Arthur De Villepin is thrilled to present "DAY ZER0," the groundbreaking first solo exhibition at Villepin Gallery and the inaugural event in Hong Kong.

"DAY ZER0" challenges us to embrace change while navigating an ever-evolving future and urges us to rethink our interconnectedness across Time and Space. In this fast-paced world, Yukimasa Ida’s transformative work serves as a catalyst and provides new perspectives that help us navigate the complexities of tomorrow. Igniting hope and purpose, this exhibition compels us to become active participants in shaping our collective destiny, encouraging us to embrace a vision of harmony that transcends time.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

“The idea of throwing some color on a large porous white stone, as on paper, appealed to me.”

Zao Wou-Ki

 In a world where cultural boundaries are continuously blurred and redefined, Villepin presents an exhibition that explores the artistic universe of Zao Wou-Ki, offering a journey through his illustrious career full of works that bridge Eastern and Western aesthetic traditions.

The exhibition will showcase Zao Wou-Ki’s deep engagement with various mediums and techniques, including a diverse range of printmaking methods, watercolors on paper, and ceramic and porcelain painting, each illustrating the fluidity and curiosity that define his career and confirm his status as a master of abstract expressionism. Lithographs, etchings, and serigraphs play a significant role in his body of work, offering a unique approach to composition and texture while allowing Zao Wou-Ki to produce limited editions of his art, opening up access to a wider audience. His extensive travels across various countries and diverse cultural experiences are seamlessly integrated into his visual language. This exhibition will closely examine the profound connections he succeeded in creating with select places and how these attachments are expressed in his work.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

VILLEPIN is pleased to announce the opening of the summer group exhibition on Thursday, 20th of June 2024. “Liquid Memory”, features works by artists  Koji Yamaguchi, Yuri Yuan, Ted Gahl, and Travis MacDonald. Each artist explores the transient nature of reality through distinct visual languages that navigate the ambiguity of everyday scenes, capture the fluidity and ephemeral memory of existence, and offer a glimpse into the interplay between conscious and unconscious realms. 

Drawing inspiration from artistic legacies such as genre painting and Morotai painting, these  artists elevated mundane occurrences and visions to clever compositions that explore the  human condition through art. Marked by memories that not only serve as a record of personal  experience but also influence the way the artists understand and perceive the world. 

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

VILLEPIN is delighted to announce the continuation of Myonghi Kang's highly acclaimed exhibition.

Now in its second chapter, we are opening at The SHOWCASE, operated by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in Wong Chuk Hang. The move allows Myonghi Kang's artworks to unfold on a grander scale, enveloping viewers and encouraging them to delve deeper into the artist's creative process and vision.

Taking inspiration from The Claude Monet room of the Chichu Art Museum and the Musée de l'Orangerie, the idea evokes an illusion of a boundless universe. In the first chapter, we emphasised the historical significance of Myonghi's work in dialogue with J.M.W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, and Paul Cézanne. For this second chapter, we intend to highlight Myonghi as an artist without borders, showcasing her paintings created in diverse locations such as Antarctica, Mongolia, and France. This emphasises her geographical footprint spanning across the globe.

Venue address: UG/E, Landmark South, 39 Yip Kan Street, Wong Chuk Hang

Villepin Gallery is pleased to present Myonghi Kang: The Rebirth of Nature. In our increasingly technology-driven society, where the rapid pace of progress often overshadows the gentle whispers of nature, a compelling voice emerges, demanding to be heard. Taking inspiration from esteemed masters throughout art history such as J.M.W. Turner, Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, and Paul Cézanne, while embracing the spirit of traditional Chinese painters, Kang’s art transcends the boundaries of time and culture.⁠

Gallery address: 53 Hollywood Road, Central
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Please feel free to book a tour. ⁠

Villepin is pleased to present Whispers of the Soul, an exhibition highlighting Australian-born American painter, Lawrence Carroll, in dialogue with works by Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Cy Twombly, and photographer François Halard. The first presentation of Lawrence Carroll in Hong Kong, Whispers of the Soul is co-curated by Arthur de Villepin and Olivier Kaeppelin, an art critic and curator who served as Artistic Director of the Busan Biennale 2014 and was formerly Director of the Maeght Foundation. With the support of the artist's wife Lucy Jones Carroll this exhibition serves as a tribute that transcends temporal, spatial, and aesthetic boundaries, and tells the story of the indelible mark the artist left on the world of contemporary art. Whispers of the Soul opens November 26, 2023.

