Special Liu Kuo-sung Ink Art Award: 90th Birthday Award 2022

The Liu Kuo-sung Foundation and The Ink Society jointly presented the Special Liu Kuo-sung Ink Art Award (2022). This award celebrated Liu Kuo sung’s 90th birthday, and aimed specially to recognize young Hong Kong artists who have demonstrated outstanding creativity and potential in contemporary ink art, in memory of Liu Kuo-sung’s more than 20 years of art education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

After two rounds of judging, the Liu Kuo-sung Foundation and The Ink Society were delighted to announce Hung Fai the Gold Award Winner, with a cash prize of HKD99,999; Yau Wing Fung and Chan Kwan-lok were the two Silver Award Winners, with cash prizes of HKD33,660 each; and Shum Kwan yi and Cheuk Ka-wai were the two Bronze Award Winners, with cash prizes of HKD18,000 each. The award ceremony was held on October 7, 2022 at Fine Art Asia, and the works of the five winners were exhibited at The Ink Society’s Special Exhibition Zone. Liu Kuo-sung presented the award via video link.

Nominators

Kingsley Liu (Director, The Ink Society, Hong Kong)

Tina Pang (Curator of Hong Kong Visual Culture, M+; Director, University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Leona Yu (Modern and Hong Kong Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong)

Judges

Anita Chung (Head of Heritage, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong)

Liu Kuo-sung (Artist, Taipei)

Raymond Tang (Director, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong)

Dr Raymond Tang, award judge:

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Hung Fai has been exploring and developing his own artistic language over the years and is determined to take on the journey of abstraction. In terms of technique, he constantly studies the repetition generated in the process of image transformation, and how to employ repetitive images to inspire creation through various experiments. From his early symmetrical ink seepage printing method to folding pad printing, Hung has been exploring new possibilities of ink, staying true to modern ink painting’s emphasis on experimentation and originality. After a long period of trial and error, he has mastered the use of materials, fully displaying the effects of pad printing, folding and ink blurring. The straight and meticulously executed lines and the free-flowing ink intertwine and form ever-changing images. Rather than creating a sense of rigidity, the repetitive features in the image add the element of time, providing the audience with a metamorphosis in the creative process. More interestingly, Hung not only explores his practice from the level of techniques and materials, but more consciously combines his thoughts with the contemplation of the traditional and contemporary in the process of experimentation; this has an active effect on the continuous exploration and experimentation of the 21st century ink spirit.

Yau Wing Fung’s abstract landscape reflects the observation and perception of the natural world from a generation that grew up with the widespread application of technology in life. Inspired by satellite remote sensing images of the earth’s climate and geography, the way he divides the composition of his image breaks the traditional Eastern and Western perspectives and human imagination of natural landscape, and creates a visual impression that is both familiar and strange. However, Yau chooses not to employ any technological tools when painting. On the contrary, he expresses landscape with traditional and meticulous brushstrokes, and tries to understand the coherence between void and solid through studying the composition of Taihu stones, thereby establishing his unique landscape pictorial form.

Among the winners this year, three of them deploy the traditional gongbi style, and Chan Kwan-lok is one of them. He demonstrates a great affection and confidence for line in Chinese painting in his work. Although Chan laid his foundation with figure paintings from the Tang dynasty, Dunhuang frescoes and the line drawing (baimiao) of Li Gonglin, he has never been fettered by tradition. On the contrary, he extensively draws inspiration from Japanese Ukiyo-e and European illustration to enrich the expressive power of his strokes and to pursue new ideas in subject matter and composition. He accurately captures the expression of the subjects with line drawing brushstrokes, expressing their sense of movement, texture and spatiality. Complex but methodical, images full of visual impact are generated through the intensive expression of intertwining lines, creating a highly original and magnificent ocean of fantasy.

Both Shum Kwan-yi and Cheuk Ka-wai show their fascination for Song paintings. Shum embeds Hong Kong landscape and ships in the composition of panoramic Song-dynasty landscape, using traditional brushstrokes and pictorial form to counteract the dislocation of time and space. In addition, she also collages her paintings with sulphur-treated silver leaf. By adding strange and fantastical metallic clouds to the ancient landscape, she not only breaks the peace and calmness of the image, but also adds a sense of historical vicissitude that reflects the artist’s various conceptions of contemporary society. Cheuk’s skillful, heavily-colored style of gongbi and meticulously executed brushstrokes re-present the naturalism of the gongbi paintings of the Song dynasty. However, she brilliantly introduces surreal content and composition, juxtaposing contemporary toys with traditional flowers and birds to construct a world in the painting where fantasy and reality coexist, establishing her gentle and delicate way of storytelling. Sincere congratulations to all the winning artists! We hope that with the encouragement of the Liu Kuo-sung Ink Art Award, the artists will jointly promote the development of ink art in the 21st century and discover more possibilities.

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