Halley Cheng 鄭哈雷

Halley Cheng was educated in Hong Kong, graduating in Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008, obtaining a master’s degree in Visual Arts, Studio and Extended Media from the Hong Kong Baptist University five years later. He currently teaches at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University in the Department of Visual Culture.

Winning the Hong Kong Young Artist Grand Prize in 2012, Cheng’s recognition was unhesitating. His combination of irreverence grounded in classical traditions, his blending, blurring and re-casting of ancient and modern, seasoned with an ethos of directness, honesty and enquiry, made him an immediate force on the Hong Kong arts scene.

He is avidly collected, and his works may be seen in corporate settings too, forming part inter alia of the collections of Bank of China (HK), Philippe Charriol Foundation, Cliftons Ltd, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, The Peninsula Shanghai Waitan Hotel.

Cheng’s Cerulean series encompasses Hong Kong schools, underappreciated symbols of social cohesion. Cheng subtly probed those points where the individual forms a first contact with their community, where collective and personal memories are shaped. The buildings appear in delicate watercolour form, permanent and yet ethereal, the gentle genesis of all social interaction. Universally recognizable and yet true to Hong Kong, the images were acclaimed by leading art critics such as John Batten, who wrote to Cheng: “Your paintings are strong and perfect as a centre from which to begin again.”

The artist’s Kapok series marries reflective surfaces with ferocious reds, oranges and yellows to explore fragility and organic decomposition. Fleeting appearances of found objects, unexpected layers and unpredictable materials underline the leading role that chance and coincidence play in our lives. Rejecting stringent frameworks and constrictive worldviews, Cheng makes the case for randomness and chance as powerful governing forces. Navigating the amorphous and unstructured beauty of the natural world relies on sophisticated intuition which is the essence of what it means to be human.

Halley Cheng’s practice has often engaged directly with cultural monuments, shared memories and social cohesion. His latest works place a greater emphasis on the uncontrolled, the natural and the indescribable.