Words From Stones

Hanart TZ Gallery

Ends April 17

They're known as scholars' rocks because of their distinctive shape, texture and colour, and were deemed appropriate for display in the scholar's studio as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907AD). For Hong Kong artist Leung Kui-ting, these rocks also have great cultural reference and significance.

In his latest solo exhibition, Words From Stones, at Hanart TZ Gallery, the selected works demonstrate once again the artist's mastery of Chinese ink techniques within the contemporary context.

In this series, says gallery owner Johnson Chang Tsong-zung, Leung depicts the rocks as magical floating mountains among misty landscapes.

'Within the landscapes is 'line work' that winds and twists throughout, suggesting diagrams from a computer screen, or [symbols] of a secret language,' he says. The artist has combined lines, often used by architects and draftsmen, with brushwork to suggest a fusion of tradition and modernity.

Gao Shiming of China Art Academy spots similar themes in Leung's works, saying that the floating scholar's rocks represent a resolution of the conflicting views of nature: 'These images can also be seen as logical manifestations of Hong Kong's own cultural modernity - suspended in a cultural melting pot amidst fragments of conflicting influences. What's experienced isn't anxiety but a renewed sense of pleasurable wandering.'