The Art Exhibition of Cheung Chi Wai (2018)

2018 was the pinnacle of my exhibition career.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, my solo exhibition “Direct Hit” opened at the Simon Art Museum in Chambéry, France. That winter, France was particularly cold, and the Chambéry region was blanketed in continuous snowfall, with snow covering the mountains and plains, a pristine white everywhere. Before the opening of the exhibition, Mr. Simon, the director of the museum, said to me with a slightly worried expression: “With the snow falling and the cold weather, the French won’t go out.” He reminded me to be prepared, as there might be fewer people attending the opening ceremony. To everyone’s surprise, the exhibition scene was astonishing. On that day, the gallery, which could only hold 200 people, was packed with over 400 visitors. The enthusiasm of the French people moved me once again. The next day, Mr. Simon told me: “Because of the deep impression you made on the citizens during your exhibition at the Nord Art Museum in Chambéry in 2016, they were eager to come and see what new changes there were in your paintings after a year.”

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the twinning of Guangzhou and Lyon, the two cities held a grand celebration event in early May at the Dongshan Cultural Center in Guangzhou. I was specially invited to exhibit several oil paintings that I had collaborated on with the French artist Marie Rauzy in the main venue. Participants, in a warm and friendly atmosphere, looked back on the friendship between the two cities, looked ahead to the prospects for cooperation and development, shared French wines and Chinese delicacies, and admired oil paintings created by artists from both China and France.

From November 3rd to December 3rd, 2018, my solo exhibition “The Banality of Truth” was held at the Nord House Art Center in Dongshan, Guangzhou. Yang Xiaoyan, the academic host of the exhibition, wrote an article pointing out: “Cheung Chi Wai’s art is an intervention in society, and a critical one at that. To put it simply, Cheung Chi Wai has been using his brush to engage in a serious visual critique. The figures in his paintings are distinctly expressive.”