Kwok Mang Ho

Last updated
Kwok Mang-ho
Frog King.jpg
Hong Kong artist Kwok Mang-ho, aka Frog King
Born1947
Nationality Chinese
Education Grantham College of Education Hong Kong(Fine Art),

Chinese University and the University of Hong Kong,

Contents

Extramural Studies Department, Art Students League of New York
Known for Performance art, Sculpture, Chinese ink painting, Chinese Calligraphy, Environmental installation, Video Art, Graffiti
Notable work
Frog King Kwok Museum project (2001-present),9 million works (1999-present), Frog Fun Lum (1998)

Kwok Mang Ho (born 1947), also known as Frog King, is a multi-media, conceptual, visual and performance artist from Hong Kong. According to Oscar Ho, the former exhibition director of Hong Kong Art Centre, he is one of the pioneers to engage in contemporary art in Hong Kong during the early 70s. [1] [2] His artistic uniqueness is best expressed in his creations “Frogtopia”, which takes over the exhibition space with numerous colourful mixed-media installations and graffiti of his signatured frog icon. [3] In addition to his inexhaustible style, Kwok held a solo multimedia art exhibition representing Hong Kong “Frogtopia-Hongkorucopia” (蛙托邦•鴻港浩搞筆鴉) at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. [4] He is currently the director of the Frog King Museum at Cattle Depot Artist Village since 2001. [5] [6]

Early Life and education

Kwok Mang-Ho (aka Frog King) was born in 1947 in Guangdong, China and grew up in Hong Kong. He began his artistic practice as a traditional ink painter under the guidance of Lui Shou-Kwan, who was known as the “Hong Kong New Ink Painting master” at the time. [7] Thus he was enrolled to the Fine Art programmes at the Grantham College of Education in Hong Kong (now renamed the Institute of Education) from 1967 to 1970. Concurrently, during 1968 to 1973, he further studied in extramural courses at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as the University of Hong Kong. After his completion of the programmes, Kwok went to the Art Students League of New York for further education(1980-1984). [5] He spent 15 years in New York City experiencing new art scenes, and eventually returned and settled down in Hong Kong in 1995. [8]

Career

Apart from his own creative projects, Kwok also engaged himself in the art scenes as administrator or supervisors both in Hong Kong and New York.

During 1970 to 1975, he took part as the stage designer at the Experimental Cantonese Opera association of Hong Kong; meanwhile from 1971 to 1976, he was one of the principle art teachers at a local secondary school (New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School). In the year 1974, Kwok first time made himself a curator at the Conceptual Art Exhibition in Hong Kong. Since 1977 until 1980, he was committed as the lecturer at the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. [9]

While spending his time in New York, Kwok further gained professional experiences for being the curator of the Kwok Gallery Community Art Show & Projects (1982–84), the visual director at Yomoma Art Icl. (1984–91), and the wearable art designer at the Art Accessories(1985–91).

After his return to Hong Kong, in 2000, Kwok continued taking part in the local creative sector. Since then and now-on, he is the advisor for the Art Focus Joint School Art Exhibition, director of the Museum Project at the Cattle Depot Artist Village, director of the Hong Kong Art Institute and art course teacher at the Student Union of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. [5]

Works

Kwok 's works enclose a great diversity of media covering calligraphy, sculpture, installation, performance art and photography. Since 1967, he has produced numerous creative projects in over 3,000 art events around the world, including London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Toronto, Hong Kong and Singapore. Some of his most famous works are 9 Million Works(1999), Frog Fun Lum(2007) and Plastic Bags Project(1978). Apart from the above, he also starting numbers of interactive worldwide projects such as the Body Installation Project(1981–present), Froggy Sunglasses 10 Years Project(1989-present), Nine Million Works Project(1999–present) and Frog King Kwok Museum Project(2001–present). [7] [8]

The above mixed-media installation and exhibitions are considered part of his Nine Million Works Project.

Style

During the late 60s, Kwok began on experimenting the possibility of contemporary art. He worked on ready-made objects, mixed media and collage in repeated manner. “To me, art is life and life is art” he said. The boundary between art and his life is blurry and interdependent. He is considered to be an eccentric artist whose work is intuitive with chaotic expression and experimental spirit. [10] He emphasizes the spontaneous imagination, improvisation, interaction and participation. During the exhibition of 9 Million Works and Frog Fun Lum, he did some improvisation performances entitled “One Second Body Installation” and “One Second Live Art” with the audience. [11] The iconic motifs in his works are the graffiti-style frog’s face and a pair of eyes as the symbol of a bridge or boat, which both represents the perpetuity and the cycle of life. “Frogtopia”, refers to the Utopia of his artistic space, which is embodied by the construction of his collage, mixed media art and installation. [12]

Identification with frogs

In an interview with a CNN journalist Doug Meigs, [13] Kwok revealed that his attachment toward frogs had taken a significant part during his growing up. For instance, according to the article, when he was about 5 years old, he usually climbed up a huge rock called "Big Froggy Rock" in Happy Valley so as to watch the horse races; later in his teenage years, he refereed himself as the "Frog Prince" when approaching girls.

