The Biennale of Sydney art exhibition, Ten Thousand Suns, is a celebration of diversity, with works by 96 artists from 53 nations, many of whom are relatively unknown on the global arts scene.

Chinese portrait artist Mao Yan talks about how Friedrich’s The Monk of the Sea was so good, it put him off painting landscapes. He tells the story behind his distinctive style and ethos.

Taiwanese-Australian ceramicist Ruth Li creates intricate, ephemeral works made from raw clay that disintegrate while still on show. She will run ceramics classes in Hong Kong in February.

The executive director of Sydney non-profit contemporary art centre Artspace talks about serving the local community, and raising the venue’s profile in Asia, ahead of its reopening after three years of renovations.

Non-binary Australian-Chinese artist Meng-Yu Yan explores Chinese culture through photos, videos and installations that often feature historic and supernatural themes.

An art collector’s cancer diagnosis led him to consider his contribution to society. Hong Kong-based Wong Chi-hang has since opened Nexx Asia, an art gallery in Taipei, and plans a resort and a restaurant, both art themed.

Artist, cheongsam designer and drag performer Scotty So’s photo series was inspired by people wearing full-on luxury monogram fashion in Hong Kong, where ‘everything is about money’.

‘Nothing like this has come to auction in 30 years,’ says auction house director of a Guarneri violin from the collection of late Chinese-American philanthropist and music lover Lam Sau-wing.

The Bangkok Art Biennale will feature artists including Marina Abramovic and Robert Mapplethorpe, while Ghost 2565 will feature a pop-up kitchen run by Hong Kong’s ‘Wokstar’ Sam Lui.

Queer artist Hou, who will exhibit at New York’s Brooklyn Museum from October, reflects being stuck between his family’s homeland of China and his own life in vibrant portrait paintings.

French artist Daphné Mandel’s collages of ruins she has visited, pieced together digitally, are the result of visiting more than 150 abandoned sites around the city.

The tranquil, minimalist interior of the Pok Fu Lam flat designed by Bean Buro, proves that inspiration can be found in the unlikeliest of places

Frank Leung, the founder of via architecture, explains the inspiration behind the interiors of residential development 28 Aberdeen St, a 40-apartment tower directly across from PMQ

For the architects who’ve transformed a resort in Hokkaido, Japan, backed by investors including Hong Kong’s Richard Li, anything goes. That’s meant a hodgepodge of designs, but now some take inspiration from Japanese culture

Ed Ng, co-founder of AB Concept, the studio behind Alvin Leung’s restaurant, talks about his inspirations

Nelson Chow, of NC Design and Architecture, is known for conceiving local speakeasies Mrs Pound, Foxglove and Dr. Fern’s Gin Parlour. He talks about how attics inspired the Hong Kong PDT

Sharon Toong unites mid-century and vintage items with modern aesthetics and graffiti art in her Dalston house

Alvaro Catalán de Ocón is the Spanish designer behind a project which employs artisans worldwide to weave lampshades from used plastic bottles

Katharine Pooley, author of new book Journey By Design, has created luxurious homes from Scotland to Saudi Arabia. She explains how her travels inform her creations

Despite their backgrounds in design, a French expat and her Australian husband decided to keep their 2,100 sq ft Lamma Island beach home simple and cosy

Simplicity, craftsmanship and premium materials characterise their furniture and other products, but Japanese designs may have the edge in Hong Kong simply because they are smaller

People such as Hong Kong property heir Adrian Cheng provide architects with financial backing so they can turn great ideas into reality – often non-commercial ones but which patrons believe will benefit their city

Designer Max Lam employed all the tricks in his arsenal to turn an old-fashioned house in Yuen Long into a home fit for a young family of four

Stanley Siu, who founded Daydreamers Design, talks about why pavilions are important in crowded cities such as ours

Having lived in Central for seven years, an entrepreneur and her family now call Cheung Sha home

The latest in an annual series of event spaces erected in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens, OMA’s cross-cultural MPavilion is based on the openness of an amphitheatre – but is unlike any amphitheatre ever seen before

Hong Kong architect asked designers for ideas to counter city’s shrinking flats by turning streets into ‘our living room’; gardens in refuse skips, pop-up Chinese pavilions and railings that morph into fold-out seating among ideas

Clever details such as glass doors and internal windows have helped turn a poky flat into a light-filled apartment in which the spacious wraparound terrace becomes a natural extension of the interior

Get a gym-quality workout in the comfort of your own home thanks to interior designer Glory Tam and doctor Albert Au, who have joined forces to create multitasking fitness equipment under Kickstarter-funded The Habit Furniture

Minsuk Cho, who won the top prize at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014, explains how he approached Hong Kong’s Mount Pavilia project