Hong Kong art show reflects ‘identity crisis’ of Asian artists living between East and West, with new twist on ‘blurred’ Japanese painting style

Moroism originated in 19th-century Japan as an art style in which outlines were replaced with haziness, and it forms the basis of White Cube gallery’s exhibition

The Asian diaspora artists use this indeterminacy to reflect shifting ideas of ‘home’ and the challenges of adapting to life far from one’s birthplace

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“Haze and MuiMui” (2023) by Chris Huen is part of the “New Moroism” exhibition at White Cube gallery in Hong Kong. The show sees artists from the Asian diaspora reflect on the impermanence of “home”. Photo: White Cube

Published: 4:15pm, 1 Jun 2023Updated: 5:34pm, 5 Jun 2023

Ten years ago, the Japanese-owned art gallery Beijing Tokyo Art Projects, located in the 798 Art District of the Chinese capital, launched a series of exhibitions under a new concept called “Neo-Moroism”.

It was based on Moroism, a Japanese painting style that emerged in the late 19th century during the Meiji Restoration – a period that saw Japan change from a feudal society to a modern democracy.

Among the kinds of artistic experimentation that developed with the influx of Western cultural influences, this particular school was distinguished by the elimination of outlines and the haziness of subject matters – hence the name, which means blurred in Japanese.

The 21st century “Neo-Moroism” that was centred in Beijing pushed the concept further, to suggest a blurring of lines between the real and the unreal, largely based on the idea that East Asian philosophies and religions have a more holistic world view and promote a more instinctive and mindful way of understanding the world than the West’s insistence on science and logic.

“River Gestures Before Dawn” (2023) by Michael Ho is one of the paintings featured at the “New Moroism” exhibition at White Cube gallery in Hong Kong. Photo: White Cube

And now in Hong Kong we have “New Moroism”, an exhibition of works by a group of artists of Asian heritage whose ideas of East versus West are far more indistinct, as hinted at by their biographies: