Leung Mee Ping (梁美萍; born 1961) is a Hong Kong artist.[1] Leung's research-based artistic practice integrates elements of theatre, design, and social space.[2] Leung's works explore issues and themes related to visual culture, effects of globalisation, memory, and material culture.[3]

Leung Mee Ping
Born1961 (age 62–63)
Alma materÉcole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
OccupationArtist
Chinese name
Chinese梁美萍
Hanyu PinyinLiáng Měipíng
Yale RomanizationLèuhng Méihpìhng
JyutpingLoeng4 Mei5-ping4

Personal life and education

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Leung Mee Ping grew up in a broken family. While studying in primary school, she won a drawing competition. Since that time, she started to fall into drawing and calligraphy.

Leung moved out when she was very young after her parents separated. Despite this, she has always been close to her mother and sisters, who support her and are a main theme of Leung's artworks. After working in a bookstore for two years, Leung saved up and was admitted into École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1983, Leung Mee Ping left Hong Kong and began her art studies in Paris. There, she learned to paint in abstract and expressionist styles.[4] Before she graduated from L' École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts a Paris in 1991, she started exploring with alternative materials to create art. She began creating her work, "Elsewhere (1991-2014)", initiated by a close friend's passing, during this time.[5] It is a mixed media installation consisting of thousands of tea bags sewn together. Made through the repetitive action of sewing teabags, Leung's work is meditative contemplation on being and death.[6] She won the Premier prix Rocheron Award for this work in 1991.[7] Apart from tea bags, various objects such as quail eggs, photos, tiles etc. began to be incorporated in Leung's mixed media art and installation works.[8]

After returning to Hong Kong in 1994, she held her first solo exhibition "Mixed-Media Work by LEUNG MEE PING" in Fringe Club.[9] Leung also worked as an art editor of the Hong Kong Economic Times (hket, a financial daily in Hong Kong).[7] In early 1996, she became a founding member of Para Site, helping to set up the new artist-run space.[10] In 1998, she emigrated to USA and obtained her MFA from California Institute of Arts in 2000.

Following her MFA, Leung obtained a Ph.D from Chinese University of Hong Kong (Religious & Cultural Studies Department).[11] In 2018, she became a Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.[3]

Exhibitions

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Leung's works mainly focuses on the ethic, community and memories of the human living situation,[11] They also examine daily life through the perception of daily life itself.[12] Art genres include mixed-media, video, multi-media installation and site-specific event-based project.

Solo exhibitions

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Year Title[13][14] Location
2015 Display Distribute: Made in Shenzhen[15] Display Distribute, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong
2014 Star Pupas FLEETING LIGHTS Project, Lower Piazza, Hong Kong Science Museum, Hong Kong
2014 Made in Hong Kong Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
2013 Don't Blame the Moon Singapore Art Fair, Hong Kong AP Contemporary, Singapore
2012 Reality—Leung Mee-ping Installation Art Exhibition OX Warehouse, Macau
2011 Made in Hong Kong Pemalamo Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2010 Miniature Flat G, No 7 Giormani Home Gallery, Hong Kong
2006 Room with View Centre de Reflexion sur I'image et Ses Contexts, Sierre, Switzerland
2004 In Search of Insomnious Sheep Tai Mei Tuk Sea Activity Centre, 1a Space, Hong Kong
2004 Memorize the Future II Exhibition Hall, Tsuen Wan City Hall, Hong Kong / Western Market, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
2003 Hong Kong Contemporary—Water Tone: Leung Mee Ping 1992-2003 Kaoshsiung Fine Art Museum, Kaoshsiung, Taiwan
2002 Memorize the Future Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong
2000 Close at a Distance Lime Gallery, California Institute of the Arts, USA
1999 Memorize the Future Main Gallery, California Institute of the Arts, USA
1998 A Poem without a Title Para / Site Art Space, Hong Kong
1995 Beyond Hong Kong Hong Kong Museum of Arts, Hong Kong
1994 Mon-Hair Gallery Fringe, Hong Kong
1994 Mixed-media Works by Leung Mee Ping Heineken Gallery, Hong Kong
1993 Liens Galerie Catherine Flectcher, Paris, France
1991 Graduation Exhibition of Leung Mee Ping L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts a Paris, France

