If you haven't already been, there's still time, the HK Art fair opened this week and the last day is Sunday. I've been to many art fairs around the world and I can honestly say the HK one i really not bad at all. A very mature show of international standard. Really helps to put HK on the art world map.
I strongly recommend you go take a look around, it's not often we get such an amazing bunch of art to look at from over 100 galleries around the world. It's at the new Convention centre in Wanchai, get over there while you still have a chance.

Here's a few shots to give you and idea.

lots of Warhol around...



sculpture made from TV's



the star of the show, a Francis Bacon worth millions



Thomas Ruff and a Damien Hirst in the background


this sculpture was made from car tires


lots of mainland Chinese art at the fair



this is Mel Ramos




Gold!!




giants!



nice traditional meets futuristic Japanese prints



constantly changing plasma screens



chairman mao was everywhere, am so bored of his image!



this is a sculpture of Li Wei who actually  came to the opening looking like this, covered in mirrors. He then ripped it all off as a performance.


a little known artist called Simon Birch! sold very well!


this was a stunning constantly changing sunset on a weird LCD screen set up.


nice big messy painting



porcelain doggy, cute and expensive.



says it all



Terence Koh



big head!




fabric and mirrors




would have loved to buy this Basquiat, super expensive of course.



sequined lady, mmm, nice.




toys are now art....



This is Cang Xin, really amazing artist. He has a show  on at my gallery, 10 Chancery Lane, Central.



This is one of his photos. I got one for myself! Swapped him for one of my paintings.


This is the after fair dinner which was hosted by Louis Vuitton at my exhibition space in Chai  Wan. Was a lovely dinner and people really seemed to like the paintings.  Sold all the work!

So I've been away from AND for a little while as I've been working 7 days to finish my new exhibition.
It opens next Friday and you're all invited to the opening. It starts at 6.30 and will go on until late, then there's a big after party next door at another new space called 'The Embassy'.
The show is in 3 parts. First in Central, then 2 parts in a big industrial space in ChaiWan. The space is brand new, a big investment by my gallery. Another sign the HK art scene is moving in the right direction.
So you go to Central first, 10ChanceryLaneGallery, then they take you to Chaiwan on a free bus service. (more info on htto://www.10chancerylanegallery.com)
The show is on for 2 months.
In Central gallery there is a group of paintings which are similar to work I've done before, here's a preview (250x250cm, oil on canvas, 2008):



Then in Chaiwan there's another set of work like this one (120x120cm, oil on canvas, 2008):



But also there is a whole bunch of people in a  performance piece of art and on top of that some other odd things going on but the major new thing i've done is in film. There are12 films showing, including one I made for a museum last year that got me into loads of trouble because some of the scenes were very controversial. It's never been shown in HK before so will be interesting if it gets the same reaction here.

Movie stills, Azhanti High Lightning, HDV 2007




Wing Shya is also involved in the project, a great privilege as he is the most talented photographer i've ever met and a lovely person too.

I'm not going to give too much away as it will be easier to write about the whole thing after the work is up and we can show photos of the finished thing.

Hope to see you there some time!

sb

It never ends. I'm working on 4 different projects at the moment including a very big installation project for Hong Kong in April. This will be at a huge warehouse space in Chai Wan and will have film, paintings, performance and all kinds of odd things going on. In preparation for this I've been shooting models flying through the air at my studio, here's a couple of results.....


This is Shan, she's on AliveNotDead and a really lovely girl.


This is my buddy's wife Carol, she's super cool.

This is the starting point for the next set of paintings and here's an example of a finished result....


This one is actually Josie Ho, not that you can tell. She was a very energetic model, must be all that jumping around on stage....

An interesting way to take a day off yesterday was when Elle magazine showed up to do a shoot in my studio. Was interesting to see how they work on their fashion shoots, lots of people involved, hair, make up, photograhers and a bunch of assistants. Nice bunch though and was really kinda fun. The model looked a bit like Kiera Knightly but my Mandarin wasn't good enough to get her phone number...  : )





photographer and crew all from Beijing.



