The Hong Kong artists using traditional fine-brush technique to depict modern themes
Barbara Choi intersperses classical imagery with scenes from Hong Kong streets, while a fellow Chinese University graduate puts swimming goggles on kabuki actors
There is one school of Hong Kong painters which enjoys a well-established fan base: contemporary gongbi artists. These followers of the Chinese fine-brush tradition apply classical techniques to modern themes, often with great aesthetic appeal.
Barbara Choi Tak-yee, 30, is one of this new crop of artists to have emerged with a distinctive personal style. Her paintings, on show at Grotto Fine Art in Wyndham Street, Central, until August 23 – a taster for a solo exhibition in October – are colourful Chinese shanshui (brush and ink) landscapes with a twist.
Hidden among traditional elements, such as stylised mountains and ribbons of mist, are Hong Kong landmarks such as the embroidery shops in Shanghai Street, Kowloon, and the Flower Market in Mong Kok.