About the artist
Chan Ying-fat (陳英發) is a contemporary Hong Kong artist. Born in Hong Kong in 1973, he traveled alone to Mainland China at the age of 14 to study Western oil painting. He committed to full-time painting in 1997 and held his debut solo exhibition in 2002. In 2004, he stepped out of the studio, shifting his focus toward public murals and socially engaged art. Within the context of public media, he developed an altruistic and pluralistically inclusive painting style rooted in Relational Aesthetics to balance public sensibilities. Over the following two decades, he integrated muralism into his dual artistic practices, a trajectory that reflects his growth as a contemporary artist and shapes his life and artistic narrative.
His art is deeply influenced by early rock paintings, symbolic totems, various religious murals, and Art Brut. Around 2020, his work returned to a philosophical reconstruction of abstract art. Through repetitive, self-similar fractal lines and highly fragmented palettes, he reconstructs invisible spiritual energy fields and inner conscious frequencies upon the two-dimensional plane. He attempts to explore how contemporary individuals reshape their increasingly fragile inner connection with nature and the universe, within a fragmented and atomized “society of the spectacle” filled with anxiety and meaninglessness.
Biography
I remember when I was 6 or 7 years old, my father was an ocean-going sailor. Once, when he returned from a voyage, he took me to visit and play on the working cargo ship that was docked in the harbor. I followed my father to visit his room and the rooms of several other crew members in the cabin, and I noticed that the walls of their rooms were painted with colors and pictures. My father told me that during long and tedious sea voyages, he would spend his free time painting murals on the walls of his room. At first he only painted his own room, but later when other crew members saw his murals, they invited him to paint on their walls as well. Since then, I have been fascinated by my father’s murals, their pigments and colors.
When I was 14 years old, I dropped out of school. I traveled alone to China for a year to study Western oil painting. There, I learned traditional oil painting techniques and received artistic enlightenment from my instructor, which has always given me a passion for painting. This journey opened up a whole new perspective for me: It opened my eyes to the Eastern and Western cultures’ differences between China in the early days of reform and opening up, and Hong Kong, where I was living at the time, where . At the same time, it also made me start to pay attention to the emerging new ideas of early contemporary Chinese artists at that time.
When I was 24, I finally decided to set sail in the ocean of art.
– Arthur Chan Ying-Fat
Exhibition
July 2023
“New York Times Square Outstanding Chinese of the New Era Overseas Exhibition”.
January 2023
“People’s Artists Beijing and Shanghai High-speed Railway Touring Exhibition
June 2019
“Overseas Exhibition on Nasdaq Screen, Times Square, New York”.
August 2019
“Art Expo Beijing 2019 Beijing International Art Fair ” China International Exhibition Central, Beijing, China. – Joint Exhibition
August 2017
“MANDALA ” Mandala (Point III Exhibition) Ping An Lane Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. -Ying-Fat Mural X A Ten Studio Crossover Exhibition
March 2016
“Sai Kung Art & About” Sai Kung Jockey Club Town Hall, Hong Kong. – Group Exhibition
November 2009
“Hong Kong Young Artists Invitation Exhibition” Wan Fung Gallery, Hong Kong. – Group Exhibition
May 2006
“Lantau Island Art Festival”, Hong Kong – Group Exhibition
June 2004
“China-Hong Kong Exchange Exhibition”, Beijing, China – Group Exhibition
July 2002
“[轍] Solo Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Chan Ying-Fat” e-Art & Euro Café, International Finance Central, Hong Kong. – Solo Exhibition
January 2000
Untitled Oil Painting Exhibition” Club64, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong. – Double Painting Exhibition
Awards
2023
HK-CACR Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards -Gold Award, organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Arts and Culture.
2008
Awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China – China Cultural Information Association for “Innovative Talents in Chinese Contemporary Art”.
Publications
2020
Walking with the Times – Collection of works by contemporary powerful artists
Tianjin People’s Fine Arts Publishing House
ISBN 978-7-5305-9682-1
2018
Classic of the Times – Outstanding Chinese Artists Going to the World
Yanhuang Jiuzhou Culture and Art Exchange Centre, China Federation of Literature and Art Publishers
ISBN 978-7-5190-4090-1
2011
Wonderful China – Painting and Calligraphy Volume
China Culture Management Association, China Culture Press
ISBN 978-988-63239-3-9
2010
Glorious Chapter – Painting and Calligraphy Artists Volume
China Culture Information Association, China Culture Press
ISNB 978-988-90213-1-3
2007
Innovation in China – Culture and Arts Volume
China Cultural Information Association, China Oriental Publishing House
ISBN 978-988-99700-9-3
