Ha Bik Chuen 
Reframing Strangeness: Ha Bik Chuen’s Motherboards and Collagraphs
Para Site
May 10–Aug 10

On the 100th birth anniversary of Ha Bik Chuen (1925–2009), Para Site presents “Reframing Strangeness: Ha Bik Chuen’s Motherboards and Collagraphs,” an exhibition highlighting the late Hong Kong modernist artist’s printmaking practice. A prominent figure in Hong Kong’s art scene from the 1960s to the 2000s, Ha meticulously documented local exhibitions, and previous shows have highlighted his legacy as an archivist. The exhibition at Para Site refocuses attention on Ha’s artistic practice, showcasing examples of what he called “motherboards,” which are collagraph plates he used to produce over 3,000 editioned prints. With tactile surfaces built with carved wood and inlaid with various organic and found materials, the motherboards are displayed on tailor-made pedestals and double-sided viewing racks that reveal both their front and back sides, inviting contemplation as aesthetic objects. The works reveal Ha’s close engagement with regional materials and how his oeuvre speaks to the local history of mid-20th-century Hong Kong. Stella Wu

Zao Wou-Ki, Fernando Zóbel, Lê Phổ, and Kang Myonghi  
Worlds Within: Art as Refuge
Villepin 
Jun 6–Aug 31

Villepin’s latest group show, titled “Worlds Within: Art as Refuge,” unites the gallery’s hallmark artists, Chinese French master Zao Wou-Ki and South Korean painter Kang Myonghi, with two landmark presentations: the first major showing in Hong Kong of Vietnamese modernist Lê Phổ, and the first exhibition in the city of works by the Philippines-born Spanish painter Fernando Zóbel. A refugee of conflict, Lê Phổ’s tender paintings of women, gardens, and quiet interiors preserve beauty and nostalgia, while Zóbel's concise powerful lines vibrate with energy and vitality. Alongside Zao Wou-Ki’s cross-cultural abstractions and Kang Myonghi’s meditative landscapes, the works offer introspective responses to displacement, exile, and reinvention in times of uncertainty. Sanle Yan 

Huang Rui 
Sea of Silver Sand
10 Chancery Lane Gallery
May 22–Aug 16

At 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, pioneering Chinese contemporary artist Huang Rui presents the latest works from his ongoing series Sea of Silver Sand, a meditative exploration rooted in Zen aesthetics and the ephemeral beauty of nature. Conceived over the past five years and inspired by the artist’s transformative visit to Kyoto’s Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) in 2000, the works evoke shifting states of being through delicate interplays of color, texture, and form. Moving beyond his earlier rigid abstraction, Huang embraces a more fluid visual language that conjures the poetic essence of moonlight, sand, waves, and silence. A founding member of the Stars Art Group (Xing Xing) in 1979 and a pivotal figure in Chinese avant-garde art, Huang Rui’s recent participation in the group exhibition Freedom of Art, The Stars, Beijing, 1979 at Centre Pompidou, Paris, reaffirmed his legacy as a philosopher-artist whose practice continues to transcend cultural boundaries. Helen Lam

Chan Hau Chun 
Map of Traces
Empty Gallery 
Jun 7–Aug 23

Empty Gallery premieres Map of Traces (2025), an experimental documentary film by Hong Kong-based artist Chan Hau Chun. By exploring sites and objects laden with historical significance and personal narratives, the film subtly engages with Hong Kong protests and their aftermath. Shot in black and white, the film weaves together a diverse array of footage—handwritten letters, scribbles, Google Street View screen recordings, landscapes, close-ups of objects, and protest clips. Through a nonlinear presentation layered with audiovisual variations, Chan intertwines moments from her past and present through the lens of individuals’ internalization of life experiences, offering personal reflections. Sanle Yan

Wing Po So 
Polyglot
Blindspot Gallery
Jun 17–Aug 23

"Polyglot" marks Wing Po So’s debut solo exhibition at Blindspot Gallery. Drawing from her upbringing in a family-run traditional Chinese medicine shop, So centers her practice on materia medica, transforming medicinal ingredients, jars, and drawers into poetic installations, sculptures, and videos. While “polyglot” typically refers to an individual of multilingual proficiency, the exhibition broadens the term’s scope to the material world, accentuating the multivalent logic, codes, and interconnected structures inherent in the natural environment. Through installations that hum, pulsate, and oscillate, So simulates how vibrant matter communicates across systems of pharmacology, ecology, and cosmology. By emphasizing “material as language,” the exhibition invites viewers to attune to the patterns, forces, and interconnections woven into everyday life. Stella Wu

João Gabriel, Shimon Kamada, Dew Kim, Jaewon Kim, Joy Li, and Tao Siqi 
Ballet with the Devil
Podium Gallery
Jun 7–Aug 16

Podium Gallery’s group exhibition “Ballet with the Devil” features recent works by six emerging or midcareer artists: João Gabriel, Shimon Kamada, Dew Kim, Jaewon Kim, Joy Li, and Tao Siqi. Centered around the theme of human desire, the exhibition offers a collaborative re-reading from diverse artistic perspectives, exploring humanity’s complex entanglements with their yearnings, fantasies, and anxieties. From João Gabriel’s evocative depictions of the torso that resonate with contemporary queer culture, to Shimon Kamada’s abstract figures exploring fragility and loss, the show spans a range of mediums and tones. Joy Li’s glass-based installations and Dew Kim’s stainless steel jewelry further enrich this dialogue, providing tactile expressions of trauma and psychic tension. Sanle Yan

Canton Modern: Art and Visual Culture, 1900s-1970s 
M+
Jun 28–Oct 5

Opening June 28, M+’s special exhibition “Canton Modern: Art and Visual Culture, 1900s-1970s” features over 200 works from the 20th century by artists from the southern port cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong. In the early 1900s, artists moved from classical ink painting toward a new socially oriented realism; after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Cantonese artists in Guangdong and artists in Hong Kong diverged in thought and creative paths. Spotlighting the turbulent period marked by changes towards modernity, the exhibition offers a diverse range of historically grounded voices that offer perspectives on regional history and the role of art in driving change. The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections, namely “Image and Reality,” “Identity and Gender,” “Locality and Nationhood,” and “Parallel Worlds,” and showcasing works in various mediums including oil paintings, photographs, woodcut prints, and ink paintings. Sanle Yan

Sanle Yan, Stella Wu, and Helen Lam are editorial interns at ArtAsiaPacific.