Frog King at the Fringe

Viewing by Appointment Only: 

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This exhibition by Frog King shows his latest Metaverse Alien Series - new experimental works on fabric. The Fringe Club presented Frog King in a solo show at the 2011 Venice Biennale. He also designed the iconic Fringe Club’s logo.

“I met Frog King in 1979 when I was working at Arts Centre. Then he went off to New York. We met up again after he came back. I know no other artist quite like him. Not because he likes to dress up and likes to play, but because he is the real deal.”  – Benny Chia, Founder & Director of the Fringe Club

Frog King

Frog King (a.k.a Kwok Mang-ho, b.1947) is a pioneering conceptual and performance artist who has been breaking boundaries in Hong Kong and beyond since the late 1960s. Originally trained in ink painting and calligraphy in the studio of New Ink Painting master Lui Shou Kwan, he is one of the earliest Chinese contemporary artists to explore the use of ink painting as a conceptual tool, incorporating it as both action and material into multiple-media installations and performances. Frog King's unique blend of Eastern and Western philosophies, religions and concepts result in a multi-dimensional hybridity that is steeped in traditional training, whilst bringing a new and fresh outlook to his contemporary output.

Inspired by the world around him, Frog King's creations and performances are not bound by artistic formalities; the audience, artist, artwork and daily life are one. Through the philosophy of "Art is Life. Life is Art", Frog King uses everything as source material: conversations, restaurant menus, photographs, events, Hong Kong's districts and the endless comedic idioms that become lost in translation. His "Graffiti Wall" on Queen's Road Central uses a variety of his distinctive iconographical elements and his signature "sandwich font" that switches back and forth between English and Chinese in clever ensembles that alternate between irony and parody. The words "Love, Harmony, Happiness" and "Love, Sense, Prosperity" jump out of the wall, juxtaposed with Frog King's smiling Frog logos, creating a vibrant, unique, colourful and quintessentially Frog King space. Life-size and larger-than-life photos of Frog King on the "Graffiti Wall" connect the artist with pedestrians on the pavement - the artist and the audience stand side-by-side with Frog King, cleverly drawing in passersby to his interactive Frogtopian world. He is a master of connecting people and cultures through the thread of levity and joyful explosions of laughter.

Since 1967, Frog King's art and performances have been presented at over 3000 exhibitions and art events worldwide, including for his project for the Hong Kong Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. In December 2015, Hong Kong's M+ Museum for Live Art invited Frog King to recreate his 1979 "Plastic Bag Project" from the Great Wall, considered as the first ever piece of performance art in China. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours internationally and his work is collected by museums, foundations and private collectors globally, each of his works embodying his conceptual utopia.

Enquiries: Ms C Ting Chan (ctingchan@hkfringeclub.com)