Simon Birch: KONG

EVENT DESCRIPTION

2021 has been a fruitful year for Touch Gallery. Since the establishment of our new space, we have presented the creations of many well-known local and foreign artists. We are committed to promoting potential artists of the new generation, actively pioneering the new art trend, and striving to provide art lovers with new art experience. Our exhibitions have successfully received numerous warm support and attention from the public.

On the occasion of our first anniversary, we sincerely invite the well-known local contemporary artist Simon Birch to kick off the new year with the latest exhibition “Kong” in the multimedia art collaboration project “The 14th Factory”, to show the new perspective of local art.

The artist Simon Birch has lived in Hong Kong for more than two decades. His creation trajectory began with his iconic portraits in dynamic and dramatic brushstrokes. In recent years, he has challenged various digital art and large-scale installation art projects to explore the diverse expressions of art. In this exhibition, we would showcase the first NFT artwork from the mega show “The 14th Factory”, while it is the most expensive NFT artwork in Hong Kong as well! The masterpiece encompasses the artist’s creation over the previous 24 years showing the evolution of his artworks. It would be a breakthrough in the local art industry and art market.

Simon also collaborates with famous local ceramic artists Sara Tse and Lau Yat Wai to create ceramic crowns that symbolizes the powerful and fragile nature of power. Meanwhile, another highlight of the exhibition is the oil paintings. A return to the root of the artist’s creation – oil, a canvas, a brush to depict abstract portraits that combine reality and imagination, the figure seems to be still yet dynamic. Countless past moments have accumulated and intertwined into the present moment that is captured in the painting, the unknown future comes next; as Touch Gallery, based on brilliant achievements in the past year, will continue to embrace the future with enthusiasm for art and bring new inspiration and stimulation into the art scene.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Simon Birch is a British-born artist living and working in Hong Kong who is renowned for the kinetic, cinematic quality of his paintings which have been exhibited in solo shows in Beijing, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Miami and Singapore, and in group shows at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Haunch of Venison, London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

In recent years he has become renowned as the conceptual and creative force behind visionary, large-scale projects involving collaborative work with filmmakers, musicians, performers, designers, and architects to deliver ambitious site-specific projects in specifically configured spaces. His most renowned project to date, The 14th Factory, which became an artworld phenomenon as 100,000 people were attracted by word of mouth and the power of social media to discover its first outpost in a disused factory in East LA in 2016.

Work from the 14th Factory has been bought by private collectors, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and loaned to The Smithsonian Institute. The upcoming Hong Kong edition of The 14th Factory will be one of the largest independent art experiences in the world, the first project of scale globally post pandemic, the first NFT artwork of the exhibition is also the most expensive one in Hong Kong, cementing Birch as one of the most diversely talented artists of our time.