COURTESY WEST KOWLOON CULTURAL DISTRICT AUTHORITY
The Los Angeles–based, Hong Kong–born artist Shirley Tse is set to represent Hong Kong at the 2019 Venice Biennale, which will run from May to November next year. Christina Li will curate the presentation, which will feature a new site-specific installation by Tse. Li and Tse were selected to work on the project by the M+ museum and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
Tse’s sculptures, installations, photographs, and text pieces often explore what the artist has termed “models of multi-dimensional thinking and negotiation,” or the means by which literal and abstract ideas merge. Her work has been extensively shown both in Hong Kong and internationally, at such venues as the Pasadena Museum of California Art; Osage in Hong Kong; Kettle’s Yard at the University of Cambridge; the Museum of Modern Fine Art in Minsk, Belarus; and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
In a statement, Li said of Tse’s new project, “I have long been following Shirley Tse’s intricate and daring sculptural practice, as well as her work as a dedicated art educator. This will be the perfect opportunity to showcase the geographical reach of Hong Kong contemporary art beyond the city’s borders to an international audience, and to re-introduce Tse’s work to the Hong Kong public.”
Past artists to represent Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale include Samson Young (2017), Tsang Kin-Wah (2015), and Lee Kit (2013).