“Huen’s dream-like pictures evolve organically and haphazardly; the artist forgoes underdrawings and sketches, and rather than paint from a photograph or from the scene itself, favours intuition by opting to eternalise the minute and the transient from feeling and memory.”
H ong Kong-born artist Chris Huen is inspired by everyday life, depicting his experiences of the day to day using his innovative visual language of layered dabs of paint and his activation of white space, creating scenes that draw harmoniously upon abstraction and elements of traditional Chinese ink painting. Most of his works relate to his experience of growing up and raising his family in Hong Kong.
藝術家在工作室
Inspired by his surroundings and his experience of them, Huen wonderfully represents the stretched out beach of Shek O village in the current work. A five-metre landscape painting, Shek O captures the beauty and drama of the roaring sea and the rocky beach, embracing white space to reveal an artist that is confident and intuitive. An ode to Shek O, the work is full of movement, with Huen capturing the different perspectives of the rolling waves, crashing into the pebble-strewn shore. While looking at Shek O, the brown form of a small row-boat appears amongst the tumultuous waves on the right side of the work, depicted in a dipping motion that emphasises the movement of the work. A sensational exploration of colour and line, forms appear and shift in front of the viewer, bursting with kinetic energy. Indeed, Huen’s paintings are about the experience of seeing things as they unfold within the canvas, encouraging active participation from the viewer. Discussing his unique visual language and the inspiration of Surrealist artist Magritte, Huen claimed: “It’s a really important idea that the painting isn’t the real thing. If I paint my dog, this dog in the painting isn’t the real dog in real life,..., Basically, it’s like I’m not really painting the image itself, but I am painting the experience of seeing the things. The subject is real, but when I’m painting it, it is not. So I’m always wondering at which point in the portrayal do people start to realise that it is something we can relate to?” (the artist quoted in Denise Tsui, “The Quotidian as Muse: In the Studio With Chris Huen”, CoBo Social, 7 Dec, online).
Sold at Replica Shoes 's Hong Kong in October 2019 for US$6.2 million
吳冠中，《日照群峰》，1973年作，設色紙本
2019年10月以620萬美元售於香港蘇富比
Further, the minimal pastel palette recalls the influence of the landscape works of Wu Guanzhong, whose work reveals a similar fusion of Western and Eastern artistic influences, his strong lines and activation of white space exposing an indebtedness to the aesthetics of Chinese ink painting.
Sold at Replica Shoes 's Hong Kong in April 2021
禤善勤，《MuiMui 與 Doodood》，2019年作，油彩畫布
2021年4月售於香港蘇富比
Shek O is a monumental painting in five parts, especially created for the 2019 exhibition at Gallery EXIT titled Shek O Sublime, a homage to the great beauty of the seaside landscape of this south-eastern part of Hong Kong, markedly different in character to the densely-populated Central district. The largest work by the artist to be offered at auction, Shek O exemplifies Huen’s unique vision and painterly technique. Indeed, Shek O is an archetypal work of the artist, portraying the wonderful interplay of line and space, and elevating an everyday scene into an image of the sublime. Further, the artist includes the figure of a dog in the work, a signature element of many of his paintings in which Huen includes the representation of his dogs, MuiMui and Doodood. Born in 1991, Huen is one of the most prominent and promising Hong Kong young artists, represented by Simon Lee gallery and Ota Replica Handbags s. Recently, Huen relocated with his family to London, resulting in a shift in his subject matter in order to reflect his new environment and his experience of these new surroundings.
「禤善勤通過有機但隨性的方式營造如夢似幻的畫面；他不畫底稿和草圖，也不是根據照片或者場景寫生來繪畫，而是忠於直覺，將感覺和記憶中轉瞬即逝的時刻定格成永恆。」
禤 善勤出生於香港，他受日常生活啓發，運用層曡式塗抹的創新視覺語言，善於打破空白畫面的沉悶，描繪出自己的平日生活經歷，創造抽象藝術和傳統中國水墨畫元素互相和諧融合的場景。他的大部分創作都關於他在香港的個人成長經歷以及養家經歷。禤善勤受到身邊環境和親身經歷的啓發而創作，把石澳村綿延伸展的海灘美妙地呈現在這幅畫中。這幅風景畫《石澳》有五米之寬，描繪了波濤洶湧的大海和岩石嶙峋的海岸，顯出當中的美感和戲劇性，畫面的多處留白表現出藝術家的從容自信和直覺感知。作品富有動感，捕捉了在不同視角下洶湧的浪濤，浪濤撞擊著散落石頭的海岸，組成一首對石澳的優美贊歌。觀察《石澳》，在畫面右方的滔滔波浪中可以發現一艘棕色的小划艇，畫出斜斜下沉的動態，場面顯得更生動了。
作品對色彩和綫條的探索恰到好處，物象的形態在觀者眼前浮現又轉移，仿佛蘊含動能。實際上，禤善勤的作品是關於觀看事物的體驗——它們逐一在畫面上展開，邀請觀者主動參與其中。超現實主義藝術家馬格利特曾啓發了禤善勤，而他最終形成自己獨特的藝術語言，對此他表明：「畫面并非實物，這一點對我來説很重要。比方説我畫我的狗，那麽畫中的那隻狗就不是現實生活中那隻真狗，（……），基本上，就是說我並不是真的在畫圖像本身，而是在畫我觀察事物的體驗。對象是真實的，但是當我畫它時，它就不是了。因此我經常在思考，到底描繪到什麽地步，人們會開始感受到這是和自己有關的事物？」（引述自藝術家，Denise Tsui，<日常作爲靈感：走进禤善勤工作室>，《CoBo Social》，12月7日，摘錄自網絡）。另外，這種極簡的粉彩色調讓人自然聯想到他受吳冠中風景作品的影響，因爲吳冠中作品有著相似的中西融合藝術風格，他有力的綫條和對留白的靈活處理，明顯來自於中國水墨畫美學的影響。
《石澳》是一組意蘊豐富的五聯幅作品，是藝術家特意爲2019年安全口畫廊的展覽「愜意·石澳」所創作，贊美這個在香港東南部海邊的壯麗景致，它和人口稠密的港島中區相比，展現出截然不同的風味。《石澳》是迄今拍場上尺幅最大的一件禤善勤作品，也體現了他獨特的藝術視野和出色的繪畫技巧。同時，《石澳》呈現出綫條和空間的奇妙互動，使尋常的場景得到升華，散發神聖之美，無疑是藝術家的出色代表作。另外，本作還具備禤善勤作品的一個標誌元素：他的愛犬MuiMui和Doodood。出生於1991年的禤善勤是香港青年藝術家中潛能無限的傑出代表，他由Simon Lee畫廊和大田秀則畫廊共同代理。近年，隨著他和家人遷居倫敦，他的創作主題亦產生轉變，反映出他的新環境，以及他身處其中的感受。