Joey Leung Ka-yin (born 1976, Hong Kong) is a contemporary gongbi artist in Hong Kong. Trained in the meticulous style of traditional Chinese fine brush painting, Leung's works combine tradition with modern subject matter. Leung's work is subjective and personal as she uses her art to comment on urban city life and its related issues in a witty and imaginative way. Leung's works reflect her strong desire to confront conventional habits and beliefs in order to present new perspective and provoke alternative interpretations of modern life.
In most of her paintings, the combination of the subject (which is often a girl), the scenery (which is usually related to nature) and the rhythmic doggerel evokes a poetic space for imagination in the viewers. The girl, which is a dominant motif, in Leung's paintings is imbued with agency to freely interact with the other objects and the environment. It is a reversal of the long-held notion of women taking a backseat and are often the objects to be looked at by men.
Joey Leung received her Bachelor of Arts (2000) and Master of Fine Arts (2007) from the Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
At the University, she started to pick up gongbi painting from 1998. Although this realistic technique of ancient Chinese painting is generally considered unimaginative and inexpressive, Leung imbues in it a modern spirit through her choice of subject matter, media and format.
If gongbi painting that often depicts birds and flowers is generally looked upon as uninspired and rooted in the nostalgic, Joey Leung has provided a new twist to it as she integrates tradition with popular culture in her works. Drawing upon her personal experiences of city life, her artworks often represent an ironic twist to mundane everyday happenings.
The juxtaposition of words and images in Leung's paintings recalls both the Chinese art form of Lianhuanhua (picture story book) popular in China in the 1920s as well as the pop art of Japanese comics (manhua) in Hong Kong prevalent in the 80s & 90s. Using the sequential structure, it provides a strong narration in her paintings whereby the viewer can derive meanings from both text and images. To comprehend Leung's paintings, it is important that viewer understands the riddle-like doggerels that she writes in Cantonese, the vernacular language to Hong Kong.
Leung also expands the art media in her painting to include Chinese ink, gouache, acrylic, pencil, colored pencil, ball pen, drawing pen and markers.
Leung's most recent works include Goddess of Luo Riverã æ´Âç¥ÂãÂÂ, Fragments of Time ãÂÂæÂÂéÂÂçÂÂç¢Âç ãÂÂand The Listless LionãÂÂç åÂÂæ²Âç²¾ç¥ÂãÂÂthat she completed in 2017. In her Pool of Muscle ãÂÂ人éÂÂèÂÂæ± ãÂÂ(2016), it comprises a series of three paintings titled Dream Balcony, Scenery of the Moment and Firework is Everywhere.
In 2015 Leung produced six paintings: Something that Mr. Chow didn't MentionãÂÂå¨堬æ²Â說ãÂÂ,Worrywart And The Cat with Bellã èªå°Âç ©æ±çÂÂ人èÂÂæÂÂé´負ãÂÂ,Expired Memory: Weeping Willow And Octopus ãÂÂéÂÂæÂÂçÂÂè¨Âæ¶ï¼ÂÃ¥ÂÂæ³èÂÂå «çªé ãÂÂ,Transient 1 ãÂÂç¡常她 1 ãÂÂTransient 2 ãÂÂç¡常她 2 ãÂÂand Wait a MomentãÂÂçÂÂç ãÂÂ.
In 2014, her works include Romantic Encounters Happen Only in Movies ãÂÂ浪漫å¶éÂÂåªå¨é»影ç¼ç ãÂÂ,Oil fish Melon Soup with Egg Drop ãÂÂçÂÂæ²¹éÂÂçÂÂèÂÂè±湯 ãÂÂ,The Despised MondayãÂÂ被å«Âæ£ÂçÂÂæÂÂæÂÂ丠ãÂÂ, Chicken Stock is Powerless to Help ãÂÂé·Âæ±Âç¡åÂÂæ ãÂÂ.
Joey Leung won the prestigious Y.S. Hui Arts Award for her mixed media work in 2000 upon her graduation. In the same year, she held her first solo exhibition Idling Away a Second in Galerie Martini, Hong Kong. From 2008 to 2014, Leung held three solo exhibitions in the Grotto Fine Arts, Hong Kong and one in Aquvii Tokyo in Japan. Her exhibition Beyond Presumption ã é£äºÂ人æÂÂ以çºçÂÂäºÂãÂÂ(2008) is about imaginary stories presented in the first-person or third-person narrative to express her feelings about the world she lives in. Leung's paintings in Cloudy Fairy-talesãÂÂé°天çÂÂ童話ãÂÂ(2010) were inspired by figures from famous fairy tales in the Western world like Snow White, Cinderella as a way to comment on her observations of city life and its people. This is followed by her Garden of Hesitation ãÂÂç¶豫åÂÂã (2012) and Unpoetic Poems ãÂÂä¸Âè©©æÂÂè©©éÂÂã (2014) at Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong.
Joey Leung is active in many joint exhibitions held both in Hong Kong and overseas.
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2012 HONG KONG ARTISTS - 20 Portraits, Edited by Cordelia and Christoph Noe, Published by Verlag für moderne Kunst, pg122-129
2013 Wang Ruosi, Covering Danger with Poetic Veil. Art and Design February 2013, Issue 158. pp 70âÂÂ77
2011 Lai Tsz-yuen, The Logic of Sense: A Review on Joey Leung Ka-yin's Drawings. Twenty-First Century. December 2011, Issue128. pp 88âÂÂ91
2008 Ã¥ÂÂ浩æÂÂï¼ÂãÂÂä¼¼æ¯èÂÂéÂÂãÂÂçÂÂç¾代工çÂÂãÂÂC for Culture. September 2008, Issue5. pp 40âÂÂ41
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University (UK)