Exhibition "The Future Vintage Store" at JPS Gallery Hong Kong

What inspired you to start creating art in the first place?

When I was younger, I loved to draw and read picture books. I also loved spending time painting with my family and friends because I believe it makes me feel content and calm. As I get older, painting will always be one of my favorite activities because it will bring back the happy memories of my early years.

⁠Can you describe your typical creative process from idea to finished piece?

I draw what I feel and experience because my creative ideas are almost always inspired by my everyday life. Painting allows me to convey how I feel about my life.

How do you infuse nostalgia and contemporary elements into your art?

While I appreciate exploring new, trendy things in my everyday life, I also love vintage items because they capture many of my childhood memories. I therefore constantly have thoughts of nostalgia and contemplation.

What role do animals play in your compositions, and how do they relate to the stories you want to tell?

I paint animals as a metaphor for remaining true to myself because, to be honest, I love them more than people and they are honest and pure in how they express their emotions.

Can you tell us about your journey from working as an Art Director to becoming a full-time visual artist?

After graduating from university, I worked for an advertising agency. Serve as an art director for a creative team that helps me hone my artistic abilities and sense. However, I find that working in the advertising industry causes stress, so I started drawing visual diaries to help me decompress and feel at ease. I started painting on various mediums and discovered that I loved it more. I decided to quit my job to devote more time to painting.

What motivates you to infuse your works with feelings of joy, leisure, and whimsy?

My painting inspirations came from my everyday life, whether it was the weather, my experiences, my emotions, or some inspiration from social media or books.

What themes or emotions do you most enjoy exploring in your work?

Painting, in my opinion, is one way that I can communicate my feelings, and occasionally it comes from how I feel after watching a film. And because I like to travel and see beautiful buildings or gardens with vivid colors, some of my paintings are inspired by my travels.

What was the inspiration behind the concept of “The Future Vintage Store” exhibition at JPS Gallery?

It's a joint exhibition with a local brand called HER Oficial, which used to be a trendy fashion store. The show will be held at JPS Gallery, a heritage HK building. I'm interested in how the two disparate brands and locations come together, so the final idea is an exhibition called "The Future Vintage Store," which features vintage items painted in vibrant, bright colours that are related to HER.

How did your collaboration with HER begin, and how has it evolved over time?

This marks my 3rd collab with HER. I believe that our collaboration with HER this time was really different from our previous collaborations. It was my first experience combining modern and antique styles to create an exhibition, and while it was difficult, I found it to be really interesting and fulfilling. Having never considered this idea before, I tried to collect vintage items, paint them pink, and hang her clothes in a vintage way.

⁠How do you hope visitors will feel when experiencing the mix of nostalgia and contemporary design in your exhibition?

I want to remind the audience of their early years in a new way because I think my early years in old Hong Kong in the 1990s were really wonderful. Visitors can explore the display and examine the texture of the antiques and the freshly painted brushes.

What is your favorite piece or installation in the exhibition, and why?

My favourite piece in the exhibition was definitely my reconstruction of vintage plastic toys (the tumbler doll ), which is related to my early years. Since some of the toys' surfaces were broken and I might need to fix them and remove the old colours before adding my new ones, it was challenging for me to rebuild and repaint them. Although I found the entire experience to be difficult, it was novel and fascinating to me. In addition, the location of the HER fashion store in Causeway Bay served as the inspiration for one of my paintings. I was always caught in the traffic in front of the store when I visited, so I painted a scene of traffic issues and interacted with the HER shop.

⁠How did you select which vintage objects and visual motifs to restore and include in the exhibition?

My favourite vintage goods were the countless vintage and nostalgic plastic toys, each of which held priceless memories. In an attempt to relive my childhood recollections, I would repaint and recreate the old toy in my own way for this show.

What does the phrase "The Future Is Vintage" mean to you personally?

The phrase "the future vintage store," in my opinion, refers to my personality, which involves a love of both trendy and nostalgic items. I would like to compile all of my ideas into an exhibition.

⁠If you could collaborate with any other local brands or artists, who would you choose and what would you create?

At the moment, I always welcome and am open to collaboration whenever I work on a group project. It brings me joy to feel as though I'm meeting new people and learning a lot. If I had to choose just one brand, I would like to collaborate with a perfume company that I have never worked with before.

Many of your works evoke nostalgia. Is there a vintage Hong Kong toy or childhood object you wish you could bring back to life

Haha Fortunately, I can still find my favorite Barbie doll today. I believe that what creates nostalgia for me is not the objects themselves, but rather the memories they evoke.

EP2. PEEP

Ep1. Chan Oiying