March is a glorious month for art in Hong Kong as it is when all the biggest art events happen across the city, igniting the inner creative in all the city’s people. In anticipation, we’re paying tribute to an art form that celebrates originality, creativity and expression on the street level – Hong Kong street art!
Here in Hong Kong, there is a growing respect and appreciation for street art, so much so that you’ll find street artists’ work popping up inside art galleries, restaurants and malls. But you’ll always find the best murals out on the streets as it goes with the territory (in a good way), whether it’s a back-alley or the side of a building wall.
You can’t talk about street art in Hong Kong without mentioning HKWALLS – the non-for-profit street art festival hosted in March every year (Read: In The Know with Jason Dembski, Co-founder of HKWalls). They find the neighbourhood, the walls and the artists and host a truly spectacular event showcasing the artists’ work in action. It’s a genuinely exhilarating experience to watch and a great way to spend a day with friends and family, meet new people, explore the neighbourhood…all for free!
This year, they’ve partnered with House of Vans to celebrate their 50th anniversary for an even bigger event in Sham Shui Po (Read: In the Hood, Sham Shui Po), running from 16 March 2016 – 3 April 2016. They’re hosting art workshops, live music and of course, live painting by the street artists between 21 March – 27 March.
For now, we take a look back at last year’s HKWall’s event, where they gathered local and international street artists to paint the streets of Sheung Wan, with four of our favourite artists’ profile and style below:
SINIC
Location: Behind Sin Sin on Tung St.
Nationality: Hong Kong
Years of Experience: 12 years (Since 2003)
Style:
‘Fusion’ of Western graffiti and Chinese calligraphy.
Establishment:
Co-founder of INVASIAN graffiti magazine
Co-founder of 1AGN sub culture guide book
Organisor of Wall Lords Graffiti Battle
Member of IDT & KB graffiti/street art crew
Find out more about Sinic at: http://www.sinicchoy.com/
BAO
Location: 8 Tai On Terrace
Nationality: Hong Kong
Years of Experience: 2 years
Style:
She love creating graffiti without preparing a draft beforehand. Her graffiti is the expression of her emotion at that moment.
Establishment:
Champion of Secret Walls Hong Kong series3.
She was also invited and sponsored to Italy for a street art event and live painting in Expo Milan in 2015.
Find out more about Bao at: http://www.simplebao.com/
SZABOTAGE
Location: 9 Tai On Terrace
Nationality: British (from Shoreditch, London)
Years of Experience (in HK): Since 2013
Style:
The themes of his graffiti are mostly inspired by the surrounding environment and elements of Hong Kong. It’s is easy to finds his maker in the cityscape of Central Hong Kong.
Establishment:
Szabotage was an award-winning architect in the UK before coming to Hong Kong. He has competed in a global graffiti competition called the ‘secret walls’ and had received a lot of attention from the local press with his affinity with old-school graffiti as well as his sense of humour. Szabotage held his first SOLO Exhibition in 2015.
Find out more about Szabotage at: http://www.szabotage.com.hk/
XEME
Location: Tai On Terrace
Nationality: Hong Kong
Years of Experience: 14 Years (Since late 01)
Style:
Xeme frequently collaborate with Sinic to create graffiti pieces. His pieces are composed of random Chinese words, a dedication to someone, social welfare or anything that pop-up in his mind at that moment.
Establishment:
Xeme is the creator of the magazine Invasian.
Find out more about Xeme at: http://xeme.tumblr.com/
