Asia Society Hong Kong Center proudly presents Singing and Dancing with Brush and Ink: The Art of Wesley Tongson, the second part of Celebration of Ink – a two-part series that celebrates the profound legacy and spirit of contemporary ink art.
Date: 15 July – 11 October 2026
Venue: Chantal Miller Gallery, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong
This exhibition presents the works of Hong Kong experimental ink artist Wesley Tongson (Tang Jiawei 唐家偉, 1957-2012), demonstrating how the artist’s lifelong exploration of ink and different spiritual philosophies all interweaved to ultimately serve as outlets for his struggles with mental health and questions of gender identity.
The title of the exhibition, Singing and Dancing with Brush and Ink, originates from one of Tongson’s seals used to sign his works. The idiom captures the artist’s deft, dynamic handling of the brush and playful approach to ink. Tongson’s life and works emerge in the five sections of the gallery, unpacking specific themes of his career. Rare early works highlight the artist’s foundational study and mastery of traditional Chinese brush techniques and strong understanding of Chinese art history, a foundation upon which he experimented and innovated for over three decades. Different approaches to ink play are combined to compose his mountain landscapes of the 1990s to early 2000s, featuring his “Tongson colors” and abstraction that combined splash ink with other, uniquely Tongson methods. A prolific artist who used painting as a form of Zen meditation, Tongson’s ink monochrome and multichrome paintings and several calligraphic works point to the manner in which his painting practice served as a form of reprieve from his struggles with mental health. The intersections between his spiritual explorations, his painting and calligraphic practices, and his decades long struggles with mental health and questions of gender identity come through not only in his personal notes, but also in his last series of works, Spiritual Mountains. Completely abandoning the brush to work exclusively with his hands, fingers, and fingernails in the last phase of artistic development, the last series illustrates Tongson’s complete surrender of himself to ink play, leaving unambiguous imprints of his physical body upon the surface of his works.
This exhibition is co-curated by Yi Yi Mon (Rosaline) Kyo and Julia M. White, with support provided by Asia Society Hong Kong Center Gallery & Exhibitions Team, Hain Yoon and Chris Wan.
Image and text courtesy of the Asia Society Hong Kong.
Learn more --
https://asiasociety.org/hong-kong/exhibitions/singing-and-dancing-brush-and-ink-art-wesley-tongson
