Hong Kong artist inspired by swimming pools invites you to slow down
Chan Wai-lap’s two new works, at Art Basel Hong Kong and Oi! in North Point, encourage visitors to dally and find a sense of solace
The earliest works by 37-year-old Hong Kong artist Chan Wai-lap were meticulous, hand-drawn remnants of a bygone era – written school reports, dot matrix computer printouts and bottles of correction fluid.
By immortalising these symbols of an analogue age, Chan tapped into his home city’s deep sense of nostalgia and innocence lost, and captured an aesthetic that has been quietly receding from the city’s social fabric.
While these early works established Chan’s eye for detail, his ever-expanding public swimming pool series has cemented his status as a rising star who always finds new ways to turn the motif into an evolving symbol of yearning and freedom.
This month – Hong Kong’s art month – he is unveiling two high-profile projects: Mimimomo Pool (2026), commissioned by UBS bank, at Art Basel Hong Kong, and “Jeremy’s Bathhouse”, a solo exhibition at Oi!, a government art space in North Point.
The Oi! exhibition, designed by regular collaborator Human Wu, is an elaborate transformation of the venue’s greenhouse-like extension into a Japanese-style bathhouse.
After visiting Jingdezhen, in China’s Jiangxi province, to study the traditional art of porcelain-making, Chan worked with artisans to create over a thousand ceramic tiles and objects for the show.