Alisan Fine Arts is proud to present a group exhibition of five talented emerging ink artists from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong showcasing both conceptual and visual ink painting. The works on display are distinct style but are all grounded in traditional ink. Beijing artist Hao Shiming, Shanghai painter Qiao Yuan and Hong Kong artist Kassia Ko depict faraway mountains which use spiral lines, soft colours and monochrome ink respectively, while Cheuk Ka-wai Cherie and Zhang Xiaoli, both represent Hong Kong neo-classical ink art that use meticulous painting style to create surrealistic paintings. This is the first time we will be exhibiting Qiao Yuan’s paintings.

Hao Shiming Born in 1977 Heze, Shandong, Hao is a Beijing artist who attempts to extract line, which is the purest element, from traditional ink painting and thus transform and reconstruct it. Hao graduated from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 2000 and received MA from Capital Normal University in Beijing in 2014. Line is the most crucial element in his artistic philosophy. The lines in his landscape paintings are neither straight nor intended to render perspective but interweaved and undulated like writhing snakes. The spirit of ink art is embodied in the leaping and flowing lines in light colour. His works have been exhibited in over 45 solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Australia, Korea, Singapore, China and Hong Kong. Alisan Fine Arts exhibited his paintings at Art Basel Hong Kong and Ink Asia in 2016.

Qiao Yuan Born in Yixing, Jiangsu, China in 1980, Qiao is one of the most talented contemporary ink landscape artists in Shanghai. She received a BA from the College of Fine Arts of Nanjing University of the Arts in 2004. Prior to the completion of MA in the same college in 2007, she already obtained Silver Awards at National Exhibition of Outstanding Ink Paintings by Young Fine Arts Tutors in 2004 and Jiangsu Meticulous Paintings Exhibition in 2006 respectively. Over the past decade, she has explored a new perspective of Chinese traditional landscape paintings by using blue and green mineral pigments. With the combination of the techniques of meticulous painting and freehand brushwork, one can discover detailed layers and relaxed atmosphere in her works. She applies over twenty layers of colours on a thin rice paper that adds richness to the simplicity.

Qiao’s paintings have been included in several influential exhibitions including the 5th Shenzhen International Ink Biennale in 2006 and the 3rd Chengdu Biennale in 2007. Her works have been exhibited in major art museums of Mainland China, including the Art Gallery of China National Academy of Painting, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Creative Centre of Fine Arts College, Shanghai University; Ningbo Museum of Art; Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing; Chengdu Contemporary Art Gallery; and Shenzhen Art Museum.

Cheuk, born in 1989 in Hong Kong, obtained a BA in Fine Arts with first class honours at Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012. She finished her MA in Fine Arts in CUHK in 2017, specializing in Chinese Meticulous painting. Her paintings are often filled with symbols and memories, as well as subjects inspired by her personal experiences and emotions.

Her works have been exhibited in various important ink exhibitions, including Ink Global 2017; Ink Asia 2015 and 2016; Senses: Exhibition of Works by Young Emerging Hong Kong Artists 2015; New Ink: An Exhibition of Ink Art by Post 1970 Artists from the Yiqingzhai Collection and HK Chinese Meticulous Painting Association Joint Exhibition 2013. Alisan Fine Arts began exhibiting her works in 2015 and has included them in three important group exhibitions: Desiring: Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art at Central gallery in 2017, Being and Inking: Documenting Contemporary Ink Art 2001-2016 at Guangzhou Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art in 2016 and A Legacy of Ink: Lui Shou-kwan 40 Years On at Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2015.

Kassia Ko Born in 1952 Guangzhou, Kassia is a Hong Kong ink artist, practicing under the Hong Kong famous artist Hung Hoi for almost ten years. Kassia has been working as a professional designer in Hong Kong for more than thirty years. She completed the Diploma of Chinese Ink Painting at the School of Professional and Continuing Education of University of Hong Kong (HKU SPACE) in 2008 and was awarded the Master of Fine Arts by Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in conjunction with Hong Kong Art School in 2013. She flourishes in reinterpreting traditional Chinese painting and is inspired by nature and life through experiencing the intrinsic beauty of unadulterated natural landscape and outlying islands. Ko’s works are often presented in polyptych format and captures and reminisces the changes of Hong Kong islands under the light.

Ko has participated in fifteen exhibitions in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Melbourne and Edinburgh. University of Hong Kong Libraries, Hong Kong Central Library, and Asia Art Archive have collected her widely known “Ma Wan Landscape” series. Alisan Fine Arts included her works in A Legacy of Ink: Lui Shou-kwan 40 Years On at Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2015.

Zhang was born in 1989 in Guizhou, China. She received the Ms Chu Lam Yiu Scholarship and moved to Hong Kong in 2008 to pursue higher education at Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she received her BA with first honours in Fine Arts and Biology in 2014. During the graduation show, she received Y.S Hui Fine Arts Award and Wucius Wong Creative Ink Painting Award. Zhang’s works replace elements in Chinese landscape painting – trees, mountains, rocks and figures – with depictions of Lego bricks, as a contemporary way to create dialogues with tradition. In the “Boxed Landscape” series, she uses this language to paint surreal scenes of landscape in daily objects, as a depiction of memories and experiences.

Her recent group exhibitions include Youth Will: Beijing Youth Art Biennale, Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2016 and Fresh Trend, Hong Kong City Hall, 2014. Her works have also been exhibited at art fairs including Affordable Art Fair 2016 in New York, Off Course Art Fair 2015 in Brussel and Fine Art Asia 2014 in Hong Kong. The first time that Alisan Fine Arts showcased her works is in the Desiring: Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art group exhibition in 2017.