MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “The Love That Moves the Sun and All the Stars,” the solo exhibition by Chinese artist Gong Bin (b. 1992, Yiyang, China). The show features 11 paintings that depict the merging and collision among the fantastic worlds imagined, traversed, and mapped by the artist. Taking the visceral, relatable, and truthful experiences in life as a departure point, the exhibited works harbor intimate and irreducible universes. It is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery as well as in Hong Kong.

Venturing out in colors, Gong paints in an introspective mode, which for him resembles a “spiritual odyssey.” In his paintings, images and imagery originate from his mindscape, where memories, imagination, and dreams interweave and coalesce. Drawing visual metaphors and analogies from fairy tales, fiction, poems, and recalled personal experiences, Gong’s works resist the constricting—and at times misleading—assumptions of realism and reality. Without referencing photographs, his painting process reveals an active meditation on the nature of memory, which negates, encompasses, slows down, and simultaneously intensifies the flow of experience.

Gallery address: 202, The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present the solo exhibition, “Interrupted Dream”, by Chinese artist Xiong Jiaxiang (b.1991, Shanghai, China). Curated by Zhang Chen, this exhibition features the artist’s latest installations and sculptures and creates a physical space to reach the intricacy between reality and virtuality while attempting to interrupt the temporary dreams constructed on the massive image production today. It is the artist’s first solo exhibition as well as the first exhibition with the gallery.

Viewing imagery as the medium, dragging and fracturing as the gesture, Xiong thermal transfers the virtual images shot by phones or screenshots on computers onto elastic fabric, and, in turn, places the distorted images into everyday scenes to capture, reprint and distort them anew. The repetition constructs the dialectics between virtuality and reality, revealing the various discrepancies embedded in image production and consumption. In his recent sculptures, the dialogue between the two grows into an even more complicated context. Through a publicly well-known image research engine of Taobao, an absurd connection has been established between an up-side-down red portrait and works of Francis Bacon. Concerning only the external similarity, the algorithm bypasses the internal logic in reality; nonetheless, on the other hand, the massive data and the strict calculation seem to be conferring a sense of authority on the result. The consequent contradiction does not only inspire the artist to work on his recent Triptychs (2020-2022), but also contributes to the possibility for him to further transfer the virtual, online image production into real, concrete sculptures.

Gallery address: 202, The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “Drawing No Conclusions”, the second solo exhibition by the American artist Alex Gardner in Hong Kong and with the gallery. Presenting the latest series of works on paper, this exhibition extends Gardner’s focus on the articulation of body language clues and talks about the universal questions about individuality or integrity.

At no point in his artistic journey did Alex Gardner (b. 1987, Los Angeles, CA) seek to face the spectator with a formed subject matter of self-explanatory scenes. Sprouting from simple, enigmatical, and somewhat caricature-like ink drawings, his paintings developed into candid scenes in which the presence of the viewer is acknowledged but not necessarily welcomed by the protagonists. This concept conditioned the unusual framing and unexpected compositional proposals, enabling the artist to focus on the articulation of fingers, wrists, feet, postures, and other body language clues. Working with layers of watered-down acrylics and oversaturating the canvas surface with the dramatic color contrasts, these almost cinematic snapshots allowed for the suggestive gestures or postures to outweigh the importance of realism or anatomical correctness.

Gallery address: 202, The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present Shoot the Moon, a solo exhibition by the Chicago-based German artist Paula Kamps. This is the inaugural show for the artist with the gallery and in Asia.

Paula Kamps’s new paintings are eerie records of social perception in progress. Kamps partially populates her canvases with inky stains and pigment marks, to then shift gears into figuration. Her initial moves are a self-made Rorschach test. Searching out images from her daily life in the watery forms, she catches some fragment of a familiar image — the swoop of a neck or a clown’s lips — and fills in the rest.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present Horizon, Shanghai-based artist Cai Jian’s first solo exhibition with the gallery as well as in Hong Kong, showcasing his “Horizon” series that is based on spirit levels.

A commonly used instrument in artistic practices and exhibitions, the spirit levels indicate the horizontal level of an object or space based on the displacement of the bubble inside. Cai Jian renders the images of the spirit levels through 3D modeling, pre-sets different inclinations and perspectives, and transfers the images to an irregularly-shaped canvas with airbrushing. During the process, Cai tries to remove as many human traces as possible to achieve a sense of calmness seen in product rendering. When the spirit level is enlarged and translated into a painting, it loses its functionality yet leads viewers to observe and ponder over the relationship between the spirit level, the painting, and also the real level. In this exhibition, all levels of works are produced with minor differences and are lined up, which is the designated presentation the artist thought of since the inception of this series. The repetition creates a visual bombardment that amplifies the viewer’s doubts about horizontal validity and alienates their habitual perception of the spirit level.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present Wang Zhiyuan, a solo exhibition of the latest works from the Beijing-based artist Wang Zhiyuan. Wang's work explores how he interacts physically and consciously with the painting and responds to the constantly changing images. To Zhiyuan, painting is a process to experience under a changing and unknown state. The randomness, contingency, certainty, strangeness, and serendipity that occurred in this process inspire and influence each other, and constantly push forward his practice. This exhibition is the artist's first solo exhibition with the gallery and in Asia.

