2023 is a water year in the cycle of the five phases. Curator Calvin Hui has taken this to heart in this exhibition, bringing together an engaging series of artists to celebrate growth, life, and nourishment. As Water is suffused with the various attributes of this element: encompassing reflective equanimity, a dynamic, generative spirit, and offering a promise of prosperity.

Water is integral to Chinese art and aesthetics. Water manifests myriad metaphors in the complex currents of China’s cultural heritage. Water is an essential ingredient that ink artists must master in their technical training. Water is also an ever-renewing catalyst for conceptual invention. It is found across history, from the classical cannon to the works of contemporary artists in this exhibition at 3812 Gallery Hong Kong in January.

We invite you to allow yourself to take on some of the properties of water as you experience the exhibition, to seek out more fluid ways of thinking, of looking and of reflecting on these artworks, and to immerse yourself in the complex heritage, rich materiality, and conceptual dynamism of these artists and their work.

Gallery address: 26/F, Wyndham Place, 40-44 Wyndham Street, Central