Elle editor Jane and Fashion editor Czarine



This is my bro Corey who pretended to be my assistant but basically just came to hang out and check out the models



The photographer was giving the models a hard time because they weren't showing enough feeling. He was a bit like Tyra Banks giving them  demonstrations of how to do  blue steel.



A bunch of new paintings all about to get shipped off to Madrid for exhibition



she definitely looked like Kiera Knightly....

many years ago, before i became a respectable artist, i was a very naughty artist as well as being a DJ and rave promoter (Way Out East). Over Xmas I found all these old shots I took of graffiti I'd done around Hong Kong. I've never shown them before and always did the work anonymously but it's probably too late for them to lock me up for being a naughty monkey so I may as well share with the AND community...

I got my friend to photograph me with my face made up to look like the monkey from cantonese opera, then output these shots on a huge printer and cut out stencils from them. easy! I wish I'd taken more shots but quite often I'd go back a week later with a camera and they'd be gone. I only got chased by the cops once but always had a good escape plan and i can run like a motherfucker. I'm pretty sure I could've taken the boys down if it came to a brawl, I'm 6'3" and they're like 5'2", but I figured they would love to pull their magnums to bag a white guy so running for it made more sense...ha ha.

I used to go out at night, usually with girlfriend acting as lookout. at the time,a few years ago now, there wasn't really much graffiti in HK so I thought someone should get the ball rolling!
Most of it got covered up very quickly but some lasted a couple of years. I don't think there are any left now. Which is a shame because the way my painting prices are going, this shit's worth some dollars now!!!! : )

happy new year to all at AND. hope we all have a very productive and creative 2008.

sb


causway bay


tst



causeway bay


admiralty


lan kwai fong


wanchai near immigration tower


central mtr


potttinger street central, near yumla, 2nd version, some dick graffitied over my original one (not cool, even graffiti has some etiquette!)


yau ma tei


hung hom


tst


mid levels


central at peak tram


causway bay


escalator


wanchai


admiralty outside the police HQ


this was the first one i ever did, outside Yumla


i pulled the stencils out for one last time to use at an exhibition i put together in Chai Wan in 2005. This was outside Six Keys, the skate ramp which I used for the show too.


The corridor leading into the exhibition, this was a new stencil project  but I only had time to do a few on the street.

it's 7 am in HK. I'm up early because the last few days I've been in Hokkaido, Japan, up a mountain called Niseko, throwing myself down it on a snowboard. After getting up every day so early to get on the gondolas first, i'm now in the habit of being up early so until i get back to my usual HK midday awakening, I'll have to fill a couple of hours with something.....like this blog.


I've been snowboarding for many years but this was only the second trip to Japan. It's a small mountain and not very steep but it makes up for it by having the most amazing quality of snow, and lots of it. It did not stop puking elephant flakes the whole time I was there.





December is considered early season, they hadn't even built the board park and half pipe yet but that meant that the mountain was empty and you could find fresh powder every run. The dryest, fluffiest powder i think i've ever been on. I surf too and boarding on deep powder does have a similar feeling under your feet. The difference is, in the water your wave is maybe 10 seconds for a good one, on the snowboard your wave can las half an hour!



tons and tons of snow with no-one on it!



with few humans on the mountains, even the squirrels were going for it.



aw yeah!


tried to get it started for a bit of jackass humour but no luck.

snowboarding is so all about the gear, gotta have the right toys.

sucha cute little village

always must have a vending machine photo...


here's the obligatory food shots. seems like daniel's always taking pictures of the food wherever he goes so since i want to be as cool as him, here are some shots of hokkaido's finest...

before


after


sashimi and hot camembert, sounds kurazzee but it works.

cookin'


this is the main event, big crab legs. such a hassle to eat, i think maybe you use more energy getting the fucking meat out than you get from the crab.

before



after


choice of weapons


the never summer SL, possibly the finest snowboard ever made...


can't go wrong with the Burton Cartels

mexican wrestling mask, don't leave home without it.