Group exhibitions

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Year Title[13][16] Location
2022 Hong Kong: Here and Beyond M+, Hong Kong
2021 Poetic Heritage Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
2021 New Horizons: Ways of Seeing Hong Kong Art in the 80s and 90s Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2020 Hi! Flora, Fauna Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Hong Kong
2020 Classics Remix: The Hong Kong Viewpoint Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2019 Present Passing: South by Southeast   Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
2018 Collection of Terry, Debbie and Harry Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
2018 Land Art Mongolia 5th Biennial 2018 - WHO ARE WE NOW? Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2018 Shenzhen Biennale 2018 - Open Source LuoHu Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2015 Shanghai Urban Space Art 2015 Season West Bund Art Centre, Shanghai, China
2015 "ArtBat" Public Art Festival Almaty, Kazakhstan
2015 Walking in the Dreams Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong
2015 Urban Exotic Dilemma Koo Ming Kown Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong
2015 Artspiration: About Light Oil Street Art Space / HKICC, Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, Hong Kong
2015 Art Basel - Hong Kong Osage Gallery Hong Kong Conventional Center, Hong Kong
2014 Star Pupas Lower Piazza, Hong Kong Science Museum, Hong Kong
2014 Delivering Poem Chifra Art Park, Shuntak, East Coast, Guangdong, China
2014 Tighttrope Walking Fish Shenzhen Public Sculpture Exhibition 2014, Shenzhen, China
2014 All are Guest — Home Coming Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2014 FLEX IT! My Body My Temple Project The Parthenon Museum, USA
2014 Unseen Presence Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland
2014 Home Fangsou Commune, Guangzhou, China
2014 Art Basel- Hong Kong Osage Gallery Hong Kong Conventional Center, Hong Kong
2014 Elsewhere- Hong Kong Osage Gallery Art Cologne, Germany
2014 Kanhaiya & Kumari---[en]counters 2014: Is There Love in The Air Judith Beach, Mumbai, India
2014 One for One—The Free Marketeers Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong
2014 Journeys of Leung Ping-kwan' Exhibition (1949–2013) Hong Kong Central Library, Hong Kong / Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Taiwan
2013 10th Busan International Video Art Festival Openspace Bae, Busan, Korea
2013 Lost & Found Z Space, Taichung, Taiwan
2013 All Are Guests—Hong Kong Week Exhibition Husashan 1914 Creative Park, Taiwan
2013 Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2013 Haein Art Project—International Exhibition of Contemporary Art Sungbo Museum, Haeinsa Temple, South Korea
2013 Made in India ---[en]counters 2013: powerPLAY Studio X, Mumbai, India
2012 Coin Making—Workshop Free Space Fest, West Kowloon Culture District, Hong Kong
2012 Of Human Scale: Art and Environment The Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong
2012 Philosopher's (knock-off) Stone: Turning Gold into Plastic Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
2012 All are Guests - Liverpool Biennial LJMU Copperas Hill Building, Liverpool, England[17]
2012 Inwards Gazes—Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art Museu de Arts de Macau, Macau
2012 LOUD: Mapping the Aesthetics of Visual Silence The Visual Festival Fringe, Kassel, Germany
2012 Market Force Osage Gallery, Hong Kong
2012 Mobile M+ YAU MA TEI M+ (Museum of Visual Culture, WKCD) Hong Kong
2010 Each Other Pemalamo Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2010 Videoholica -International Video Art Festival Varna, Bulgaria
2010 Prelude CVA Exhibition Hall, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
2010 Convection Dafen Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China
2010 Home Stay Osage Shanghai Gallery, Shanghai, China
2010 Art of the World Exposition: The City of Forking Paths Shanghai Art Expo Main Path, Shanghai, China
2010 Lending Art Work Project Shanghai Street Art Space, Hong Kong
2010 Arrivals and Departures Urbis, Manchester, UK[18]
2003 Mapping Asia -- The 18th Asian International Art Exhibition Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong
2003 Re-appearance of OTsing Fsou Choi? Learning Centre Galleries, Noh Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong
2003 OCEM project West Space, Melbourne, Australia
2003 Moving On NUS Museum, National University of Singapore
2003 Sharjah International Biennial Sharjah Museum of Art, Sharjah, U .A .E

