Li Hei Di, Concubine Fell In Deep Sea, 2021. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
Li Hei Di
Li Hei Di’s Concubine Fell in Deep Sea is a haunting and stunning portrayal of sorrow and spiritual longing, evoking the tragic tale of Nie Xiaoqian — the primary female character from the Qing dynasty novel Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The deep blue hues of the underwater scene envelop the central figure — a woman with pale skin and sorrowful eyes, surrounded by ethereal beings. Her expression reflects the despair of one trapped in an abyss, much like Xiaqian’s plea, “I have fallen into a deep sea, unable to find the shore.” Through this work, Li Hei Di invites viewers to explore the interplay of human vulnerability and otherworldly forces, creating a visual narrative that resonates with timeless emotional depth.
A rising star, Li Hei Di is the youngest artist on the Pace Gallery roster and was named in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in 2024 for their exceptional talent and dedication. Since earning a Master’s Degree in painting from the Royal College of Art in 2022, Li has gone on to have works featured in numerous exhibitions at prestigious galleries and institutions, including Uncanny Valley, Gagosian, Hong Kong (2023); Home is where the haunt is, X Museum, Beijing (2023); and The Armory Show, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles (2024). Their latest solo exhibition, 700 Nights of Winter, took place at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London (2024).
Vivien Zhang
Vivien Zhang, Georadian, 2022. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
Vivien Zhang’s paintings draw attention to the instabilities inherent to the linguistic, visual, and categorical frameworks that underpin our experience of reality, questioning their reliability with fresh alternatives. For a defining example of her approach, look no further than the captivating Georadian, which marks the artist’s auction debut at Phillips. This seemingly abstract composition juxtaposes hyper-precise, digitally rendered sections with unpredictable, fluid washes of paint that bleed and pool organically. The result is a striking, collage-like abstraction that merges fragmented personal, cultural, and contextual references.
Born in 1990, the London-based artist spent her formative years in China, Kenya, and Thailand. She received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School in 2012 and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2014. She is represented by Pilar Corrias Gallery in London, and her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Le Consortium, Dijon, France; K11 MUSEA in Hong Kong; and in special projects with Long March Space in Beijing. From May to November this year, Aranya Art Center North will present her new solo exhibition, marking her first museum solo exhibition in China.
Gao Ludi
Gao Ludi, Reality No.16, 2019. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
In Gao Ludi’s Reality series, the artist’s unique approach is physical, active, and transcendent, piercing the flatness of the picture plane to draw a new dimension out of the panel, directing it toward the viewer. In Reality No. 16, the artist takes various materials and truncates, polishes, smears, and grafts them to the work’s surface, liberating them from their functional utility and granting them an emergent structure. To stand before this work is to witness the artist’s own consciousness transcribed to imagery — the metaphysical made physical.
Born in 1990 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, the artist received his BFA in Oil Painting at the Institute for Fine Arts at Capital Normal University in Beijing in 2013. This work from Gao Ludi’s Reality series was included in his landmark solo exhibition 1:1 at Qiao Space in Shanghai in 2020. His recent solo exhibitions include Overwrite, Long Museum (West Bund), Shanghai, China, and Journal, WHITE SPACE, Beijing, China.
Jansson Stegner
Jansson Stegner, Cedar Lake, 2020. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
California-based artist Jansson Stegner’s mannerist approach rethinks human forms, questioning the nature of power, gender normativity, visual pleasure, and the mechanics of painting itself. His works are layered with art-historical and pop culture references, simultaneously serene and cynical, classical and kitsch. His 2020 work Cedar Lake encapsulates these themes, at once alluding to the ubiquitous sexualization of female models in contemporary commercial imagery and historic depictions of Greek nymphs. In Stegner’s hands, the female figure is disproportionate, with elongated and swollen limbs, subverting our preconceived notions of the ideal body.
Represented by Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, and Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels, Jansson Stegner is widely acclaimed in North America and Europe. He was the recipient of the 2010 Art Brussels: Collectors’ Choice Award and was a 2015 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellow. He has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions with Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; Almine Rech, New York; The Hole, New York; and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles. Stegner’s most recent exhibition marks the artist’s first solo show in Asia — Jansson Stegner: Arena is currently on view at CVG Foundation, Beijing, through 18 March 2025.
