ART CITIES:Hong Kong-Michael Lau

Michael Lau ] is an artist from Hong Kong who is known for his painting, sculpture and designer toy figures. Lau is widely credited as the founder of the urban vinyl style within the designer toy movement. His work has had a significant effect on toy manufacturers, as well as street culture, including artists and musicians, throughout the world. His style is particularly influential to Asian and American hip-hop and skateboarding culture. Lau has won several awards for his work, including four from the Hong Kong-based Philippe Charriol Foundation.

By Efi MIchalarou
Photo: LGDR & Wei Gallery Archive

Michael Lau in his solo exhibition “In the Garden”  presents 18 new works  from the “Flower” series. Lau began the series in 2020, engaging figurative floral portraits, vivid color, and text to convey a philosophy he summarizes with the statement, “With flowers in the face, minds will be in the garden”—a call for positivity in facing the challenges of today’s world. Combining personal life experiences with signature elements of street life and pop culture, Lau boldly renders feelings of optimism, joy, and hope. In the series, Lau deconstructs art historical masterpieces and everyday subject matter, combining them and reframing familiar tableaux into blossoming, surreal juxtapositions of images and text in an aesthetic that hovers between abstraction and figuration. The artworks on view in the exhibition introduce the latest evolution in Lau’s approach—close-up portrayals of individual flowers that nevertheless remain rooted in his early practice, artistic training, and formative experience creating three-dimensional artworks, in response to the artist’s 1999 solo exhibition “Gardeners”, a utopia of youth, friendship and fantasy. The exhibition’s centerpiece is The “Flowery Surprise” (2022), a six-meter triptych that pays homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century masterpiece “The Last Supper” in a scene reimagined with personified flowers. Michael Lau retains the curiosity of the characters while dissolves the tension in the original work with humor. Infusing the background with light, Lau inserts collage-like blank price tags, brightly painted and surreally juxtaposed with misspelled texts that form slogans, as well as vases derived from street fashion. The flower corresponding to the position of Judas is painted in white, representing innocence and kindness, while the salt that Judas accidentally spilled on the table—a Western metaphor of misfortune—is replaced by a four-leaf clover, symbolizing luck. Signature to the Flower series, a galaxy is painted in the eye of a singular flower, in this case, the red flower occupying Jesus’ original position, suggesting infinite imagination and immortality. At the lower right corner of the painting, a cameo representing the artist himself stands quietly on the table, gazing at the group of flowers, seeming to ponder which one will ultimately outshine the others. Another highlight is “Michael Flrwoe” (2022), a self-portrait that pays tribute to Vincent van Gogh. Deploying playful abstract brushstrokes, Lau inserts the flower in the place of Van Gogh’s emblematic pipe, nodding to the renowned Post-Impressionist’s influence. “Van Gogh is an absolute pioneer; his flowers are classic and iconic. As a later follower born on the same date as the master, I hope to show my respect, and pass on his spirits through further developments”, says Lau. Other works on the theme of passing on wisdom include 3 Wise Flowers, a work inspired by The Analects of Confucius, which celebrates etiquette; Lend a Hand, which advocates support systems; Seeding Phenomenon, a work about legacies of cultural inheritance; and Serenity Desired, which promotes spiritual cultivation. As a classic motif in art history, the imagery of flowers has a natural association with expressions of love and joy. In the Garden also features three sensational paintings that indicate different stages of love. With “Too Shy to Say”, “I Hope You Stay” and “Come out and Play,” three paintings inspired by pop song lyrics, the artist explores the complexities of love through color: timid pink, anxious purple, and fervent red subtly evoke the romantic states of crush, longing, waiting, anxiety, missing, and joy. Another group of four floral “headshot” paintings reveal Lau’s “recipe of happiness.” Titled “Dopamine”, “Endorphin”, “Serotonin” and “Oxytocin”, the paintings layer terminologies onto the orchid, tulip, rose and sunflower respectively, reaffirming the instinctive association between flowers and happiness across both science and culture.

Photo: Michael Lau, The Flowery Surprise,  2022, Acrylic on canvas on three panels, Each panel: 78 3/4 × 78 3/4 inches (200 × 200 cm), Overall: 78 3/4 × 236 1/4 inches (200 × 600 cm), © Michael Lau, Courtesy the artist and LGDR & Wei Gallery

Info: LGDR & Wei Gallery, 2 Ice House Street, Central Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Duration: 15/7-27/8/2022, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 11:00-19:00, Sat 11:00-18:00, https://lgdr.com/