CORN SHUK MEI HO: SWIM AND STROLLS

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Hong Kong contemporary artist Corn Shuk Mei Ho created The Night Swims after swimming at night in Lantau Island in Hong Kong during the summer of 2016. Recently, she experimented with a new material Beeswax, and applied it to her existing “The Black Series: Night Swims” paintings.

Selected drawings of “The Black Series: Night Swims” and the entire “Botanical Gardens” series is showcased in public for the first time.

Featuring over 35 artworks including the latest paintings and drawings by artist Corn Shuk Mei Ho from her two major series, the exhibition aims to explore the deepest levels of the human subconscious by creating artworks.

“The Black Series: Night Swims” was inspired by her first experience of swimming at night in Lantau Island, where she broke through obstacles and fear by feeling her own breath in the water.

The latest Night Swims paintings she made not only depict the stories and people she met while travelling through artist residency last year or the scenes and stormy seacoasts in the UK, but also showcases her application with newly experimented mediums – “Beeswax”. The painting applied with Beeswax can show a more translucent texture of the oil paint and help her build richer layers on the canvases to depict the water splashes and ocean as well as her painting characters’ skin texture.

Besides, the exhibition showcases for the first time some drawings of The Night Swims series. Since the series begins as drawings before being built up with oil paint, those drawings contain her first instinct and ideas of the Night Swims while all characters are formed by that time too. Therefore, displaying some drawings in the exhibition completes the viewers’ imagination.

The entire Botanical Gardens series is showcased in public for the first time. The inspiration comes from the unique experience of plants coping with adverse and pleasant weather conditions alike, and daily walks with her dog in the nearby wood and parks. These seemingly mundane or common sightings such as changing of the leaves are full of life and often inform, change and coincide with our daily emotions.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Corn Ho is a London-based Hong Kong artist with a focus on contemporary painting. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts (Merit) degree in 2016 at the University of Arts London, Wimbledon College of Arts and completed her BA (Hons) in Fine Arts and French Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010. She currently works and lives in London.
In recent years, she has held solo exhibitions and participated in joint exhibitions in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Europe, and her works have been collected by private collections (@cornhoartist / www.cornhoartist.com)