In this episode I talked with Robyn Leung who is part of a new generation of glass blowers and neon artists in Asia. I sat down with her to examine the science and art of neon.

Robyn talks about her work that explores the boundaries of the liminal space of her neon objects and we discuss the difference between working as a scientific glassblower and her personal neon art projects as well.

Robyn Leung (BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2018) is a sculptor and glass artist based in Hong Kong working in neon and scientific glassblowing. She is invested in analyzing and reimagining everyday objects, their effects and what is reflected from our material culture.

Her work explores delineating spaces in interacting with architecture and the polarity of negative and positive spaces, literal or otherwise. She utilizes the plurality of perspectives to explore interspatial relationships of how matter is conceived and discrepancies of common objects.

Robyn Leung | Instagram @robynleung

Other references:

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

In this episode I sit down with Lee du Ploy (PhD), a Hong Kong-based psychotherapist and artist.

From his art studio in Sheung Wan we delve into his life’s work and we talk about his early career working with the rich and famous, the trappings of owning a Ferrari and the complex challenge of measuring emotions in psychiatry.

Through his amusing, real-life, and at times ironic anecdotes, we analyse society’s obsession with the attachment of monetary success, why depression doesn’t exist in Zimbabwe, and a lady who suffers of face blindness. The latter is also known as prosopagnosia, a condition when the individual doesn’t recognise faces.

Lee du Ploy (PhD) is both an artist and a complementary medical practitioner. He has exhibited his paintings since the early 1970's. His book "The Glass facade" is written to record his journey of treating people with psychological problems. As he said “Whereas psychology is my passion, art is my life. They are in essence the same journey.” 

He now has a studio and works in Hong Kong. “I have over the last ten years explored via my paintings how we react emotionally and how the face conforms to that thought. We react to an emotional response sometimes ecstatically and sometimes dramatically sad. I have tried to incorporate the emotional responses be that via the eyes or the slant of the head in my portraits. People ask why my portraits always look sad, we reflect what we see, however many times what appears to be melancholic is just immensely interesting. Pretty pictures to me are irrelevant, they really don't reflect reality, hence, I suppose why I paint what I do to explore the extremes of human nature.” Lee du Ploy. 

Website www.myartzpace.com | Instagram @leeduployartist

Lee du Ploy's work will be shown at Art Central in Hong Kong, 26-29 May, 2022.

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

On 21st April 2022 the Sovereign Art Foundation announced their 30 finalists for this year’s art prize. I sat down and met with the executive director Tiffany Pinkstone at her office in Hong Kong. We talked about the background of the art prize, how this has evolved over the years, how they began in Hong Kong’s shopping centres and we addressed rats and pigs in the city as well.

Tiffany is a director for Sovereign’s Hong Kong office and also leads the marketing for the Group. She joined Sovereign in 2003 to launch The Sovereign Art Foundation which has become an important division for the Sovereign Group as a pledge to its commitment to helping communities around the world through art.

The 30 finalists will be shown at Art Central Hong Kong, 26-29 May, 2022.

You can view and vote for the finalists’ work of the The Sovereign Asian Art Prize here.

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

-----

The Last Supper is supported by the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association http://www.hk-aga.org

Christopher Tang is my next guest on The Last Supper. We talk through his personal perspectives of market demand and his preference for happy, entry-level and approachable works. Christopher explains his ideas behind his art supermarket idea, a hybrid between shop and gallery that he hopes will transform how people purchase art in Asia. Chris also speaks about how Hong Kong’s lockdown and living circumstances are informing the desire for art.

Christopher Tang started his career in professional services with Ernst & Young, and has over 20 years experience in the field of private banking spanning a number of multinational banks. His last position was managing director of BNP Paribas Wealth Management before joining Crosby as the CEO of its wealth management division. Christopher is currently the founder and owner of SHOUT.

SHOUT locations:

www.shout.art

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

Sarah Greene, also known as Sarah Van Ingelgom, explains how she went from an early shipping career in Belgium to becoming a successful gallerist in Hong Kong and how photography, and many artists, found her in Fo Tan.

She describes her experience of discovering Fan Ho’s work in the US and the commitment it requires to develop new emerging artists. We explore how the seemingly necessity of identity, the longing of belonging, and the multiple dimensions of identity have manifested over the years in Hong Kong as well.

Sarah graduated in 1998 with a Masters Degree from the University of Ghent in Asian Arts and Cultures. She founded Blue Lotus Gallery in 2007 to promote Hong Kong’s artistic talent, has been instrumental in launching the careers of Hong Kong's emerging photography artists including KC Kwan, Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, Tugo Cheng for which Blue Lotus has the exclusive Hong Kong representation rights, and Blue Lotus Gallery is the global representative for the Fan Ho Trust.

