Schoeni Art Gallery is delighted to announce the debut exhibition of Hong Kong artist, Mok Wai Hong entitled “Behind”. Since enrolling from the Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, Mok Wai Hong’s work has met with acclaim; he was one of the select few to have been nominated as a finalist for the Sovereign Art Foundation’s Art Competition for the past 2 years, he was also a finalist for the Philippe Charriol Foundation 19th Art Competition Installation in Hong Kong in 2004 and 2005, and a finalist of the Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition (2005). “Behind”, as the title indicates, is an exhibition that focuses on retrospect and contemplates on the past, reconsidering and surveying events through time and what is literally and metaphorically behind them. Mok Wai Hong’s style is characterised by its emphasis on Hong Kong, within its vernacular topography and cityscape. As a native of the former colony, Mok sheds keen psychological insight into the mentality of the “Hongkonger.” Painting a discursive enquiry in the hybrid identity of the Hong Kong person, Mok poses serious questions about the transition and changes that Hong Kong has experienced, on a macro-, and micro-, scale. Many of Mok’s images are densely populated, and they often recall familiar scenes that one would see gracing the newspaper as iconographic images that encapsulate more than a mere moment in time; they are capturing the political, social and economic climate of Hong Kong today, by paying homage to the collective path, and past, that Hong Kong has wandered through. In his choice of palette, Mok more often than not opts for monochrome, at times choosing to selectively embellish the surface with highlight and colour to bring other aspects, or indeed the scarce greenery and foliage that exists in Hong Kong, to the fore. The use of monochrome is used to great effect, drawing in associations of newspaper documentary style, nostalgia and an ironic emotional terrain. Much like Gerhard Richter’s works from the 1980s, Mok is fusing a photorealist style with a pessimistic overtone of the present by indicating the past through process and use of material. Mok exhibits flair with the use of egg tempera, oil, mixed media, raw materials and acrylic. Technically, Mok’s style and form is meticulous and he builds up his image through precise reproduction of form, perspective and foreshortening by laboriously layering paint through numerous stages. All of this effort is belied by Mok’s seemingly ephemeral reproduction of form, which somehow emits an unforced suggestion of nostalgia and memory – he is very much harking back to a bygone era, somehow capturing the sense of memories fading, or time passing. Many of Mok’s works are inspired by the “7-1” protest that was held in 2003 to admonish the Hong Kong local authorities for their weakness. Mok’s works visually echo a widespread feeling of autonomy and political interest, and form a collective mouthpiece for the people of Hong Kong. Aptly describing his own works as “manscapes,” Mok is not commenting on moments or events, but rather the people and forces that rallied together for a singular cause.