10 Questions with Michael Kwong

Prof. Michael Kwong was born in Hong Kong in 1972. He studied art at Columbus College of Art & Design and worked as an illustrator in the United States after graduation. In 2002, he finally moved back to Hong Kong to continue his artistic career. He has been working as a professional illustrator for more than two decades. Throughout his entire career, he has received many local and international designs and art awards. At the same time, Prof. Kwong has also dedicated himself to art education for many years. He has taught in different universities, including Shantou University, Xiamen University, and Savannah College of Art and Design. At the same time, he has been working as pop art and abstract expressionist painter creating art pieces that combine eastern culture characteristics and western painting techniques.

michaelkwongart.wixsite.com | @michaelkwongart

ARTIST STATEMENT

Painting is just like a bridge for Michael Kwong, linking himself and the outside world together. He can express his attitude toward life and his thought about things, and more importantly, he can interact with people through his artworks. He can show the value of life through his works. Sometimes his painting is just his subjective feeling about things, and sometimes it can be a tool to raise people's attention about what happens in our world. He wants to use his painting to spread a positive power to people and bring a better and prettier world to people through his paintings.
In the year 2020, he decided to focus his career as a professional abstract expressionist painter. He likes to explore the relationship between textures and colors in his painting, also achieving a balance between shape and space. He strongly believes that abstract painting is the perfect approach to express his concept, through the use of different brushstrokes, rhythms, texture, and color, he can express his thoughts infinitely and breaks through all inherent rules, thereby tangibly expressing his soul.
Besides, unlike realistic painting, abstract painting can allow viewers to generate infinite imagination space, it can interact with the viewer's thoughts on a metaphysical level directly and effectively, and it will not be interrupted by figurative images and forms. Prof. Kwong believes that philosophical connotation should be the main value of a painting. The most crucial thing is that artworks must be able to lead the audience to resonate with the artist's thoughts. If artwork has only superficial patterns and does not incorporate the artist's perspective and thought, the work can only be treated as a decorative craft since such work does not contribute to human civilization and culture.

Mickey’s Frustration, Acrylic on Canvas, 80x80 cm, 2022 © Michael Kwong

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and how did you start experimenting with images?

My name is Michael Kwong. I was born in Hong Kong, I studied art at Columbus College of Art & Design and worked as an illustrator in the United States after graduation. In 2002, I finally moved back to Hong Kong to continue my artistic career. I have been working as a professional illustrator for more than two decades. Throughout my career, I have received many designs and art awards locally and internationally. At the same time, I have also dedicated myself to art education for many years. I have taught in different universities, including Shantou University, Xiamen University, and Savannah College of Art and Design. At the same time, I have been working as pop art and abstract expressionist painter creating art pieces that combine eastern culture characteristics and western painting techniques.

How would you define yourself as an artist today? And how has this definition changed over the years?

As I mentioned before, I am working as a full-time artist right now, and I would like to define my painting style as pop expressionism. I combine pop art characteristics and an expressional painting approach to make my artwork. It has become my unique painting style, and honestly, I like this painting approach a lot, it can make me express my emotions more comprehensively.
My study major in college was illustration. I learned a variety of illustration techniques and approaches in school. After graduation, I worked as a professional illustrator doing pictorial illustration and character design for many years. After decades of professional practice, my creative direction has gradually changed. The communication objective of commercial illustration is very clear. Its main objective is to tell stories with images instead of words to reach clients' needs, so it is difficult for artists to express their thoughts and attitude toward life through their works. I gradually felt lost, so I finally made up my mind to change my career direction to fine art. I felt more comfortable and got back my motivation to make art after this change.

Lotus, Acrylic on Canvas, 70x50 cm, 2020 © Michael Kwong

Two Carps Swimming, Acrylic on Canvas, 70x50 cm, 2020 © Michael Kwong

You have been teaching in different universities around the world. What is one essential thing you think artists should learn from school? And what is best learned on the field?

I often tell students in my lecture that if they want to be outstanding professional artists in the future, the basic skills of drawing and painting are extremely important, and the core understanding of art theory will also be the most significant cornerstone of your success. It will be the main factor that decides how far they can go and how high they can jump in their future artistic life.
The most interesting thing about a creative career is that artists will constantly encounter problems, and there is no such thing as "Standard Answer" in the art world. When they solve the current problem, new problems will occur again. Despite this, it is such a wonderful thing to experience with. If they persist in doing their art and keep their original intention, they will gradually understand themselves better, feel more confident, and get a stronger sense of art.
Young artists have more opportunities to show their talents to the art market now compared with the old day, so young artists should think about what they want to say to the world deeper, prepare themselves well, and find their own art orientation.

At the same time, what is one piece of advice you would like to give to emerging artists?

