The Exhibition of the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy Collection, co-organized by the Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, displays over 105 pieces of Chinese calligraphy and ink paintings, all created from the 1950’s to modern day. The show explores a broad selection of some of China’s most influential and masterly artists as well as its most promising talents. The paintings exemplify the contemporary Hai style, which is a harmonious synthesis of Western aesthetics with traditional Chinese techniques. The materials and the individual image vocabulary retain their old resonance, yet one may discern a new and more vital contemporary dynamic within the content and the aesthetic structure of those innovative works of art. The great feat accomplished by these masters lies in how they have so resoundingly succeeded in bringing the ancient tradition of ink painting out of the past and given it pertinence to this new era of global modernity.

The Exhibition of the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy Collection, held at the Hong Kong City Hall, drew about 1000 viewers a day during its run from the 21st to the 28th of September, 2005, and generated much interest amongst the city’s residents in the culture and history surrounding the featured ink paintings. The event was also widely reported on by Hong Kong’s mass media community. The opening ceremony itself, held on the 20th of September, was attended by numerous distinguished guests, including Mr. Tung Chee-Hwa (Vice Chairman of the National Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), Dr. Patrick C.P. Ho (Secretary of Home Affairs, the Government of the HKSAR), Ms. Jin Min-Zhu (Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Chinese Overseas Friendship Association and Chair of the Committee for Liaison with Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese), Mr. Zhao Guang-Ting (General Secretary of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government of the HKSAR), Mr. Shi Da-Wei (President of the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy), Dr. James Ziang Mien Kung (President of the Hong Kong – Shanghai Economic Development Association), Mr. Herman Hu (The Executive Committee Member of the Hong Kong – Shanghai Economic Development Association and the Convener of the Collection of the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy Preparatory Committee) as well as Ms. Chen Pei Qiu, the renowned artist, and 13 of her fellow painters from the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy. Mrs. Salina Tsang Pow Siu-Mei, wife of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR, Mr. Donald Tsang, also joined us at this wonderful exhibition opening.