HONG KONG.- Over the Influence Hong Kong is presenting artist Nancy Tong’s debut exhibition In-Between Movement and Stillness that is part of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association’s Summer Programme 2022. This curatorial project celebrates OTI HK’s continued support of local artists with HKAGA to support young and emerging artists living in Hong Kong. The exhibition is on view at OTI HK from 15 July to 27 August 2022.

Nancy Tong is a Hong Kong-based multidisciplinary fine artist working sculpturally in the painting medium. Born in Hong Kong during the British reign, Tong’s work is influenced by the values and ideologies of Eastern and Western cultures. The foundation of her artistic practice is the Concept of Yi “意”in Chinese painting and calligraphy has deeper familial roots, with a strong inspirational bond from her father. Some of Tong’s childhood memories are of her father’s extraordinary logo designs for local and foreign international brands based on his unique Chinese calligraphy.

The exhibition revolves around the artist’s memories of everyday life and her experiences and identity. Childhood and family are important parts to everyone’s personal history, and Tong emphasizes the familial relationships that left a lasting influence upon her development as a woman and as an artist.

She engages with her work through the sensory environment and spontaneous physical movements. Utilizing acrylic, ink, charcoal and pastel on canvas, Tong layers geometric shapes through the act of repeating the form as she paints over time. She continues her exploration of intuitive movements by folding and bending the works into sculptural arrangements. The intricate, irreversible characteristics of Chinese painting and calligraphy instigate Tong to fold with determination. Her art is a three dimensional representation of space and time, exploring an expression of cross-cultural contemporary aesthetics through folding techniques. By experimenting and generating the artworks through a sense of “visual” tangibility, she is manifesting the emotional and perceptual symbolic relationship of body and mind. Each procedure, action, and intention in her process is an amalgamation of visceral expression, as well as a representation of her psychological state at each precise moment.

Nancy Tong’s work was shortlisted in the Modern Contemporary Art Competition of the 15th Edition of Arte Laguna Prize 2021, Venice, Italy. In 2020, Tong won the Renée Beja Grand Award in Painting of the Taylor Foundation, Paris, France. She received the Honourable Mention Awards at the 8th ITSLIQUID International Competition in Venice, Italy in 2021; and at the Galerie Biesenbach ART MATTERS 5 competition in Cologne, Germany in 2022. Tong’s work has been shown at the CICA Museum, South Korea; London Art Biennale, London; Salon d’Automne, Paris; Five Walls Project, Melbourne; the Kikinda Cultural Centre, Serbia; the Hong Kong Jockey Club Creative Arts Center and Anita Chan Lai-Ling Gallery, The Fringe Club, Hong Kong. She was a recipient of the Hong Kong Art Development Council of Cultural Exchange Project Grants in 2021. Tong received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts, majored in Painting with Distinction at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
University (Melbourne, Australia) in 2019. Currently, she lives and works in Hong Kong.