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Celebrated Contemporary Artists Lead Phillips’ New Now Auction in Hong Kong on 4 October
Featuring Takashi Murakami, Ayako Rokkaku, Issy Wood, and Cui Jie, Alongside Nguyen Quoc Dung, Kenichi Hoshine Auction Debuts
Leading the sale is Takashi Murakami’s fresh-to-market work Flower of Hope (illustrated on page 1), which exemplifies the artist’s ability to bridge the worlds of high art and popular culture. In this work, Murakami continues his exploration of the kawaii aesthetic, a concept deeply rooted in Japanese culture that signifies cuteness and innocence. The flowers' wide, gleaming smiles and twinkling eyes epitomise pure happiness, inviting viewers into a vibrant, joyful world. The composition of the present work is symmetrical and dynamic, while the reflective surface of the platinum leaf background adds a shimmering quality, making the flowers appear to float and dance as the viewer moves around the work. This interactive element demands engagement, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the work and experience the full scope of its visual and emotional impact.
Another highlight of the sale is Ayako Rokkaku’s Untitled (Wooden House), a unique hand-painted wooden installation created live in 2019 during her exhibition at Museum Jan in Amstelveen, Netherlands. This piece showcases the artist’s signature whimsical style in a captivating, three-dimensional form. It invites viewers to step into Rokkaku’s dream-like world, enveloping them in the process whilst blurring the boundaries between an art object and an interactive children’s playground. Entirely covered in her iconic swirling, finger-painted patterns, the present work not only transforms a simple wooden structure into her fairytale world, but also represents a significant evolution in the artist’s oeuvre in its interactive, immersive qualities. Through her unique approach, Rokkaku bridges the gap between art and imagination, leaving a lasting impression of joy and curiosity.
London-based American artist Issy Wood has proactively wielded an oeuvre that interweaves painting, music, and writing to explore the theme of desire. Often described as a ‘medieval millennial’, Wood has combined a touch of classical solemnity with an attitude of contemporary cynicism, through which she develops a highly stylised mannerism of the uncanny to approach the complex floods of desire hidden in everyday banality. This season’s New Now offers two works by Wood, Unsprung and Mozzarella / the confidante, both probe into a specific form of possession and thus violence expressed through human domestication of animals.
Cui Jie stands out as a beacon of innovation in the contemporary Chinese art scene, particularly through her intricate explorations of urban architecture. Her distinctive painting style combines architectural accuracy with an almost fiction-like futuristic impression, creating layered narratives that reflect and interrogate the transformative landscapes of modern Chinese cities. An outstanding example of her skyscraper studies, China Telecom Building 3 offered in the sale works from a real building, closely observed, only to break it down with incredible formal and artistic ingenuity. At its centre is the Pudong International Information Port, from Cui’s native Shanghai, in which the details are impeccably reproduced, but its side is given an impossible silver gleam, so intense it resembles the retro utopian fantasies of the Space Age. The work is produced by her stenciled black spray paint, which outside leaves a matrix-like grid pattern.
Emerging Names
As a daughter to a Hong Kong father and Japanese-American mother, the San Francisco-based artist Chelsea Ryoko Wong celebrates cultural and racial diversity in her creation. In art, she has keenly created Asian-American narratives enlivened by colourful compositions, childlike touches and multicultural themes. In Untraditional Dim Sum Restaurant presented in this season’s sale, Wong depicts a joyful scene in an Asian restaurant with quintessential motifs—a fish tank lines the walls of the restaurant, and a dim sum cart is moving between the tables. Through creating a warm and uplifting utopia within her own painterly space, Wong expresses her wishes for a society where cultural divides no longer exist.
Marking his auction debut, New York-based Japanese artist Kenichi Hoshine has been keen on blending abstraction and realism to explore the vast potential of narrative elusiveness. The artist approaches acrylic on wooden panels without preparatory drawings or sketches. Every painting is an improvisational process in which the artist scraps, removes or builds up layers of elements, streaming from his immediate interests, attention, and thoughts.
Another auction debut in this season’s New Now is Vietnamese artist Nguyen Quoc Dung’s Motel Room. His works form a way to observe human life in contemporary society, through an interest in immigrants, transgenders, and other strenuous issues associated with urbanisation, integration as well as their effects on society. The artist uses oil paint in most of his oeuvre, presenting images for precarious social issues associated with consumerism, mass culture, loss of privacy due to technology, and more.
### Auction: 4 October 2024, 2pm HKT Public Exhibition: 24 September - 3 October, 11am – 7pm HKT Location: G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong Please download images of highlights here. ABOUT PHILLIPS Phillips: where the world’s curious and bold connect with the art, design and luxury that inspires them. As a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st century works, Phillips offers dedicated expertise in the areas of Modern and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry. Auctions and exhibitions are primarily held in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, with representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips offers a regular selection of live and online auctions, along with items available for immediate purchase. Phillips also offers a range of services and advice on all aspects of collecting, including private sales and assistance with appraisals, valuations, and financial planning. Visit phillips.com for further information. *Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
PRESS CONTACTS: HONG KONG – Ingrid Hsu, Head of Public Relations & Communications, Asia Ingridhsu@phillips.com +852 2318 2043
PHILLIPS NEW YORK – 432 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 PHILLIPS LONDON – 30 Berkeley Square, London, W1J 6EX PHILLIPS HONG KONG – G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong PHILLIPS GENEVA - Rue de la Confédération, 7 Geneva 1204
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