The exhibition embarks on a journey that retraces Lawrence Carroll's artistic evolution and draws focus into the artists and intellectual theories that significantly inspired Carroll's creative process, examining the legacies of Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Cy Twombly, and François Halard to explore the multiple complexities and possibilities of Carroll's unique output.

Lawrence Carroll's quiet visual language speaks of the search for belonging in the metropolitan crowd; subtle coloring often employed with inconspicuous materials to produce works lavished by geography and time. As the artist once said, "things come when they come. In this ever-changing world this is a luxury I crave. To slow down, to wait, to look. By choice I have chosen to live away from things, and by doing this I have given myself the freedom to wander and take my time." Playing with soft colors, almost white, sometimes blue and yellow, Carroll's paintings exist in an atmosphere of silence that conveys hidden messages to our senses and souls. While looking at Morandi, Carroll was drawn to the portrayal of beauty in essential things; for both artists, the repeated capturing of subject matter was a meditative and introspective practice.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

Villepin is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of German artist Anselm Kiefer in Hong Kong, Anselm Kiefer: Golden Age, opening on 19th May, 2023. Presenting works which evoke the mythology and nostalgia of the ancient “Golden Age,” the exhibition coincides with a special moment for Hong Kong as the city reopens its borders and looks forward to a new era for the gallery.

Through the long-standing personal relationship between the founders of Villepin and Anselm Kiefer, the exhibition has been collaboratively curated and offers a selective view of the practice of one of the most important artists of his generation. Anselm Kiefer: Golden Age will feature paintings and a sculpture created between 2020 and 2022. The exhibition will be accompanied by salon talks, guided tours, and educational materials.

The exhibition title Anselm Kiefer: Golden Age takes its cue from Greek and historical myths, which often allude to the peak of human civilization, denoting a period of primordial prosperity and peace. Kiefer has previously referenced German philosopher and cultural critic Ernst Bloch, who renews the core idea of, and interest in, utopia. In his book The Principle of Hope, Bloch explores the idea of the Golden Age as a utopian ideal, defining the concept of utopia as a philosophy that envisions a better future for humanity. Bloch argues that hope and striving for a better world are fundamental to human existence, and that this impulse is what drives people to create art, music, and literature. Installed across three floors in the gallery, Kiefer’s works allude to the utopian ideal, capturing the transformative nature and alchemical process of their creation.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

VILLEPIN is pleased to announce L’éternité, a group exhibition featuring our artists Zao Wou-Ki, Myonghi Kang, and Marie de Villepin, alongside works by Georges Mathieu, Miquel Barceló, and Ida Yukimasa among others.

Referencing Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “L’éternité”, the exhibition examines the temporal and ephemeral qualities of art throughout history. The speaker in the poem explores the concept of eternity through fleeting instants, specifically a delicate moment in passing when the sea unites with the sun, and eventually finds hope in his rediscovery. He learns that eternity can be found in daily observations and in memories.

Throughout history, eternity has also been widely discussed in tandem with art, where each work of art exists as a record of the maker’s expression and spirit at a single precise moment. Art historian Ernst Gombrich discusses the notion of art for eternity in the earliest creations of monuments and portraiture in Egyptian art, in which the artist tries to preserve a fleeting expression through the observation of nature.

L’éternité rediscovers the concept of eternity through each artist’s visual dynamism across multiple generations. After the pandemic, we have become more aware of the fragility of time and life. Each artist featured in the exhibition transcends the passage of time as they use different techniques to convey a sense of motion, change, and transience. Whether it is within the structured stanza of a poem, or a frame of a canvas, each selection of a word and a brushstroke becomes a physical embodiment of a continuing process. Deciphering sensations around nature and eternity, the exhibition examines our changing attitudes toward the perception of time.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

Villepin is pleased to present Murmuration, the debut exhibition of Marie de Villepin in Hong Kong, marking her first major solo exhibition in Asia. The title Murmuration originally describes the enchanting gesture and roaring sound created by ballet birds in the sky in certain seasons. In a similar movement to these birds, Marie captures the energy of various worlds where her multifaceted practice has long experimented with intrinsic expressions through colours, shapes, and rhythm.

