Ming Fay: Journey into Nature

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Alisan Fine Arts is delighted to announce Journey into Nature, the 4th solo exhibition for the Chinese-American sculptor and installation artist, Ming Fay, at our Central space. On display will be some of Ming Fay’s works that will be introduced to the Hong Kong audience for the first time. These include the wishbone series, the Tai Chi figure series, and early sketches that inspired his famous fruit sculptures. Other iconic works, such as the money tree branch and larger than life fruits, nuts and surrealist vegetables, will also be displayed.

The exhibition can be seen as an expansion of Ming Fay’s large-scale installation themed Garden of Life at Art Basel Hong Kong 2022, where viewers were invited into an unconventional Edenic utopia. During this exhibition, the white cube gallery space will be transformed into a surreal garden, once again, providing an immersive experience that is even more joyful for the audience, with a larger exhibition space and the exclusive spotlight on one artist this time. The diversity of work that will be displayed traces Fay’s career from the 1980s to now and can be viewed as a mini retrospective. In addition to the display of artworks, a 400-page-monograph of Fay’s life and work will be launched in conjunction with the exhibition.

In order to create artworks that represent the symbiotic relationship between mankind and nature, Ming Fay has done numerous researches regarding the biological qualities of various types of plants. He then reinterprets the scientific qualities through his artistic expression, leading to the creations of iconic pieces like the Money Tree and the Tai Chi figures, with the former being an artificial plant, something that belongs to nature, and the latter representing the most “correct” outer form of a human body. Furthermore, the sketches displayed on the wall, which demonstrate his personal interpretation of how certain plants look on top of his close observation of their original appearance, will also lead viewers into the internal journey that Fay has taken before transforming natural products like fruit into artificial sculptures.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Ming Fay was born in Shanghai in 1943. He later settled in Hong Kong, where he spent his teenage years, until he left for the US in 1961 to pursue his studies. The artist has attended several institutions before establishing his career, including Columbus College of Art and Design, Kansas City Art Institute, and University of California, Santa Barbara, where he eventually received a MFA. He is currently based in New York City, and has received numerous commissions across both the US and the globe. He is currently a professor in sculpture at William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, USA.

Important exhibitions & collections
Several of Ming Fay’s public art commissions include the Chicago Public Art Program at the O'Hare International Airport Terminal 2, 2009; the Goldilocks at the Tivoli Building in Philadelphia, 2004; Arbol Magico at Lluberas Park of Yauco, Puerto Rico, 2003; the Staten Island Ferry Terminal Project in New York, 1998. His work has been exhibited at important institutions in USA including the Whitney Museum at Phillip Morris, New York; Kresge Gallery, Ramapo College, New Jersey. Currently his work is on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA. In addition, Fay’s works have also been collected by various institutions across the world, including M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong; Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; New Museum, New York.