Since 2024 I have been an avid visitor of Sun Museum in Sai Ying Pun, which is nearby the ArtLane open-air gallery on Chung Ching Street. Sai Ying Pun itself has, over the last few years, become an urban-creative and lifestyle-driven hub. The neighborhood is a fusion of hip, local charm blended with a culture of cosmopolitanism and wellbeing. When it moved from its old Kwun Tong headquarters to Hong Kong Island in 2024, Sun Museum hosted the first iteration of the “Hong Kong Paintings in Sai Yuen Lane” exhibition. Last week, “The 2nd Hong Kong Paintings in Sai Yuen Lane” exhibition (Phase I) recently opened, with the Museum declaring it a permanent biennial exhibition program and flagship event.
Phase I, which runs from 26 June to 20 August 2026), focuses on cityscapes and figures, with artists capture the distinctive character of Hong Kong’s streets and the everyday lives of its people through their sharp observation. Meanwhile, Phase II, running from 29 August to 18 October 2026, will feature landscapes, animals and plants, and abstraction. Artists expand their viewpoints from the grandeur of the natural world to the realm of subconscious dreams, as well as to the deconstruction of pure colour. As part of the selection process for these two phases, over 700 applications within three months from artistic talents across Hong Kong were considered. A total of 93 artists with 118 outstanding and paintings were selected.
One of the most striking aspects of Phase I is how the curators have combined beautiful landscapes of the city, including trams on a dark and rainy night (one of my favorites), with scenes of everyday life and portraits of typical sights of Hong Kong people, including a female butcher by artist Lo Pui-ki (“Tenderness at the Meat Stall under Neon Glow”). Phase I has a perfect blend of scenic city views, capturing the lights and life of the Hong Kong community, with portraits of the intensely personal (for example, Wong Po-ming’s two portraits of “Father” and “Mother”).
The exhibit is a magnificent demonstration of how creative a community Asia’s so-called World City is. This flies in the face of stereotypical portrayals of Hong Kong, where materialism is assumed to be the core value. In reality, people here are multi-dimensional, with rich inner lives that are more open to existential and artistic exploration than some might think. Perhaps the outdated marketing by higher forces could be inspired by everyday stories as expressed on canvas.
The second iteration of “Hong Kong Paintings in Sai Yuen Lane” is a humanizing exhibit of the life of Hong Kong, highlighting the tension between that sense of living on the edge or impermanence, and the groundedness of the city’s customs, culture, and sensibilities. A work that might be slightly out of place, but embodies Hong Kong like none other, is a pencil portrait of Bruce Lee. His values of adaptability and embracing the fullness and complexity of life are perhaps what embody the universal Hong Kong spirit.