Kwan Sheung Chi, born 1980 in Hong Kong, works with a variety of media including installation, performance, drawing, sculpture, and video. His practice has been described as “somewhere between a pun and a poem, simultaneously enamoured by contemporary art’s power to effect change while also aware of its capacity for humour in the way it can tickle the underbelly of the absurd” (Modern Painters, December 2013). Kwan received his BA with honours in Fine Art from The Chinese University, Hong Kong, in 2003. The artist describes his work as guided by concepts and aimed squarely at reflection and criticism of contemporary society. With the help of references to art, film, literature and popular culture, Kwan attempts to assess reality through the eyes of the “ordinary citizen” (Kwan), following a set of principal themes. The latter include a socio-politically critical approach to the role and identity of the artist in contemporary society, especially that of Hong Kong, therewith exploring the possibility of alternative value systems and personal utopias.

Kwan Sheung Chi has had a number of solo exhibitions: Video Art Program: A Window to the World, Hiroshima MOCA, Hiroshima-city, Japan, 2013; 100 things, a little retrospective, gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2012; Collected Works, Yuka Tsuruno, Tokyo, 2012; New Media Section, Art Taipei 2011, Taipei World Trade Centre, Taipei, 2011; No matter. Try again. Fail again., gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2009; I (still) like the way it is, Executive Centre, Cheung Kong Center, Hong Kong, 2006; She’s Out of Town, art-lease.com ltd, Cheung Kong Center, Hong Kong, 2006; A Retrospective of Kwan Sheung Chi, Experimental Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, 2006; and Kwan Sheung Chi Touring Series Exhibitions, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Artists Commune, Videotage, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hanart TZ Gallery; Para/Site Central, Grotto Fine Art Ltd, Fringe Club, Para/Site Art Space and Hong Kong Visual Art Centre; all Hong Kong, all 2002. His work has been featured in group exhibitions internationally including in Paris, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, Tel Aviv, Brazil, Germany and the USA, and he was awarded the Starr Foundation Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to take part in an international residency program in New York in 2009. He was winner of the inaugural HUGO BOSS ASIA ART, 2013.

Kwan Sheung Chi lives and works in Hong Kong.