities of our contemporary experiences. Living in Seoul, and working in Gangnam district, also known as the financial heart of the city, Hejum Bä looks and listens at what surrounds her. To the artist, the seeming schizophrenia of modern life is neither foreign nor bizarre, but rather a familiar muse…
The use of line-work as a key aesthetic theme in Bä’s oeuvre derives from the observation of unlocking patterns in smartphones. In Heavy Swipe to Unlock (2024), two thick green lines mimic the path our fingers instinctively follow through habits ingrained by modern technology. The term ‘heavy’ not only suggests the physicality of the gesture, but also evokes a pivotal feeling that Bä impute to her paintings: as our digital lives prioritize fleetingness, we need weight and heaviness as a grounding counterpart.” —Valentina Buzzi, writer and curator
“I want to buy unseen eyes” runs from July 10 to August 24, at MASSIMODECARLO, 10 Hollywood Road, Central Hong Kong
7. Merrill Wagner, “Nature” at David Zwirner
“In its emphasis on the materiality and mutability of paint, Wagner’s inventive work elides traditional categories of painting, relief, sculpture, and installation. Emerging in the 1960s, at a time when minimalism and post-minimalism had superseded abstract expressionism as the dominant aesthetic idioms, Wagner both eschewed and embraced their primary concerns, creating rigorous, hard-edged abstract compositions that subtly referenced landscape.
By the mid-1970s, Wagner largely moved away from canvas and looked to nontraditional supports as surfaces for color. These alternative media interested Wagner because of not only their textural appearance but also their allusions to the natural world—resonating with her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest—as well as their inherent connection to process and chance.
By integrating the support within the compositional logic of her works, ordering and joining fragments by adding exquisitely considered painted elements—first in geometric formations and later in colorful, allover compositions—Wagner poetically mediates between the natural and the constructed.” —David Zwirner
“Nature” runs from May 30 to August 2, at David Zwirner, 5-6/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
8. Maya Lin, Irving Penn, Robert Longo, Leo Villareal, Trevor Paglen, Kiki Smith, Elmgreen & Dragset, Kohei Nawa, Alicja Kwade, Michal Rovner, “Summer Group Show” at Pace Gallery
“Maya Lin’s Pin River serves as a plea for greater awareness of the urgent issue of climate change. The artwork comprises thousands of tiny pins meticulously pierced into the wall. From a distance, the pins’ shadows envelop the piece in a soft cloud, creating the impression of a gently breathing organism that is both formidable and fragile.
Upon closer inspection, the tiny tributaries resemble veins and capillaries, transforming the swollen river into a surging artery. In this way, we recognize the striking resemblance between the flowing oxygen within our bodies and the interconnectedness of ecosystems.” —Pace Gallery
“Summer Group Show” runs from June 27 to August 9, at Pace Gallery, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
9. Ay-O, “Ay-O: Nijitsukai” at Whitestone
“With a career spanning over six decades, Ay-O has established himself as a pioneering force in the art world, known for his dynamic and multi-sensory approach to art. The artist coined the term ‘Nijitsukai’ (虹使い), which means ‘rainbow-charming’ in Japanese, inspired by the term ‘snake-charming’ (蛇使い). This exhibition invites viewers to step into Ay-O’s vibrant, energetic world and be captivated by his masterful command of color.
Takao Iijima, better known by his artist name Ay-O, was born in Ibaraki prefecture in 1931. After he graduated from the Tokyo University of Education, Ay-O made a splash in Japan’s art scene as part of the Demokrato Artists Association in the 1950s. Demokrato was an innovative group led by the surrealist artist Ei-Q to promote independence in the creation of art, it was a place without judgment or hierarchy where Ay-O could create freely. In 1958, Ay-O moved to New York, where he met the important figures of the Fluxus movement, such as the leader George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, and Nam June Paik. He collaborated with artists from various creative fields including painters, musicians, composers, writers and dancers to break the barriers between different mediums of art.
Departing from conventional artistic practice, Ay-O discarded artificial lines in his creation and came up with the idea of using all the colors at once.
Having recently completed successful shows at prestigious institutions such as The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and M+ Museum Hong Kong, Ay-O’s work continues to captivate audiences worldwide. The rainbow prints, in particular, showcase a unique blend of whimsy and technical mastery, offering viewers a kaleidoscopic glimpse into his imaginative world.” —Whitestone
“Ay-O: Nijitsukai” runs from June 20 to August 10, at Whitestone, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
10. Wich Chau, “Whiteness” at Odds and Ends Gallery
“In 2023, Wich Chau created new works inspired by the snowy landscapes of Japan during a six-month stay in the country. Upon his return, Chau decided to hold his first solo art exhibition titled “Whiteness” with Wonderwall Gallery. Through his delicate use of blue ball point pen on paper, Chau’s work dances between reality and illusion, prompting contemplation about the universe and life.
Graduated from the Hong Kong School of Design at Caritas Bianchi College of Careers in 2010, Chau has been involved in design projects and various installation art pieces over the past decade, with a focus on exploring urban spaces. He participated in events like deTour HK, Oil Street Art Space in 2015, PMQ Summer 2019, and the Sai Kung Sea Art Festival 2023. His work, “Wave of Growth,” was featured in the book “Uneven Growth” published by MoMA.” —Odds and Ends Gallery
“Whiteness” presented by Wonderwall Gallery runs from July 7 to 21, 2024 at Odds and Ends Gallery, Rm 703, 111 Queen’s Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong