Hong Kong jewellery artist Wallace Chan brings his ‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ exhibition from Venice to Shanghai

Jul 20, 2026

The eight-metre Growth sculpture by Hong Kong-based artist Wallace Chan, on display at a preview at the Long Museum in Shanghai. Photo: Handout

The 70-year-old artist, who crafted what was once the world’s most expensive diamond necklace for Chow Tai Fook, is presenting titanium titans in his latest exhibition

Jeweller, sculptor and multidisciplinary artist Wallace Chan is no stranger to generating publicity with his work. His many crowning achievements over the years include the lauded solo exhibitions held during the Venice Biennale, prime placement at the most prestigious museums around the world and a US$200 million masterpiece crafted for Hong Kong jeweller Chow Tai Fook, once named the world’s most expensive diamond necklace.

Chan even has a gem-carving technique named after him: the Wallace Cut. The artistic innovation uses light refraction to create an optical illusion of multiple images being reflected when looking into a single gemstone.

Wallace Chan stands inside the Growth sculpture, which is part of the “Vessels of Other Worlds” exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai. Photo: Handout

Even so, the amount of coverage the widely celebrated artist has received this year, including in the pages of SCMP, feels both unbelievable and incredibly well-deserved, as if Chan is still reaching new heights even at the age of 70.

The artist has marked this milestone with a new exhibition, “Vessels of Other Worlds”, which first opened at the Santa Maria della Pietà church during the Venice Biennale in May and has now arrived at the Long Museum in Shanghai for part two. Both have been curated by Chan’s long-time friend James Putnam.

An installation view of Wallace Chan’s “Vessels of Other Worlds” exhibition in Venice. Photo: Federico Sutera

Many journalists from all over the world have not only followed this dual-site exhibition from Venice to Shanghai, but also closely covered Chan’s entire history at the Biennale thus far – a testament to how globally respected and beloved the artist is.

Bringing together such a large international media cohort for the Venice show in May, a notoriously crowded season during Biennale’s opening week, was no easy feat. When asked to reflect on this achievement, Chan told Style that inviting people from around the world to engage with this exhibition was the whole point of creating it in the first place.

“Although [the exhibition is held] in different places, I hope everyone, in appreciating [the exhibition], looks at their own lives [and] self-growth,” Chan said in our interview following the Shanghai exhibition opening. “Slowing down [like this] is the same as achieving a kind of spiritual return to one’s own soul, re-examining one’s own existence, rethinking who we are.”

Wallace Chan’s Rebirth sculpture, on display at the Long Museum in Shanghai. Photo: Handout

Chan’s global recognition is no accident. He was the first Chinese jewellery artist to be represented at the premier European fine arts fair TEFAF Maastricht back in 2016. Even as one of Hong Kong’s most internationally well-covered and well-known artists, he remains a larger-than-life enigma. His reputation for breaking barriers not just for Asian artists abroad, but for his pioneering use of materials – such as titanium in everything from the finest jewellery to the towering sculptures now on display in Shanghai – has given him an even more mythical, mystical aura.