Soon after arriving in Hong Kong after graduating with a master of fine arts degree in 2005, American artist Adrian Wong rented a large studio, reputedly haunted and therefore cheap, among other artists' studios in Fotan.
His entry into Hong Kong's art scene was rapid due to his gregarious personality and a sculptural practice that drew ideas and practical help from Fotan's engineering workshops and other artists.
Wong arrived at a fortuitous moment in Hong Kong's art development with rising government support, sponsored opportunities for artists and new galleries looking to represent smart, young, confident artists.
His progressively ambitious exhibitions began with "A Fear is This" at 1aspace in 2007, and sculptural, animatronic installations in the high-profile "A Passion for Creation" at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2009.
He recently installed two rooms in the "Phantoms of Asia" exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco: one room was based on "correct" fung shui principles while the other was its "incorrect" opposite.
Wong's sharp eye for society's details results in art of uniquely accessible conceptual quirkiness, often dealing with cultural taboos, that draws on his own American upbringing as the son of Hong Kong-born parents.
A collaborative suite of photographs, "Affective Portraits", with photographer David Boyce, exhibited earlier this year revealed Wong's depth of psychological enquiry. These images depict extreme emotions - despair, anger, sadness - everything but happiness. His interest in psychology, emanating from undergraduate studies, has led to an interest in the emotional behaviour of animals, of which some ideas are artistically depicted in his current exhibition.