I hope to say to those emerging artists that art is not only a job but an exploration of life's values. They shouldn't do what the market likes them to do. They just need to listen to their inner thoughts, constantly think and reflect, and then use their own art languages to communicate to the audiences. In addition, I hope to tell them to maintain patience and adhere to their original intentions, developing their art direction with their true and pure hearts. Then, they should slowly condense their mind to just only focus on a certain direction, eventually surpassing their essentiality.

Let's talk about your work. What is your main aim as an artist?

Painting is just like a bridge for me, linking myself and the outside world together. I can express my attitude toward life and my thought about things, and more importantly, I can interact with people through my artworks. I can show the value of life through my work. Sometimes my painting is just my subjective feeling about things, and sometimes it can be a tool to raise people's attention about what happens in our world. I want to use my painting to spread a positive power to people and bring a better and prettier world to people through my paintings.

In 2020 you decided to focus on abstract expressionism. What inspired you to follow this direction?

In 2020, I decided to focus my career as a professional abstract expressionist painter. I like to explore the relationship between textures and colors in my painting, also achieving a balance between shape and space. I strongly believe that abstract painting is the perfect approach to express my concept, through the use of different brushstrokes, rhythms, texture, and color, I can express my thoughts infinitely and break through all inherent rules, thereby tangibly expressing my soul.
Besides, unlike realistic painting, abstract painting can allow viewers to generate infinite imagination space, it can interact with the viewer's thoughts on a metaphysical level directly and effectively, and it will not be interrupted by figurative images and forms. I believe that philosophical connotations should be the main value of a painting. The most crucial thing is that artworks must be able to lead the audience to resonate with the artist's thoughts. If artwork has only superficial patterns and does not incorporate the artist's perspective and thought, the work can only be treated as a decorative craft since such work does not contribute to human civilization and culture.

Fizzyjoker Sinking Heart, Acrylic on Canvas, 80x80 cm, 2021 © Michael Kwong

What messages do you want to convey with your work? And where do you draw inspiration for your work?

I hope that the viewers can feel the beautiful side of life from the artworks I created, and I also hope that people can understand the importance of protecting the global environment from my paintings.
I think life is short, and we should keep our lives as simple as possible, trying to stay happy and positive every day. Pressure and Pain are caused by our endless desire; therefore, we can feel the joy of life as long as we keep everything simple.
The motivation for my artworks comes from my love for life. I like to paint with dynamic lines, and I like to leave casual strokes on the canvas. It often brings out many unexpected surprises and produces many unexpected effects. It is wonderful.

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

The answer is absolute. During the COVID pandemic, I participated in many international online virtual art exhibitions. Unlike traditional art exhibitions, the virtual exhibition avoids many problems for artists, such as transportation, production, and time restrictions. I am able to display the same artwork in different countries at the same time so that more viewers can see my works compared with the physical exhibition.
Besides, there are many potentials for Meta universe's art exhibition for us to explore. I personally think that technology and digital art exhibitions are not a bad thing at all. It provides a larger and wider space for artists to show their talents to the public.

Hand of Love, Acrylic on canvas, 80x80 cm, 2021 © Michael Kwong

What do you think about the art community and market? And how did your perception change over the last year due to the pandemic?

As I mentioned above, the art market has already been changing because of the application of technology and the changes in people's lifestyles. The development of the Internet has broken regional restrictions, and the auction market of artworks is becoming younger and diversified. Our living environment faces many severe problems, such as wars, epidemics, environmental pollution, food shortage, economic crisis, etc. There are many problems that humans are facing right now, and people need to look back on what they have done and be unity together. Also, people need to raise their spiritual level.
I would like to take more responsibility for the society and be more concerned with the world. Therefore, the subject matter of my artworks has involved more social issues than before.

Finally, what are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

I recently received an amazing notice that my work "Balance and Order" was selected for the Salon Des Beaux Arts 2022. It is definitely my honour to be one of the selected artists in this fantastic exhibition. Also, I am so grateful that I have won a lot of art awards this year.
I hope I can continue to create more artworks and participate in more significant international art exhibitions in the coming future.
In terms of painting, I am preparing for my first solo touring exhibition in China and creating a new series based on the Chinese Great Yellow River. It has a total of 8 paintings in this series, I am working on the paintings right now; I have so much fun doing so.
In terms of art toy design, my new series of art toys called "Freud's Rhapsophy" were released publicly at the end of August 2022 in a large-scale art toy exhibition in China. The audience's response was very enthusiastic. This set of works is different from those normal art toys that only pay attention to the appearance on the market. It injected the concept of philosophy on the basis of art toys. I tried to explore the psychological characteristics of people through art toys. This is an interesting approach for me, and it is a great experience for me that is full of challenges.

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