With an expressionist approach, Hong Kong-based artist Tobe Kan explores themes of loss, isolation, displacement, dreams and reality through her practice. Having studied design at City University of Hong Kong, the artist graduated from RMIT University and Hong Kong Art School with a fine arts degree in 2017. The artist’s multidisciplinary education is reflected in her oeuvre, which has transformed from video and mixed media to drawing and painting. Taking inspiration from daily walks outside her studio, Tobe Kan’s studies of trees and foliage plants act as intimate exercises in self-reflection amidst the ritual of the quotidian.
Dressed in rich, arresting hues of blue, A void 9 is emblematic of the artist’s experiments with temporality. While one might assume the scene takes place in the night, intense chiaroscuro reveals a sunlit quality, confusing the viewer’s sense of reality. The artist molds perception to her will - using computer software and artificial intelligence, she fuses together personal and found imagery to provide the basis for her paintings. Verdant growth crowds the canvas, pulling the viewer into a space of contemplation.
Tobe Kan currently lives and works in Hong Kong and plays an active role in the local arts scene. The artist has held solo exhibitions at Gallery EXIT in Hong Kong: Liminal Interval (2023) and Panacea (2021); she has also represented the gallery at Art Basel Hong Kong from 2022 to 2024. Tobe Kan’s works have expanded to the global stage, notably of war, of love, of time (2022) and Zygomorphic Chromatic (2023) at Peter Augustus Gallery, USA, and Stillness in Quietude - A Studio Showcase by Tobe Kan (2023) at Robinson College Chapel, University of Cambridge, UK.