After staying abroad for more than a decade, Kwok absorbed notably western cultures and mindsets. Thus so, he developed a more mature and in-depth perception toward frogs. With the multi-cultural background he has, he relates himself to frogs which are amphibians that could live vividly either in water or on land and explore freely the two different worlds.

Artistic experiment with the Plastic Bags Project

In the late 1970s, Kwok started using plastic bags as the major medium in his creative projects. The Plastic Bags Project, was first introduced in 1978, which he attached plastic bags in circles to create a 3-dimensional installation in a public space in Toronto. [5] The concept behind was to sculpt air and plastic bags was for him the perfect malleable container. [14] This specific choice of this uncommon elemental material led him the pioneer in Hong Kong art scene. [15]

Through this piece of work, Kwok expects to put people’s garbage, problems, anxiety and those are not to be seen inside the bags. He aimed to turn the use of plastic bags of creating 'air sculpture' into a meaningful act, rather than only as an contention against the unconscious action of concealment; he wanted to it to be a new form of art.

After the success, Kwok intrepid art performances of tying plastic bags in Tiananmen Square and Great Wall shocked the conventional contemporaries. [16] [17] This Great Wall plastic bag action, named the Plastic Bag Happenings in China(1979), which is also referred as the Plastic Bag Installation Along The Great Wall, was part of the “Kwok in Beijing” project created during his visit to Beijing in April, 1979. It was his earliest performance art, and was simultaneously the earliest documented performance art in China in the late 70s. [16] He continued to work on the Big Plastic Bag Action collaborating with students from Tsuen Wan Hoi Pa Street Government Primary School. [18]

Public collection

Site specific sculpture

Fire sculpture

Painting

Achievement

He has won several awards, including Hong Kong Arts Development Council Emeritus Fellowship in 1998.

Publications

Related Research Articles

The Frog King is a translation of the German title of a fairy tale written by the Brothers Grimm. In English the story is known as The Frog Prince

Jockey Club Ti-I College secondary school in Hong Kong

Jockey Club Ti-I College is a secondary school in Fo Tan, Hong Kong. The setting up of Ti-I College, which is not only focused on normal academic curriculum, but also aimed to develop students' potential of visual arts and sports, was proposed by Sir Edward Youde, the late governor of Hong Kong.

Wu Shaoxiang

Wu Shaoxiang is a Chinese contemporary sculptor living between Berlin, Beijing and Carinthia, Austria.

<i>Three Heads Six Arms</i> sculpture by Chinese artist Zhang Huan

Three Heads Six Arms is a sculpture by Chinese artist Zhang Huan. The work, composed of copper and steel, is 27 feet (8.2 m) tall and weighs 15 short tons (14 t). From May 2010 to February 2011, the sculpture was installed at the Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza in San Francisco's Civic Center, before moving to Hong Kong later that year from May to July. A slightly modified version was exhibited in Florence in 2013.

Red-white-blue bag

Red-white-blue bag or laundry bag is a carriage bag made out of nylon canvas in colors of red, white and blue. It originated in Hong Kong in the 1960s and has become a representative of Hong Kong culture. Because the nylon canvas is known of its light, firmness and durable usage, it is commonly used as hand carry luggage and transport between Mainland China and Hong Kong.

Shirley Tse

Shirley Tse is an American contemporary artist born in Hong Kong. Tse's work is often installation based and incorporates sculpture, photography and video, and explores sculptural processes as models of multi-dimensional thinking and negotiation. She is faculty in the School of Art at California Institute of the Arts, and was the Co-Director of the Program in Art from 2011-2014. She is co-organizer of the ReMODEL Sculpture Education Now symposia series and has been visiting faculty at Yale School of Art, Northwestern University, California College of Arts and Crafts, and Claremont Graduate University.

Kacey Wong

Kacey Wong is a Hong Kong visual artist and educator – formerly Assistant Professor at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Wong has received the Hong Kong Contemporary Arts Award by the Hong Kong Art Museum (2012), Best Artist Award (2010); and Rising Artist Award and Outstanding Arts Education Award (2003). Wong is politically engaged through his art, and is founding member of art-activist groups Art Citizens and the Umbrella Movement Art Preservation.

Ho Siu-Kee (何兆基) is a Hong Kong artist and visual art scholar He was born in 1964 in Hong Kong. His artistic and academic research focuses on exploring bodily perceptions as a means and process of aesthetic expression.

Zhao Yao is an artist in installations as well as performance, video and photography. He grew up in Sichuan and currently lives and works in Beijing.

K11 Art Foundation

The K11 Art Foundation (KAF) is a non-profit art foundation based in Hong Kong, named for an eponymous shopping mall and established by the mall's operator. It supports the development of Chinese contemporary art from Greater China by providing creative incubation platforms.

Stanley Wong Ping Pui, also known as "Another mountain man" (又一山人), is a Hong Kong artist. He created the Red White Blue series, a series of artwork based on the red-white-blue bags which are commonplace in Hong Kong.

Pak Sheung Chuen, also known as Tozer Pak, is a Hong Kong artist. He represented Hong Kong in the Venice Biennale 2009.