Maria Farrar
Maria Farrar, Hot Cross Buns, 2019. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
Approaching Maria Farrar’s Hot Cross Buns, we are transported to an alternate reality of colour and intrigue as we encounter a seemingly simple scene — a woman, seen from behind, gazes through a bakery window. This whimsical depiction of an everyday sight is highly emblematic of Farrar’s practice at the time this work was executed. First seen in her 2019 solo exhibition Too Late to Turn Back Now at Ota Fine Arts in Tokyo and Singapore, the work reflects the rich layers of brushstrokes that transform a trivial, transient moment into a densely textured visual experience that engenders a fresh, emotional intensity.
Currently based in London, Farrar was born in the Philippines in 1988 and raised in Japan. She brings facets of these multicultural experiences to her work as she navigates the fragments of memories from living in various cities across the globe.
Issy Wood
Issy Wood, Professional Help on Rye, 2020. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
Describing herself as a “Medieval Millennial,” the London-based artist Issy Wood’s starting point is a classical solemnity, yet she lands at a critical examination of our rapidly changing contemporary lives. Created in 2020, Professional Help on Rye is perhaps one of the most compelling examples of the more realist facet of Wood’s work, in which she captures a particular experience of alienation felt during the global pandemic. At this time, the artist turned to nostalgic TV shows, from The Sopranos to Sex and the City, which served as reminders of the days when people were physically closer. This work features a female figure with curly blonde hair enjoying rye bread, which evokes memories of Carrie relaxing with friends at Magnolia Bakery in Sex and the City. Executed at an ambitious larger-than-life scale — measuring over 180 centimetres tall and 240 centimetres long — the composition zooms sharply into an extreme close-up. This dissonance in perspective heightens the defamiliarizing effect and serves as a metaphor for our misplaced positionality amid tremendous changes in contemporary life.
Following the lauded What I Eat in A Day at TANK Shanghai, Wood’s current solo exhibition Wet Reckless is on view at Michael Werner Gallery in Los Angeles through 17 May 2025. In the coming fall, sponsored by LEAP Art Foundation, Wood will present a collection of new works at the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin as part of her first solo exhibition with the institution. Wood is currently represented by Michael Werner Gallery and Carlos/Ishikawa.
Sylvia Ong
Sylvia Ong, Echoes No. 2, 2023. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
Sylvia Ong’s innate need to create transcends a single medium. Born in Kuala Lumpur in 1980, she first studied cinematography, directed television programs, and produced commercial fashion photography shoots before turning to visual art. Her short films have been nominated for major awards and screened at film festivals in New York, Rotterdam, Bangkok, Jakarta, Singapore, and more. Currently based in Dubai, UAE, Ong is inspired by the cities she’s lived in worldwide, which manifests in compelling abstract canvases that function much like film or music.
When I listen to music, I feel the colours and the mood as if it was a film. From this point of view, I felt the desire to create art that gives one the sense of life being a journey. The space we pass through, the time we experience: Isn't it as if we traveled along a piece of music, while following the slightest, brilliant nuance? In fact, with my paintings I would like to transport emotions, which fill the space and bring a new perspective to the world.
—Sylvia Ong
Mel Bochner
Mel Bochner, Oh Well, 2012. New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong >
This work exemplifies the late artist’s enduring fascination with language and words as both a medium and a conceptual focus. The painting consists of a cascade of colloquial phrases rendered in an ethereal palette of yellows, mint greens, powder blues, and golden oranges against a misty grey background. Rather than simply applying the text to canvas, Bochner reveals the letters through masking and resistance. The words appear to float at different depths within the picture plane, some more prominent, others ghostly and barely perceptible. This traces back to Bochner’s first use of velvet as a medium in 2005 when he discovered that it doesn’t absorb paint as much as other mediums and can thus create a visual depth that mirrors the semantic layers of the text itself.
Mel Bochner (1940–2025) was a pivotal figure in Conceptual Art, renowned for integrating language into his visual practice. Educated at Carnegie Mellon University, he gained prominence in 1960s New York, curating groundbreaking exhibitions such as Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art (1966), which is often cited as one of the first Conceptual Art exhibitions. His career spans painting, photography, and critical writing, with works held in major institutions, including MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago.
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