Spanish artist who covers himself in a white sheet so he can use all 5 senses to paint depicts Hong Kong as not done before
- Belgium-based Angel Vergara deprives himself of much of his sight when he paints, making his works ‘a kind of an active meditation about what is around me’
- He recently completed a series of oil paintings of Hong Kong that are now on view at Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Wong Chuk Hang
For most landscape painters, sight – being able to see the view – is the most important of the five senses. That is not, however, the case for Brussels-based artist Angel Vergara, who creates his landscapes and cityscapes while completely covered with a white sheet.
“What constitutes an image? It’s important to me that an image is not only something you see,” he says. “When I am in the process of making an image, I use, more than the view, all the other senses that we forget all the time – these senses that constitute our body and our being.”
The artist recently spent a month in Hong Kong as his alter ego “Straatman” (“man of the street” in Dutch), which saw him set up his makeshift, nomadic studio at various locations.
At times the artist immersed himself in nature – in places such as the Tai Tam Reservoir, Mount Davis and Lamma Island – and at other times, he placed himself in the middle of the city’s hustle and bustle, in locations like the entrance to Sheung Wan MTR station and the Mong Kok Flower Market.
Throughout it all, Vergara was covered in a white sheet, adopting a mysterious ghost-like presence while completing a series of oil paintings that are now on view in his “Acts & Paintings” exhibition at Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Wong Chuk Hang.