Blue Lotus Gallery, 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong | www.bluelotus-gallery.com

'The Last Supper' is produced and hosted by www.oscarvenhuis.com | Instagram @oscarvenhuis | Twitter @oscarvenhuis

In this episode I talk with Gillian Au Howard. She tells her story of how she always wanted to be an artist but instead studied journalism. While Gillian was in New York she developed a passion for photography that started her career, not as a journalist but as a gallerist in Hong Kong.

During her time as a gallerist she met actress Carrie Fisher of Star Wars, who she didn’t immediately recognise, but this lucky encounter was the beginning of her long journey of organising the very first digital art fair during the global pandemic in 2021.

Gillian Au Howard is the co-director of Digital Art Fair Asia - the new generation of art fair in Asia focusing on new media art, NFT art and immersive art experience.

Accomplished in fine galleries and museum management, Gillian has previously managed private museum collections and international galleries in Hong Kong and London. She has also consulted museum projects in Hong Kong, China and Russia. She also studied Art Business with the Sotheby's Institute of Art in London, With an extensive knowledge of new media art, she is now leading the Digital Art Fair Asia team and curators on creating a brand new art experience combining art and technology such as blockchain, 3D mapping, VR and AR.

The Digital Art Fair www.thedigitalartfair.io | Instagram @DigitalArtFairAsia

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

-----

The Last Supper is supported by the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association http://www.hk-aga.org

Yves Sena Alavo shares his passion for art. He talks about how his time in Africa, Europe and Asia have informed his deep appreciation for cross-cultural identity and how these experiences have developed his art collection. He discusses the significance of emerging narratives through the cultivation of meaningful relationships with artists Lee Du Ploy, Serge Mouangue and how he has been able to observe the progression of Elon Catilina’s work from Bénin. 

We continue the conversation by exploring the role of faces in Hom Nguyen’s work, a Franco-Vietnamese artist who is residing in Paris. Yves also explains why he began LIP (Leap Initiative Philanthropies) Foundation and how in 2017 the Full Circle Africa exhibition emerged from this. Full Circle Africa was the first African-Asian overview in Hong Kong that included two works by Serge Mouangue; ‘The Blood Brothers’, Japanese-lacquered pygmy sculptures and ‘Wafrica’, a series of kimonos in collaboration with Japanese kimono maker Kururi and Odasho. The garments focus on the weaving of two distinct cultures; the fabrics were sourced from West Africa, were made in the Netherlands and the pieces were photographed with African models. Mouangue’s work attempts to make the observer question the rules of identity, opening them up to the idea of a global culture. 

We close the dialogue with Yves’ personal interest in purchasing books of African art and how over many years this has accumulated into probably the most extensive book collection in Hong Kong. 

LIP Foundation | Full Circle Africa  

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

-----

The Last Supper is supported by the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association http://www.hk-aga.org

I have the pleasure to talk with Nicholas (Nick) Chan, the cofounder of Refinable. During this episode we explore the process of creating or minting a NFT (Non-Fungible Token), address misconceptions of the blockchain and we discuss why the Bored Ape NFT is more than just a series of illustrated monkeys. We also talk about how the rise of the NFT has created a new market for art collectors and explain the difference between a conventional art provenance and the NFT on the blockchain.

Nick Chan is the co-founder of Refinable, a decentralised multi-chain NFT marketplace for users to trade items from across the metaverse. Nick has over 7 years of product and operations management for corporates and SMEs across hospitality, media, and eCommerce including The Walt Disney Company and Hundredfold Studios. In his capacity as co-founder, he is driving the evolution of Refinable as the definitive hub for users to setup, create, and trade items from across the metaverse - unlocking NFT’s full potential as a next-generation transaction platform. Mr. Beast, a prominent YouTuber with nearly 100 million subscribers, and Binance are among its main investors. 

Refinable

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]

-----

The Last Supper is supported by the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association http://www.hk-aga.org

Dr Yanki LEE is an architectural designer, social innovator, design activist and expert in design research for social inclusion and participation. She has extensive experience collaborating with designers and enabling them to engage users in the design process.

As an international speaker and writer, Dr Lee has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and articles. In 2000 Yanki was awarded an MA degree in Architecture from the Royal College of Art (RCA), she went on to join the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) and became a UK resident. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 2012 for her contribution to the Helen Hamlyn Centre, the RCA community and design research.

In 2017 Yanki established the Enable Foundation in Hong Kong, using startup funding from HKSAR Government’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) as part of the Social Innovation Design Lab (SI.DLab). Enable Foundation is a non-profit social design collective with expertise in cross-generational co-creative and design research practices, set up for real-world impact.

Enable Foundation aims to develop capacity training programmes and projects on design thinking & doing. It also aims to facilitate projects that uncover creativity within individuals/organisations from private and public sectors. 

Dr Yanki Lee www.yankilee.com | www.enable.org.hk

-----

The Last Supper Instagram @thelastsupper.asia

Website The Last Supper | Email: [email protected]