Wang Zhiyuan uses a variety of materials in his practice: acrylic, spray paint, and charcoal are repeatedly stacked together to create strips of colors that run through or rest on the canvas. Contrasting colors cross and cover each other, detailed scratches and particles of the brushstrokes transit different materials into a blend of gamut boundaries, giving breath across layers of color. In the meantime, Wang pays particular attention to the physical actions during the painting process, such as the interaction between the brush and the extension of the arm, the speed and force applied of the stroke movement, and touches of the multiple textures and mediums. All these specific processes constitute the abstract fields and traces.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wanchai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present Wang Zhiyuan, a solo exhibition of the latest works from the Beijing-based artist Wang Zhiyuan. Wang’s work explores how he interacts physically and consciously with the painting and responds to the constantly changing images. To Zhiyuan, painting is a process to experience under a changing and unknown state. The randomness, contingency, certainty, strangeness, and serendipity that occurred in this process inspire and influence each other, and constantly push forward his practice. This exhibition is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and in Asia.

Wang Zhiyuan uses a variety of materials in his practice: acrylic, spray paint, and charcoal are repeatedly stacked together to create strips of colors that run through or rest on the canvas. Contrasting colors cross and cover each other, detailed scratches and particles of the brushstrokes transit different materials into a blend of gamut boundaries, giving breath across layers of color. In the meantime, Wang pays particular attention to the physical actions during the painting process, such as the interaction between the brush and the extension of the arm, the speed and force applied of the stroke movement, and touches of the multiple textures and mediums. All these specific processes constitute the abstract fields and traces.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “Distraction”, the first exhibition of Paris-based artist Fabien Adèle with the gallery and in Asia. This solo exhibition showcases his latest oil-on-linen paintings of seemingly statuesque figures that speak to each other in an esoteric fashion. Audience can expect whimsical colours and emotional textures from the paintings influenced by surrealism and sensitive experiences.

A thoughtful portrayal of the artist’s fluid creative process, all 18 works were created simultaneously in 2021 featuring bodies stretched, hidden, or incorporated into the elements, reflecting their surrounding environment. The outdoor anddomestic landscapes of blurred masses, often set on a horizon line, are only ever slightly described as the subjects’ body gestures influence and dominate the flow of the scenes.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “- – – – – – – – – – / / / / – – – -”, a solo exhibition of new works by New York-based and Hong Kong-born artist Lau Wai, whose practice investigates how history, fiction, personal memory and virtuality collide in the process of identity formations. Featuring works across video, prints and installation, “- – – – – – – – – – / / / / – – – -” explores how current social conditions and the influences of emerging technologies re-inform and reshape the ways in which we perceive ourselves, construct our memories, and understand the realities. It is the artist’s first gallery solo exhibition in Hong Kong as well as her first time showing with the gallery.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “Dream (Is) land!”, a group exhibition featuring four Hong Kong based artists Tap Chan, Liu Yin, Amy Tong and Wu Jiaru. Curated by Michael Guo, this exhibition brings together their artistic ideas and practices to explore the ambiguous relationship between dreams, reality and the present.

Lord of the Flies, a novel published in England in 1954, tells a story of a group of children who drifted to a deserted island due to a shipwreck. At first, the children were at a loss, but they then went together to ask for help. Due to the thought of their potential desires, they killed each other until the island itself burnt. The island is used as a metaphor of a miniature utopian world, but it is doomed because of the conflict between the different perceptions of an “ideal life”.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “SHE / POSITION”, a joint exhibition by Canadian photographer Petra Collins and Chinese photographer Hailun Ma. Growing up in different cultural and educational backgrounds, the two millennial artists both approach fashion photography as a way of self-expression. The present exhibition builds an interesting dialogue and interaction with their works to explore the intimate relationship between fashion and art.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is proud to present “Now You See Me”, a new body of work by Los Angeles based artist, Tahnee Lonsdale. The exhibition marks Londale’s first show with the gallery and also her first in Asia. This show includes new semi-abstract paintings exploring the idea of existence, how it feels to be loved, abandoned and challenged.

The works can be viewed in two separated groups: The Hidden and The Found. In “The Hidden”, figures are submerged into the water, and maybe even lost. But yet “The Found” alludes the acceptable, the nurturing of one self to love themselves.

Gallery address: 11/F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is thrilled to present “Day and Night” from China-based artist Tan Yongqing (b.1990, Hebei, China). It is his first time to show with the gallery as well as his debut outside of mainland China. This exhibition will feature a selection of 11 oil-on-canvas works that Tan has recently made, which expound his exploration of life consciousness through depicting human characters, landscapes and animals.

The notion of “life consciousness” runs through Tan Yongqing’s art practice. It questions both rationality and perceptuality, along with a process of spirituality, animality and the sociality that constantly struggled to reconcile and balance. Rather than expressing thoughts and opinions explicitly, Tan opens to controversial questions involved with the topic of life and death. This eliminates to some extent the acuteness and extremeness that tend to occur when confronting with sensitive contents, which makes his work more subtle and intriguing.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present Night Shift, a solo exhibition by Singaporean artist Alvin Ong. The exhibition features a series of paintings Ong has made since the lockdown, which saw the artist prolonging his stay in Singapore due to the pandemic and converting a room in his parents’ house into a home studio. Marking a shift towards introspection in a world where human intimacy has taken on new meaning, this new body of work is a reflection of the artist’s ongoing interests in the physicality of the body, and how human experiences of inhabitation are being reshaped in the current moment.

Gallery address: 11/F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wanchai 

MINE PROJECT is pleased to present the group exhibition Pet Shop Guys II: Wandering on Hennessy Road, curated by MARTIN GOYA BUSINESS (MGB). The show will be on view from September 30 through October 17.

"Pet Shop Guys" is a series of themed exhibitions MGB has curated in the last several years. It centers around humor and a magnetic wave visual system that send fresh and diverse creative groups of young artists across cities, regions and cultures. The name is inspired by the British electronic group Pet Shop Boys, known for their rhythmic and playful pioneering music.

Gallery address: 11F, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai