2021.05.04 - 2021.05.30

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Imagery of Wind - “To contemplate the wind is no easy task. Its trials are needed to accomplish, such as: the rolling waves of the sea, the rustling of leaves and the dancing shadows of the trees. On the way to Peng Chau on a half-open deck, the wind sweeps away the moisture in my eyes, and my brain can’t help but keep my eyes blinking excessively; as if I was in a state of emergency. ‘I’ once told me, a few years ago when she was traveling back and forth on a ferry between Lamma Island and the city, the wind was always there to keep her company. Now, the wind appears as usual, but I guess the scents and sounds carried along are no longer the same. Wind, an auxiliary word for memories.
The humid wind bears a slightly cool temperature and evokes the feeling of standing by the window. Mist infiltrates the room, leaving its marks on bodies, walls, floors and every existing object; it mumbles, “Please let me stay here just a little while, then take me somewhere far away.”

Ivy Ma employs unconventional painting techniques to depict the relationship between still life and space. Through the interplay of subtracting and adding elements to images, she elevates her emotions into visual forms with diverse materials. Recently, Ivy has undergone life changes that propel her to restore the long-lost tranquility in life. Her works in this exhibition attribute to the spontaneity of wind, which blur the boundaries of spatiality. The artist responds to her innate sensitivity to light and shadow and invites viewers to enter her uncanny and unintelligible world in hues of black, white and grey. Daily objects are still kept in their places playing their parts, while at this particular moment, the artist is taking us to a leap into the wind and drift between the outside and inside of a window.

Ivy Ma is a Hong Kong artist working in drawings, paintings, photography and mixed-media installation. Having studied fine art in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, she has held a number of solo exhibitions in Hong Kong. She was an Asian Cultural Council grantee in 2007 and she received Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards, Young Artist Award in 2012. Her series of works 'Last Year' (2015) was collected by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 2020.

Touch Gallery and curator Shirky Chan are pleased to present an exhibition of poetic works by Ivy Ma in May. Ivy’s distinctive style offers the public a fresh perspective from the conventional impressions of painting. The multi-layered monochrome subdues noises on images and encapsulates the essence of the thematic. She also uses lines and planes to delineate and interweave space and still life. Concurrently, the gallery is showcasing Hong Kong ceramic artist Annie Wan’s paper-porcelain works. Both artists’ works express their respective minimalistic and tranquil aesthetic on their chosen medium.

Curator : Shirky Chan