Using cutting-edge technology intertwined with traditional storytelling, Lap-see Lam, navigates fragments of memory and cultural heritage. The Swedish-born artist of Hong Kong descent often explores themes of diaspora, cultural symbol, identity, and myth. Her video installations and sculptures serve as a vessel for the stories we carry.

In the studio: ROSEMANCES
Local music duo ROSEMANCES is known for their dream pop, capturing the urban melancholy of fragmented and fleeting modern life. They're sharing their debut full length album - sofarsogood.
[will we still remember; better days are coming, i promise]

Korean artist Lee Bul's creations embrace sculpture, installation, video and two-dimensional works. Currently on show at M+, the exhibition “Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now” explores how this prominent Asian contemporary artist responds to an increasingly technological world, and reflects upon power, civilization and utopia.

In the studio:
Singer-songwriter Shandy Gan’s voice and music can be heard in commercials and two local films, but her creative journey goes far beyond that. With over a decade of musical experience, she continues to explore various genres such as pop, jazz, bossa nova and world music. She's presenting a song written as a tribute to João Gilberto, with pianist Jon Shen, bassist Ming Chan and drummer Pratap Risal.
[Gilberto]

Creativity can be the talent to create something entirely new. It can also be the ability to present ordinary things in an extraordinary way. Local artist Fong Ka-sin, who is a computer programmer by profession, reimagined and reinterpreted buttons that we see and touch daily, and turned them into thought-provoking interactive installations.

In the studio:
Local pianist and conductor KaJeng Wong's Music Lab founded the Atlas Ensemble last year. This April, they are presenting all five of Beethoven’s concertos across two concerts. It's a rarely attempted feat that highlights Beethoven’s virtuosity while celebrating diversity of interpretation. KaJeng Wong is in the studio to share more about the concerts and his upcoming projects.
[Schumann's Impromptu]

To think and paint beyond boundaries, home-born artist Joannah Hon (@jobeyhon) went on the streets with her works. She revealed her oversized oil paintings around the city and posed next to the local cultural icons she had depicted. These actions were filmed and the short videos went viral on her social media. Reaching viewers and buyers directly, Hon has taken the unconventional way to becoming an artist.

In the studio:
Talented Russian pianist Dmitry Shishkin is well known for major competition victories, celebrated for his technical brilliance and his subtly imaginative phrasing. A powerful presence among today’s young stars, he came to Hong Kong again to stage a concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
[Rachmaninov: Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12]

In a live cinema show audiences not just saw the film on screen, but also the puppeteers and musicians performing on stage, as well as the team filming and editing every shot in real time. We reveal the secrets behind the Canadian production "The Storyville Mosquito" by Kid Koala, recently staged in Hong Kong.

Art Diary:
Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker@M+ Museum

In the studio:
The musical journey of actor and singer Alex Lam started at the age of one, when he appeared on the album of his father, renowned and iconic local singer and artist George Lam. Now a father himself, Alex will explore his past, future, and family legacy in the upcoming WestK Cabaret Nights.
[Good Vibrations; Ophelia]

Print artist Cheung Tsz-ki devotes himself to mezzotint, a particular form of copperplate printmaking. The Italian name mezzotint means “half-tint”. Through creating mezzotints, Cheung explores bright and dark, light and shadow, seeking ambiguity and stillness.

Art Diary:
"Beyond Distance: Half a Lifelong Friendship of Eileen Chang, Stephen Soong and Mae Fong Soong" exhibition at Metropolitan University

In the studio:
Piano trio "Triphonic" (pianist Joanne Li, cellist KaLap Wong and violinist Brian Choi) explores the heart of German Romanticism with warmth, tenderness and brilliance.
[Mendelssohn's Piano trio No.2]

Kung Hei Fat Choi. This year, may the energy of the horse carry you to new adventures. Wishing you all a year filled with strength, good health, and rapid progress from all of us on The Works.

Later in today’s show, we’re kicking off the Year of the Horse with speed, vitality, and passion in the company of the Latin band, Carnivale. Before that though, a genre of Chinese painting that’s inspired generations of artists: traditional landscape painting. An ongoing exhibition at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology highlights the approaches of four young ink artists to rendering Hong Kong’s landscapes in the traditional style. We spoke to one of them: Ross Yau.

"Sprawl", Elpis Chow’s solo exhibition at Gallery EXIT, features her most recent oil paintings. Trained as an illustrator and painter, Chow focuses on easily overlooked objects and on Hong Kong’s urban landscape. Bright colours and layered brushstrokes build texture and form. Her style might seem to tend towards realism, but in her words: “These paintings aren’t realism, but about seeing”.

The name Jazz S.H.E. is probably an easy sign that our guests this week are the members of an all-female jazz group. They’ll be with us later to talk about their music and their upcoming plans. And we’re beginning with another creative female mind: painter Zhao Hai Tien.
Now in her eighties, Zhao, born in Shanghai, was one of the first female Chinese artists to have studied art overseas. The University Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Hong Kong is currently showing a retrospective of her paintings that spans half a century.

Currently on show at Empty Gallery is this group exhibition of works by 15 artists, organised by San Francisco-based writer and curator Jordan Stein. The exhibition’s title "La Moustache", or in English, "the moustache”, is loosely inspired by the 2005 French film of the same name written and directed by Emmanuel Carrère.

The Works presents the latest art's happening in Hong Kong to our audience.

It’s all classical music in this week’s show, and - specifically - classical music from the perspective of young Hong Kong musicians.
In part two, we’re bringing you a new quartet made up of four Hong Kong players. They’re the HoKo Quartet and they’ll be playing a piece by a Russian composer known for his conservative, classic compositions, Alexander Glazunov. Before that though: pianist Enoch Wai might be just a secondary school student, but he has already decided that music is his vocation. This week, the piece that he’s picked to introduce to us is by the Turkish composer and pianist, Fazil Say (pronounced Sy), whose music reflects jazz, improvisation and Turkish traditions.

This year’s two-month long Fringe Festival, which began in December includes more than 100 programmes. Organised in eight categories, the festival showcases cross-disciplinary works by 300 local and international artists. Among those artists are the four young musicians who make up the HoKo Quartet. They’re here to tell us what they have in store.

In last week’s show, pianist Margaret Leng Tan spoke to us about her sonic self-portrait, “Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep” a performance in WestK’s first “Solo Fest”. Overall, the festival presented seven performers from diverse backgrounds and different disciplines, accompanied by talks focusing on the possibilities of solo performance.

At the Podium gallery in Wong Chuk Hang, up to the 28th February, you can catch "Like a Thief in the Night", the first Asian solo exhibition by Berlin-based artist Dennis Scholl. 16 new paintings and a collection of drawings present the pastoral as a setting for spiritual allegory and human aspirations.

Tijn Trommelen is a jazz singer and guitarist from the Netherlands. Growing up surrounded by music, Trommelen tried his hand at the drums, trombone and trumpet, but ultimately fell in love with the guitar. His repertoire includes music in the tradition of old-school swing, jazz standards and new compositions. Last year he joined us on The Works to tell us about his first tour of Asia. He’s back in Hong Kong this month with a new tour and new projects. And he’s with us right now.