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LOVE at
Odds and Ends

Curated by Kalen Wing Ki LEE

June 16 - July 22, 2023

Glo Cheuk Yan CHAN / Dr. Deyn / Ashton HUI / Kalen Wing Ki LEE /
Sammi Wing Sum MAK / KY Ka Ying WONG / Nicholas Yu Bon WONG
 

Hong Kong — Odds and Ends is pleased to present a group exhibition titled LOVE at Odds and Ends at the gallery space from June 16th - July 22nd, 2023, curated in collaboration with LOVE, an LGBTQ+ focus artist collective based in Hong Kong led by curator Kalen Wing Ki Lee, to showcase eight emerging LGBTQ+ artists, including Lee himself, Glo Cheuk Yan Chan and Dr. Deyn, Ashton Hui, Sammi Wing Sum Mak, KY Ka Ying Wong, Nicholas Yu Bon Wong and Monique Yim.



Curatorial Statement by Kalen Wing Ki Lee
 

It was December 2021.  I was conducting a visiting fellowship in San Francisco.  I was greeted and moved by many beautiful encounters in the LGBTQIA+ communities.  Artists, curators and art administrators work unitedly and amicably for the queer communities regardless of their genders, cultural backgrounds and sexual preferences.  There was this calling: it is imperative to work for the community regardless of where you are and who you are.  We found LOVE, an artist collective based in Hong Kong serving the LGBTQIA+ and queer-friendly communities.  

 

In June 2023 the Pride Month, we work with odds and ends gallery that is not accidental, perhaps serendipitous.  LOVE debuted at the Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong 2022 where we met odds and ends.  It was love at first sight.  We respect each other: vision, taste, and charisma.  The exhibition we present here LOVE at odds and ends exemplifies our commons: a group exhibition of emerging queer artists from Hong Kong, Asia and beyond, and a tasteful selection of contemporary arts to redefine what artmaking means to us and the communities.  Artists and artworks that we presented in this exhibition is diverse.  We work with 8 artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK of CIS male and female, gender non-binary and a brave one who is undergoing transitioning.  The artistic practices range from photography, painting, sculpture, literature and mixed media; whereas subject matters include self-expression, identity formation, exploration of same-sex relationship, and what and how cultural and societal milieux have imprinted on us.  The selected artwork, we hope, is loving, refreshing and empowering.  

Lots of LOVE. x 

Glo Cheuk Yan CHAN (She/her)

Glo Cheuk Yan Chan is a graduate of the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, and she currently lives in Hong Kong. Her practice is inspired by a sense of alienation from the world. She likes to observe from a distance and capture mundane moments in life with photography, moving images, and printmaking. In her art, she expresses her thoughts and experiences with delicacy. She received the “HKOP Award in Printmaking” in 2018. Her work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea. 

Dr. Deyn (He/him)

Dr. Natthakhet Yaemim, M.D., called Dr. Deyn, is the founder and CEO of PULSE Social Enterprise, a pan-Asian network of lifestyle clinics and service. PULSE’s mission is to promote and provide excellence in standards of care and education in lifestyles medicine, HIV and co-infections, normalizing sexual wellbeing and to actively engage in the formulation of public health policy, with the aim of eradicating the HIV burden in across the region.

Dr. Deyn was part of two previous group exhibitions, “Sex and Spirituality” in Vienna (May 2022) and “KinkyBKK” in Bangkok (September 2022). Besides recognition for his work in acrylic on paper and canvas, Dr. Deyn is known for his art curation of art exhibitions at PULSE Galleries. 

Ashton Hui (He/Him)

Hui graduated from Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in metalsmith at Tainan National University of Arts, Taiwan. His practice centres around creating objects and small sculptures through forging (raising and sinking technique) and mould making, his art explores the relationship between the singular and the multiple, and how uniqueness can be discovered through repetitive production.

Raising and sinking is one of the basic techniques used to shape sheet metal into 3D form by using different shapes of anvils (鍛造鉆) and hammers. The hammer marks left behind are like finger prints, they tell stories of the origin of form and even the personality of the creator. While the final form is usually a hollow utensil, it holds an inherent unique spirit. 

Kalen Wing Ki Lee (He/Him)

Kalen Wing Ki Lee is a researcher, practitioner, curator and educator in photographer. His artistic practice lies between conceptual documentary photography, artistic and archival research, contemporary analogue photographic practice and post-photographic practice. His photography projects were exhibited in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK and the US. His documentary photography project ‘Tsang’s Odyssey’ is selected as a finalist of the WMA Masters Award (16-17, Mobility), Hong Kong; his work ‘Faded’ is selected as one of the exhibitors of the KG+ SELECT 2019, Kyotographie International Photography Festival, Japan; and his recent project ‘Katharsis’ is selected for the satellite exhibition programme, Hong Kong International Photo Festival.

He studied history of art at the University of Hong Kong and receive a MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, supported by a British Chevening Scholarship. He is the recipient of the Lee Hysan Foundation - ACC Fellowship (2020) awarded by the Asian Cultural Odds and Ends PMQ Block B, H307, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong www.oaegallery.com l info@oaegallery.com Council Hong Kong. He is a visiting researcher at the Centre of the Study of the Networked Image (CSNI), London South Bank University.

Sammi Wing Sum Mak (She/Her)

Based in London, Wing Sum Sammi Mak was born and raised in Hong Kong. Mak graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University's Academy of Visual Arts and is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts. Her most recent exhibition was a solo presentation at Art Central 2023 Hong Kong, with Odds and Ends .

Mak's practice explores how the creation and perception of painting shapes our interpretation and experience of reality. In her works, Mak delves into the realm of poetry by replacing linguistics with visual forms of communication, inventing a system of painted lexicology that communicates recalled memory. 

KY Ka Ying Wong (She/Her)

Wong Ka Ying (b. 1990) is an artist-curator and writer based in Hong Kong. She received her BFA degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013 and the M.Phil. in Visual Arts from the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2021. She is currently pursuing her PhD degree in Cultural Studies in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

A keen observer of the art community and society, Wong critically reflects on the various social, cultural, and gender issues today through using a wide range of media from performance to social media platform. Wong expresses passion in writing, curating and art education. She made an outward appearance on various public sharing, seminars, panel discussion and talks, actively engaging with the communities and art lovers.

In 2016, she formed the first female artist duo “COME INSIDE” with Hong Kong artist Mak Ying Tung as a way to attack the art world. 

Nicholas Yu Bon Wong (He/Him)

Nicholas Wong is a poet and visual artist based in Hong Kong. His English poetry collections include Besiege Me (2021, Noemi Press) and Crevasse (Kaya Press, 2015), the winner of the 28th Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. He has participated in cross-disciplinary language-related art projects and performances locally and overseas, including the Manchester International Festival, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hong Kong Jockey Club’s New Art Power 2021-22, among others. His visual artworks “translate” his poems about queer desire and the slipperiness of language through contemplating the intricacy between syntax and textural gestures. 

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