We are pleased to announce that FQM artist Yau Wing-fung’s works are on view in “The Pride of Hong Kong: Three Preeminent Collections of Ancient Paintings and Calligraphies” through October 7th, 2025, at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. For the first time in history, this exhibition unites the renowned collections of Xubaizhai, Chih Lo Lou, and Bei Shan Tang in a single spectacle. Showcasing 93 sets of masterpieces, the exhibition offers an extraordinary survey of classical Chinese painting and calligraphy.
In this exhibition, Yau Wing-fung presents two installation series titled To and Fro and Mirage Harmony, drawing inspiration from the travels of late Ming to early Qing painter Huang Xiangjian. Huang undertook a deeply personal journey in search of his exiled father, who had been banished to Guangdong during the political upheaval of the dynastic transition. Documenting his travels through detailed landscape paintings and inscriptions, Huang created what became known as the Journey for a Family Reunion.
Huang Xiangjian, Journey for a Family Reunion (partial), Ink on paper
© Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong
To and FRO
Yau Wing-fung, To and Fro, Ink on paper, mixed media, 2025 © Courtesy of the Artist
To and Fro reimagines Huang’s classical landscapes as a set of circular, cyclical installations that expand spatial perception through segmented blue-and-green compositions and linear outlines. These fragments, varying in size and shape, reinterpret scenes from Huang’s reunion paintings and are painted with delicate outlines in the baimiao technique—a brush technique that produces a finely controlled, supple ink outline drawing without any color or wash embellishment. Unlike traditional handscrolls that unfold a linear narrative, the circular structure of this installation eliminates the notion of beginning and end. Viewers are free to enter from any point and define their own path through the work. At the center of the installation, a projected moon moves from crescent to full and back again, symbolizing the cycles of separation and reunion in Huang’s journey. As viewers shift their gaze or physically move through the space, they too become participants in the cyclical experience. Here, repetition is not monotony—it is a temporal transcendence.
Mirage Harmony
Yau Wing-fung, Mirage Harmony, Ink on paper, mixed media, 2025 © Courtesy of the Artist
In Mirage Harmony, Yau reconstructs the distinctive terrain of Hong Kong’s 18 administrative districts into a layered pictorial landscape that juxtaposes traditional aesthetics with contemporary urban imagery. Referencing the stylized perspectives and distorted rock formations in Huang Xiangjian’s works, Yau constructs a spatial collage through the transition between color and line, creating interwoven scenes of varying depth and distance. These compositions are then arranged into a long scroll of “continuous” landscape through time and space.
Yau Wing-fung, Mirage Harmony, Ink on paper, mixed media, 2025 © Courtesy of the Artist
Each landscape is sized in proportion to the district’s actual land area and mounted atop colored plexiglass pillars. The height of each pillar corresponds to the population density of the respective district, forming a layered skyline reminiscent of Hong Kong’s urban fabric. Constructed from stacked plexiglass blocks, these columns echo contemporary architectural clusters. When placed against the backdrop of Victoria Harbour’s skyline, the translucent structures reflect the modern cityscape, creating a layered overlay of quiet mountain-island vistas and the bustling metropolis, merging tradition and modernity across temporal dimensions.
About the artist
Yau Wing-fung is currently an assistant professor at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. His practice centers on ink art and spatial research, merging traditional ink aesthetics with contemporary visual language. His immersive, multi-dimensional works have been featured in major exhibitions worldwide, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), United Nations Secretariat Building, Shenzhen Art Museum, Zhengzhou Art Museum, National Taiwan Normal University Art Museum, University Museum and Art Gallery at HKU, and the art space Oi!.
