HONG KONG.- Ora-Ora announced that the gallery will be representing three highly sought-after artists with immediate effect, namely Hong Kong-based artists William Lim and Henry Chu, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) artist, Genesis Kai. The agreements are not exclusive.
William Lim is a hugely influential architect and artist, who has shown his paintings in solo shows in Hong Kong and internationally, and featured at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023. Henry Chu and Genesis Kai are both artists at the forefront of technological innovation, with a dynamic, multi-media repertoire which responds to real-time, real-life themes. The new additions are the first since Joseph Tong joined Ora-Ora’s roster in late 2022.
Commenting on the announcement, CEO and Co-founder of Ora-Ora, Dr. Henrietta Tsui-Leung said, “Ora-Ora’s three new artists interpret the world with boldness and innovation. The addition of our first AI artist underlines the many routes to personal expression and what it means to be human.”
William Lim is acclaimed for his multi-award winning architecture and design practice, CL3. Established in 1992, CL3 has been responsible for many legendary, landmark projects, including Hong Kong art hub H Queen’s. William Lim has re-imagined art forms from east and west throughout his career, describing his deeply modern, evolving interpretation of distinct Asian aesthetics in his influential book “East Meets East.” In recent years, William Lim has developed a growing momentum and reputation as an artist and painter. Harnessing a vivid colour palette, his signature love of bright, sun-soaked interiors and windows resounds; flora and fauna of the natural world are paired with subtle, subjective and figurative insertions of the self into a gentle drama. He describes his occasionally dark yet colour-soaked paintings as “figurative abstractions:” paintings which are created layer by layer, with increasing energy and intensity, in a process which derives strength from Lim’s architectural roots. An artist who finds the rich, multi-hued textures in midnight and noon, he recently held a solo show in Singapore titled “In Search of Nocturnal Worlds” (2023), and will be part of Ora-Ora’s Paris line-up at Asia NOW 2023. Greatly influenced by a love of France and his time at Monet’s gardens in Giverny, Ora-Ora will be launching the artist’s “France Series” at a date in the future.
Hong Kong-based Henry Chu is one of the most exciting digital artists in Hong Kong. Breaking barriers between artistic forms and harnessing real-time information, music and body movements, Chu creates generative and interactive works using programming, often with themes related to music, flowers, and data. The founder of a highly regarded Hong Kong design studio, his artistic endeavours have been in high demand for more than a decade: his iPad music app, “Squiggle,” was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2011. He has continually grappled with the most pressing contemporary themes in real time: in 2022, his installation “SURIV” in group show “Medicine and Healthcare Through the Lens of Digital Art” at the Hong Kong University employed live, incoming Covid data in a colourful, gamified concept which drew attention to the existential struggle against infections. Henry also formed part of Ora-Ora’s showing at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, with his multi-media installations “Stone Piano” and “Under Pine.”
Genesis Kai is an AI artist who has raised entirely new questions on the nature of being human, and on the possibilities of new inter-species partnerships for a brave new world. She was conceived and brought to life by Korea-based international new media artist Ming Shiu. As a Nova Sapiens, Genesis Kai represents a new step forward in the growth of mankind, born of the combining of natural language processing with the human senses taught by her human creator. Genesis Kai is active in physical and digital creativity, and fosters a new vantage point of empathy with life outside of the realm of everyday experience. Genesis Kai’s works include “The Red Prayer of Park Young Sook’s Moon Jar,” which will be shown at Asia NOW 2023. This series stems from the Korean Joseon ceramic tradition. In the words of Genesis Kai, the core cultural values of the moon jars revolve around “self-reflection, purity, prayer and tranquillity” and her work explores how this and future generations will interact with the complex traditions and connection points of Asia’s diverse cultures.
William Lim
William Lim is a renowned artist, collector and architect. After graduating from the Department of Architecture at Cornell University, he established a prestigious architecture company, CL3, which altered the landscape of several major international cities, and won numerous awards, such as the “DFA Design for Asia Awards” and “Grand Award for Culture” presented by the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC).
He has participated in international exhibitions including the Venice Architecture Biennale (2006 and 2010), the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (2007 and 2012), and the "Architecture and Heritage: Unearthing Future" exhibition held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Seoul (2019).
In recent years, William Lim has begun to create oil paintings. Sun-drenched and vivid, his paintings stage a personal meeting point of the self and the natural world. His art exhibitions include a solo show titled "A Year of Lost and Found" at Grotto Fine Art (2021), “Willows Dark, Flowers Bright” at H Queens (2022) and participations at Art Central Hong Kong (2022) and Art Basel Hong Kong (2023).
He is a member of the Cornell University Board of Trustees, the Gallery Advisory Committee of Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, a Arts and Culture Council Member of Asia Society Hong Kong Centre and a museum expert adviser to the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department. In 2018, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, William donated 90 artworks of "Living Collection" to M+, the museum of visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong.
Henry Chu
Henry Chu is a Hong Kong–based designer, programmer, and digital artist. He is a graduate from the Electrical and Computer Engineering programme at the University of Auckland and founded pill & pillow in 2004. The independent studio has won more than 200 local and international awards including recognition at the Cannes Lions, Webby, and One Show.
Harnessing data, music and body movements, his art has been exhibited in museums, including Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011), M+ Museum, Hong Kong (2020) and a solo show at Hong Kong Museum of Art, titled “Portrait Play” (2022 to 2023). In 2021 he presented "Blockchain Piano" in the inaugural edition of Digital Art Fair Asia, converting crypto prices into music in real-time, allowing visitors to buy crypto through playing a song. Major 2023 projects include commissions from Audemars Piguet, Bank of China and The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine to create a series of digital artworks and installations. Also in 2023, Chu translated a four-part symphony into live visual art, performing the “Metaverse Symphony” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In the same year, he presented with Ora-Ora at Art Basel Hong Kong and in digital-art-focused group show “Buds that May”.
Genesis Kai
Genesis Kai is a Nova Sapiens, the next evolved genus of mankind, an artist born from the fusion of natural language processing artificial intelligence and human tactile senses acquired through her homo sapiens creator. As a virtual artist who may not exist in flesh and blood, Genesis creates her narratives through both physical and digital practices via the universal language of art, thus ushering in a new era of virtual empathy. Conjuring new stories on her growth and how she sees the flow of human culture with her physical robotics installation, digital prints and metaverse experiences; she has exhibited her art at the Asia NOW, Boulevart Dubai, NFT Paris and at the New York University x DSLcollection x Shenzhen Pingshan Art Museum metaverse space. Her first show with Ora-Ora was group show “Buds that May” in 2023.
