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SCMP Reporter

CHINA isn't big enough for Sun Liang. But a 1,000 square foot space in Lan Kwai Fong is just right.

 The artist, whose subject-matter forces him underground in China, is going ballistic here.

  His brush introduces a world that has nothing to do with China or politics. A team of Olympic-swimming sperm, paddling across a cobalt blue canvas, smiling, is hard to ignore, let alone identify.

  In The World of Sun Liang, which opened on Tuesday at the Ho Gallery, dragons with three breasts also have a penis. There are Medusa-like faces a la Gustav Klimt and one that could sweep a beauty contest for sea anemones.

  In this circus of ants, snakes and fairytale creatures, tongues tryst, non-stop.

  Shakespeare inspired a lusty Ophelia and his glassy-eyed Salome tongues the cheek of John the Baptist. A sea horse with genitalia? This one has the legs of a Las Vegas show-girl.

  Whimsical stuff. Friendly, not frightening. And slightly off-centre, just what gallery owners Angela Ho and Peter Kjaer want.

  Nothing in 20 canvases hint of the identity of the Shanghai-born artist whose output is one work a month and whose engaging smile skips over linguistic boundaries.

  His inspiration. Federico Fellini?   ''I've only seen two of his movies,'' explains Sun Liang through interpreter Kjaer.

  ''They're hard to get in China. But someone once told me I looked like Fellini.''   Sun Liang has reason to be ebullient. This show is his first ever and Hongkong is his first time outside of China.

  The week's agenda - meeting people, making contacts, interviews - allows little time for sightseeing.

    ''It's an absolutely beautiful city, more beautiful than I dreamed,'' he offered without coaxing. ''The buildings are pretty. But they need more space between them.'' And for the weather. ''Too hot. Shanghai is cooler.''   The next two weeks will be worse.

    He and Kjaer will go to Venice, where the artist will participate in the invitation-only Venice art show. Then, it's on to Paris and London for more meetings, gallery stops and contacts.

  ''He isn't allowed to show (in China),'' explained Kjaer, referring to the shocking nature of some of the paintings.

  With three hours to go before the champagne corks would pop for the gallery's opening reception, Angela Ho is engrossed in a search for an electrical gadget and worrying out loud about her car. It's double-parked.

   Kjaer holds court, barefoot and in a T-shirt, in the middle of the 1,000 square feet gallery space. As he talks, he plays traffic cop, pointing out to delivery boys where to park the floral tributes.

   This is Ho and Kjaer's second gallery (their first is around the Repulse Bay/Ocean Park area). The timing was right to open in the city and this location - the 6th floor of the California Tower - is good.

   ''Lan Kwai Fong used to be bars, nightclubs, restaurants. And not much else. That's changed,'' explained the Danish-born Sinologist, who came to Hongkong to work in China trading.

  ''The art we want to show, avant garde, needs an open mind.

  ''We looked around - Pedder Building, Queen's Road, Old Bank of China building. This area is young and international.''   They met Sun Liang last December at a museum show in Shanghai.

  ''He struck me as most unusual. You don't see much long hair in Shanghai.''    They visited his studio, a cluster of cubicles behind the stables in what used to be the race course by People's Park.

  If the man didn't grab them, what was on the canvasses did.

  ''Beautiful brushwork. Amazing colours. Wild and crazy creatures. Real hip stuff.''   The World of Sun Liang will continue until July 5 at Ho Gallery, 6/f, California Tower, 30-32 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong.



Art for adults that China banned