Ha Bik Chuen

Ha Bik Chuen, also known as Xia Biquan was a Hong Kong painter, sculptor, photographer and craftsman. Born in Xinhui, Guangdong Province of China, he moved to Hong Kong in 1957, and began to study sculpture. He joined the Chinese Contemporary Artists' Guild in 1960. He is also a member of Hong Kong Visual Arts Society, Hong Kong Graphic Society and Hong Kong Sculptors Association.

Warren Leung Chi Wo is a Hong Kong visual artist and a current associate professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong His forms of works mainly range from photography, installation, paintings and videos. Leung was also one of the co-founders of Para Site in Hong Kong—which was established in early 1996 and was the first exhibition-making institution of contemporary art in local sense.

Wang Jianwei

Wang Jianwei is a new media, performance, and installation artist based in Beijing, China.

Epoxy Art Group was a group of six Hong Kong native artists who were based in New York City. This group consisted of the artists Ming Fay, Jerry Kwan, Kwok Mang Ho, Bing Lee, Kang Lok Chung, and Eric Chan. Exalting the values of collaboration, they chose to use the name “Epoxy”, which derives from epoxy resin, a binding agent, to symbolize an innate bond they felt through their similar backgrounds and the idea that they could create better art together than by themselves, thus subverting notions of individualistic studio practices. They were able to establish opportunities together that they would not have own their own as it was a disadvantage to be an Asian-American artist. Their art focused on concepts of social and political commentary and they used a variety of medium including mixed-media, photocopied images, sound installation and projection in order to convey these themes. Typically, they would meet at Kwok Gallery, which served as their base.

Osage Gallery

Osage Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Hong Kong.

Ho Sin Tung is a visual artist who lives and works in Hong Kong.

'Luke Ching Chin Wai (b.1972) (程展緯) is a conceptual artist and labour activist from Hong Kong. His artistic practice twists the role of the artist and observer and has created works which, with a mix of humour, respond to the cultural and political collisions in Hong Kong. He studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and graduated with an MA in Fine Art in 1998. He has participated in exhibitions and residencies worldwide.

Ho Tzu Nyen is a Singaporean contemporary artist and filmmaker whose works involve film, video, performance, and immersive multimedia installations. His work brings together fact and myth to mobilise different understandings of Southeast Asia's history, politics, and religion, often premised upon a complex set of references from art history, to theatre, cinema, and philosophy. Ho has shown internationally at major exhibitions such as the Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019), the Sharjah Biennial 14, United Arab Emirates (2019), and the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2018). In 2011, Ho represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale at the Singapore Pavilion, presenting the work The Cloud of Unknowing.

References

  1. BENT, SIOBHAN. "FROG KING: "TOTEM"". Art Asia Pacific. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  2. CHO, Hyunjae (1999). Kwok-Art Life For 30 Years 1967-1997 "Kwok Mang Ho: The Happy Hopping Frog". Hong Kong Arts Centre. p. 6. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  3. "Frog King Kwok "LEAPS" from HK to Venice Creating Frogtopia to Show his Artistic Uniqueness". Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  4. "Artist From Hong Kong". 54th Venice Bienale - Frogtopia · Hong Kornucopia. Venice Bienale 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Frog King. "Frog King's Profile". Official Website of Frog King. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  6. Hong Kong Arts Development Council (June 2010). "Research on Future Development of Artist Village in Cattle Depot" (PDF): 74. Retrieved 19 November 2015.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. 1 2 Bent, Siobhan. "Where I work: Frog King Kwok Mang-ho". ArtAsiaPacific. 93 (May/Jun 2015): 147–150. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Kwok Mang Ho 郭孟浩". Hong Kong Art: Visual Archive. Hong Kong Art Archive. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  9. "10 Chancery Lane Gallery | Frog King". 10 Chancery Lane Gallery. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  10. CHO, Hyunjae (1999). Kwok-Art Life For 30 Years 1967-1997 "Kwok Mang Ho: The Happy Hopping Frog". Hong Kong Arts Centre. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  11. 歐陽月貞. "見證香港藝術:多元感官及媒體藝術評賞與創作教學計劃". Hong Kong Society for Education in Art. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  12. "蛙王-郭孟浩-圖騰". Randian 燃點. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  13. Meigs, Doug (18 July 2011). "'Frog King' leaps into art on Hong Kong streets". CNN. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  14. "郭孟浩蛙王:善用本能,土法煉鋼" (PDF). Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  15. "Kwok in Beijing | Asia Art Archive". Kwok Mangho Frog King Archive. Asia Art Archive. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  16. 1 2 "Kwok in Beijing | Asia Art Archive". Kwok Mangho Frog King Archive. Asia Art Archive. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  17. 王燦妮; 蔡玉玲. "蛙王—— 下一世紀的藝術家". 非常文化(very culture). Chinese University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  18. CHO, Hyunjae (1999). Kwok-Art Life For 30 Years 1967-1997 "Kwok Mang Ho: The Happy Hopping Frog". Hong Kong Arts Centre. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  19. "How 'Frog King' became Hong Kong's most legendary artist". CNN Travel. 2018-03-28. Retrieved 2018-03-29.