Awards

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Year Awards
2015 Hong Kong Best Annual Artist Award Hong Kong art Development Council
2014 IMMA Fellowship Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland
2013 President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work (Service). HKBU
2012 Artist Residency Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, Britain
2011 President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work (Creative / Professional Work) HKBU.
2010 Outstanding Artists of 2010: Martell –NDmedia Art Salon. Martell Art Foundation in China
2009 Daily Permanent Public Sculpture, National Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi Prince Boulevard, Taiwan
2008 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Italy
2007 Two Sites Permanent Art in Public, Zhang Jiang High Technology Park, Shanghai, China
2004 Freeman Foundation Fellowship Freeman Foundation, USA
2003 Starr Foundation Fellowship offered by Asian Cultural Council, USA
2002 Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Award

Notable works

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Elsewhere (1991–2002)

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Initiated by a close friend's passing, Leung began collecting tea bags to create Elsewhere in 1991.[5] Elsewhere is mixed media installation consisting of thousands of tea bags sewn together. Made through the repetitive action of sewing teabags, Leung's work is meditative contemplation on being and death.[6] In 1991, Leung won the Premier prix Rocheron Award for this work.[7]

Memorise the Future (1998–2006)

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Memorise the Future (1998-2006), first shown at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, is an installation composed of 3,000 children shoes made of human hair (4 to 5 inches for each). Leung collected the hair from over 10,000 people, encompassing one hundred nations, various demographics, also symbolising disparate and diverse 'memories'. She then mixed, knit and wove the collected hair, blurring geographical boundaries and identities. The shoes themselves also carry meaning, pointing towards the future.[19][20][21]

Out of place (2005–2011)

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Out of place (2005-2011) is a series of video installation which feature different places (including Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Sri Lanka and Macau). Leung followed a number of individuals wondering aimlessly through the streets of varying locales, attempting to discover new psychogeographical routes through the mapping of purposeless.[22]

I Miss Fanta (2012)

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I Miss Fanta[23] was presented as part of Mobile M+: Yau Ma Tei, a series of nomadic pre-opening exhibitions organised by M+.[24] I Miss Fanta consists of three iconic outdoor neon signs of Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite previously installed along Macau's main shopping artery Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, where they were an integral and memorable part of the urban visual landscape.[25] After Leung discovered that two of the signs, had recently been removed, she found and transplanted the signs in this work, re-lighting the neon in the process. She displayed them on the ground of the park in Yau Ma Tei, echoing how they were found on the platform in the Coca-Cola factory in Macau, and documented the move in videos shown in a nearby junk and recycling shop. Leung transforms all these visual symbols related to personal and collective memory into a sculptural installation, bringing the tension between heritage conservation and urban gentrification to the surface as well.[26][27]

Star Pupas (2014)

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In 2014, Leung enrolled in Fleeting Light, a large scale media arts exhibition presented by The Hong Kong Arts Development Council. The exhibition was held outside Hong Kong Science Museum during 14 September to 28 September 2014.

For this exhibition, Leung designed a mobile app called Star Pupas where visitors could scan images of stars in the sky, "name" said stars and leave messages for friends. The images and the messages were then projected onto a dome-shaped tent. The more stars that are shared, the more light there will be in the tent. Leung aimed to claim back starlight, which is often obscured by light pollution in urban cities, and also to invite visitors to 'look up' away from their smartphones, not only to the sky but also to the community around them.[28][29]

Pearl River Delta Series I: Made in Hong Kong (2014)

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Leung Mee Ping's Pearl River Delta Series I: Made in Hong Kong was a mixed-media installation investigating the relationships between cities in the Pearl River Delta—Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Macau. In particular, Leung was curious about the souvenir painting trade, which had recently moved from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. Leung herself went to Dafen to apprentice herself as a trainee to learn about the rapid painting production. She then commissioned a number of paintings of various Hong Kong scenes, which were created sometimes by herself or by other trainees. She signed each of the paintings, no matter who had created them. Leung questions ideas of origin, identity, gaze and ownership in this installation as viewers are invited to look on a set of souvenir paintings depicting mundane, everyday scenes in Hong Kong.[30]

