Red Elation Gallery is pleased to announce “Viewfinder” -the first solo exhibition of Sim Chan at the gallery. The exhibition will open on Saturday, 3 November 2012 and showcases paintings and mixed media works by Chan. The works were completed between 2009 and 2012, and address the artist's differing points of view towards the sky and the cityscape.

Skies in the city are always Chan's subject. Like looking through the viewfinder of a camera, Chan's painting series - "SimCity" and "SimSky" - capture images of the sky surrounded by crowded high-rises. On one hand, delicate and conceptual depictions of ghetto-style city buildings unfold into aggressive urban growth that we face; on the other hand, the painting's vanishing points converge high-up in the skies, reminding us how confined our urban dwelling lives can be. This confinement is actually man-made which synchronizes here with Chan's self-crafted wooden frames for his canvases. These symbolic cut-out shapes of the sky are loaded with lots of calculation and effort, implying that the canvas and frame as the media of painting are not only surfaces to be painted on, but also forms to be created. Here, Chan's works advise us of the need to question with a greater sense of engagement with life.

Chan's recent work demonstrates his other state of mind of seeing. His new horizontal works from the "SimCity" series delineate a panoramic view of random edifices in an open environment. Unlike his previous paintings, the canvas becomes the artist's window to the outside world which provides him with a different vision, yet isolation. The sense of remoteness is further stressed in his new mixed media installation, which collects fragmented views of the sky at different moments captured by anonymous eyes. "We always hope there are wider spaces and sky to be looked at" said Chan, "indeed, they might be right there when you turn your head. However, it just seldom gets through people's busy minds."

Artist Biography

Sim Chan (born in Hong Kong, 1987) graduated from the Hong Kong Art School in 2008. He has participated in different exhibitions in the region since 2007, including Melbourne, Tokyo, Thailand, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Chan set up his Fotan studio in 2007 and has also participated in an artist-in-residence program in Beijing in 2009.