Today, there is a general tendency to follow a certain opinion or a predesigned algorithm, to swarm in the same direction of a multitude. In a constantly overstimulated world of configurations of layers, the urge to find order, meaning and perhaps beauty, within chaotic conditions becomes more palpable. Marie’s works reintroduce us to a new path of discovery through a deep amalgamation of formal aesthetics that encompass her travels and experiences, one that is deeply allegorical and personal.

In the spirit of "Murmuration", the exhibition will adopt an evolutive nature, beginning with Marie’s works and gradually evolving to take its own shape. In addition to paintings and drawings, personal stories and inspirations from art, music, film, and photography that influenced her creative practice, will also transform the exhibition, transporting viewers onto a temporal visual as well as auditory voyage.

Gallery address: G-2/F, 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

Throughout art history, from the works of Rembrandt to Modigliani, Van Gogh and Freud, the human face has long been both a source of attraction and repulsion, an expression of humanity and fraternity but also portrayed with primitive violence and savagery. Across all its figurative and abstract representations, the portrait has been used as a mirror to the world.

The Loss of Human Face? will feature masterpieces by Francis Bacon in dialogue with contemporary artists Adrian Ghenie, Zeng Fanzhi, George Condo, and Yukimasa Ida. Over the past few months, the Villepin team has been working closely with researchers and curators around the world to bring together this exhibition that expresses how artists have used the human face to reflect the truths behind the visage of humanity.

Showcasing twenty major works in a transformed gallery space, visitors will be confronted with the bold canvases of these artists displayed in dialogue with each other. In this contemporary moment, this exhibition ultimately aims to pose the question: are we still able to decipher the human face, when it is vanishing behind masks, disguising its expressions, and disappearing behind screens of this technological age?

Gallery address: G-2/F, 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

Villepin is delighted to announce its upcoming exhibition of the late Chinese French master Zao Wou-Ki, exploring the artist’s lifelong examination and reflection of Chinese inheritance.

Following Villepin’s inaugural exhibition with the artist in 2020, Zao Wou-Ki: The Eternal Return to China continues the gallery’s ongoing research into his life and art. This presentation aims to uncover the complex facets and layers of his artistic journey from China, around the world and ultimately, back to his native homeland. Throughout the artist’s career, his relationship with China was omnipresent and permeated his work.

This curated presentation will feature exceptional and rarely seen works, including oil paintings, ink works, and watercolors. Through research into newly discovered archive interviews with the artist, this exhibition aims to shed light on a lesser-known aspect of Zao Wou-Ki and his relationship with China, its history and culture. Although he spent most of his career in Europe, China has always been close to his heart and served as a lifelong inspiration in his work

Gallery address: G-2/F, 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

VILLEPIN is pleased to announce an exhibition featuring work by the Korean artist Myonghi Kang.

Myonghi Kang’s idyllic canvases offer an intimate view into the elusive heart of her artistic pursuit: a faith in painting and drawing as a medium capable of profoundly reinforcing our relationship with the natural world. Moving with ease between abstraction and figuration, the artist reflects on questions of perception, embodiment and understanding, while offering viewers a new experience of time, space, and color. Through cosmic landscapes, her command of colors, marks and shapes convey a sense of exuberance, peace and joy.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central

Villepin announces a new exhibition dedicated to the Second School of Paris, showcasing a group of artists who became active following World War Two in Europe. The gallery will present the works of an exceptional and diverse group of painters who created, built, and hoped for a brighter future on the banks of the Seine since the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. Drawing attention to this movement now, the gallery seeks to exhibit, remember, and above all constantly question the relationship between the world and art, bringing together the past and present, the near and far.

Gallery address: 53-55 Hollywood Road, Central