HONG KONG.- Ora-Ora announced its debut at the influential West Bund Art & Design platform in Shanghai this November.

Located at Booth 1A10, Ora-Ora marks its first participation with presentations by ten artists: Halley Cheng, Sophie Cheung, Henry Chu, Huang Yulong, William Lim, Juri Markkula, Peng Jian, Stephen Thorpe, Xiao Xu and Zhang Yanzi. Several of the artists are showing for the first time in Shanghai.

Ora-Ora’s participation is titled Colours of the Mind, which refers to an episode in the life of abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky. In 2025, Ora-Ora embraces holistic approaches to art, and new beginnings. In a world which, at first glance, seems rife with irreconcilable differences, we assert the verifiable omnipresence of unity, togetherness and of unrestricted cooperations. Ora-Ora’s selection places an emphasis on expansive thinking and diversity of practice, including artists from Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Europe, spanning digital art, sculpture and painting.

West Bund Art & Design began in 2014, and has grown to become a major platform for Chinese and international galleries. From its prime location on the western side of the Huangpu River in Shanghai’s historic Puxi area, the fair attracts collectors and visitors from across China and globally.

Highlights include Hong Kong-based artist Halley Cheng’s Kapok Series, paintings which marry reflective surfaces with ferocious reds, oranges and yellows to underline the majestic beauty of nature. Fleeting appearances of found objects, unexpected layers and unpredictable materials underline the leading role that chance and coincidence play in our lives.

Hong Kong-based Sophie Cheung, whose solo show Concrete Colour is currently to be seen at Ora-Ora’s Tai Kwun space in Hong Kong, will present artworks from her acclaimed Erasing News Series. The artist investigates in-betweenness and processes of loss through acts of addition and subtraction, an interplay of eraser and newspaper.

Henry Chu’s installation F(ear) and G(reed) (2025) presents a uniquely alive combination of cello parts and LED panels, in which he transforms the stock market into generative cello music. Chu collaborated with composer Lewis Chung and cellist Kevin Lam for the musical and visual installation which uses as its reference point the Fear and Greed Index. Chu’s work holds relevance at times of market exuberance or depression, and anything in- between.

Anhui-born Huang Yulong held a major, first of its kind sculpture show titled UPWARD – Huang Yulong at the Hong Kong Harbourfront in March 2025. In Shanghai, he presents new sculptures in prized golden nanmu wood, including UPWARD (2025). A master of materials from ceramics to resin, Huang Yulong shows his mesmeric handling of the shimmering golden hues of this classical wood, portraying his signature twist on the casual vivacity of youthful street culture.

William Lim will show The Balcony 7: The Moon Was Huge and Orange on August 2 (2023), a scene pregnant with psychological insights, rooted in both time and place, and a sense of looking within as well as outwards. Also on display will be a newer work observing the West Lake in Hangzhou, titled Xihu State Guest House: Spring 2025 (2025).

A perennial favourite from Art Basel Hong Kong, Sweden-based Juri Markkula will present creations from his Heaven and IKB Ground Series in Shanghai. The Heaven series has never before been shown in Shanghai. His vivid blues explore the ground beneath our feet in a radical cohesion of the industrial and the artistic. His artworks harness colour and form to illuminate heaven, earth and the world around us.

Peng Jian, who lives in Hangzhou, presents several paintings which fuse his famed straight-lined jiehua Chinese architectural style with the depiction of curved natural form. His paintings resound with vivid history and classical immediacy, conjuring up eternal passions in acrylic.

Chongqing-born Xiao Xu, whose The Quiet Deer in the Cold Forest (2010) was acquired by M+ this year, builds on his legacy of dusky-hued ink adventures, with brand new, rare forays into colour. His paintings merge the classical with the fantastical, inviting visitors to join an exploration of the unknown.

Originating from the UK, Stephen Thorpe’s painting Mirrored Silence (2025) examines our fractured relationship with the culturally significant mountain landscape. His mountains are rendered with unique flatness and an eerie sense of unreality, framed by beautifully intricate and highly textured tapestry.

Zhang Yanzi from Jiangsu Province, a professor at CAFA in Beijing, will present her ink on paper Genetic Lottery series (2024). In a heartfelt plea for equality of opportunity, Zhang Yanzi muses on the colour of our irises—black, purple, blue, green… the subtle differences which stay with us in a lifetime. Whilst our outward appearance is a genetic lottery, the opportunity to go out to see the world, to form new connections, to fly and meet our destiny, should be available to the many not the few.

In the words of Ora-Ora co-founder and CEO, Henrietta Tsui-Leung, “First of all, we are excited to be returning to Shanghai, and to be taking part for the first time at West Bund. As we approach our twenty year anniversary next year, Ora-Ora continually reaffirms its commitment to wide horizons and new discoveries. We will be joined by several of our artists, and we all look forward to renewing connections and making new ones in November.”