References

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  1. ^ "LEUNG Mee Ping 梁美萍". Artist Pension Trust. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  2. ^ "ABOUT - 梁美萍 LEUNG Mee-ping". www.lmp.hk. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Professor Mee-ping Leung". Hong Kong Baptist University. 13 March 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  4. ^ Lai, V.; Man, E. (2015). In Conversation with Hong Kong Art 1980-2014. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.).
  5. ^ a b Man, E. (2000). The Free Tribe: 10 Women Visual Artists in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book.
  6. ^ a b "Osage at Art Taipei 2014" (PDF). Osage Gallery: Press Release. Osage Gallery. 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Man, E. (2000). The Free Tribe: 10 Women Visual Artists in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book.
  8. ^ Lai, V.; Man, E. (2015). In Conversation with Hong Kong Art 1980-2014. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.).
  9. ^ Lai, V.; Man, E. (2015). In Conversation with Hong Kong Art 1980-2014. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.).
  10. ^ Leung, A. (2002). Para/Site 1996-2000. Hong Kong: Para/Site Art Space.
  11. ^ a b "Dr. Leung Mee Ping - Academy of Visual Arts". Academy of Visual Arts. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  12. ^ "AP Contemporary - artwork for sale, painting, art gallery, sculpture, art consulting, venue, events, promotion". www.apcontemporary.com. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  13. ^ a b "Leung Mee Ping - CV - Solo Exhibitions". 梁美萍 LEUNG Mee-ping. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  14. ^ Leung, Mee Ping (2003). Tseng Mei-chen (ed.). Hong Kong contemporary: water tone: Leung Mee Ping 1992–2003 (1st ed.). Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. p. 44. ISBN 957-01-4287-1. OCLC 815068083.
  15. ^ "Leung Mee Ping 25-26/4/2015". displaydistribute. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  16. ^ "Leung Mee Ping - Works". 梁美萍 LEUNG Mee-ping. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  17. ^ "'All Are Guests' exhibition, CoLAB X SLOW, Leung Mee-ping and Chow Chun-fai, 15 March - 25 November 2012". CFCCA Library and Archive catalogue. Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  18. ^ "Arrivals and Departures, Various artists, Urbis, (18 Jan - 11 Mar 2010)". CFCCA Library and Archive catalogue. Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  19. ^ Fok, S. (2013). Life and Death: Art and the Body in Contemporary China. Chicago: Intellect Books.
  20. ^ "Press Release. Installation works by Gu Wenda and Leung Mee-ping at Museum of Art". 19 July 2006. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  21. ^ "Leung Mee Ping". White Rabbit Gallery. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  22. ^ Rodriguez Fominaya, A. (2010). This is Hong Kong: 15 Video Artists. Hong Kong: Para Site Art Space.
  23. ^ "Valerie C. Doran - Floating Signs And Fragile Monuments - Leung Mee-Ping's I Miss Fanta (And other Associations)" (PDF).
  24. ^ "YAU MA TEI: A SMATTERING OF MOBILE ARTWORK – 艺术界 LEAP". www.leapleapleap.com. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  25. ^ Moro, Francisco García (20 July 2020). "The Death and Life of Hong Kong's Illegal Façades". ARENA Journal of Architectural Research. 5 (1): 2. doi:10.5334/ajar.231. ISSN 2397-0820. S2CID 225773996.
  26. ^ "Mobile M+ -Leung Mee Ping - I Miss Fanta".
  27. ^ "2012 i miss fanta". leungmeepingstudio. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  28. ^ "Leung Mee-ping and Samson Young's Media Art Works to Tell Stories of Hong Kong and its People". Cultural Connections. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  29. ^ Yandroid (17 September 2014). 本土藝術家設計 令「低頭族」抬頭 App. Unwire.hk. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  30. ^ Doran, Valerie C. (18 February 2014). "Osage Contemporary Art Gallery: Media Release" (PDF). Retrieved 28 March 2022.