Chiu Wei-Hsiang’s painting is cultivation that begins with loss. Born in 1997 in Dayuan, Taoyuan, Taiwan, he grew up among soil, rice waves, courtyard animals, and the bustle of the market, a world erased by the government’s Aerotropolis project. His grandfather was neighborhood chief, his family large and rooted. Demolition scattered kin and severed bonds. Painting became his act of regrounding: not nostalgia, but a defiant counter to erasure. Toil and Soil, presented by gdm Hong Kong, situates this cultivation in the fissures between demolition and memory, caregiving and creation, disappearance and survival. 

From rural childhood to assisting the family’s wet market stall, and now full-time labor in a nursing institution, farming as repetition and endurance anchors his practice. Daylight is toil, nightfall is soil. In the care facility, Chiu confronts aging and death daily. His labor is consumed by systemic demand yet rendered invisible by its logic. He refuses to reduce elders to cases, painting their vitality and returning dignity denied by institutional structures. His images grow from this double ground: invisible labor and the soil of resistance.

Opening reception: 10 September, 17:00 – 19:00

Artist guided tour: 12 September, 14:30

Gallery address: 1/F, Ruttonjee Centre, 11 Duddell Street, Central