UPCOMING: Fabricating Space: Exploring Identities Through Sculpture

Anton Poon | Hong Kong

Magazine 43

Oct 20, 2021

Fabricating Space: Exploring Identities Through Sculpture

November 6-27, 2021

ONLINE EXHIBITION

from Po Leung Kuk Young Artist-in-residence

V54, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

It is living with this precarious sense of identity that drives my practice, both conceptually and physically.

-Anton Poon

An exquisite collection of two very different “characters” based on Anton Poon

as a person with an almost dual identity. Fabricating Space: Exploring Identities Through Sculpture, opens online, held at the Po Leung Kuk Young Artist-in-Residence V54 on the 6th of November through the 27th of November 2021.

In the exhibition, Anton juxtaposes a very different variety of colours and shapes--from soft colours, clean shapes and lines that somehow bring to mind the late Swiss artist, Gottfried Honegger’s ‘Wandobjekt Z 1633’, 2013 to somewhat Lygia Clark’s “Bichos”(Critters), 1960 with its jagged but opulent lines defining strong geometric shapes. Reinvestigating Series (2020), revolves around Hong Kong architectures using acrylic sheets, and meanwhile, a series of welded steel (2021) that creates geometric shapes resonating a mellow, and yet casual conversation between two different cultures.

Anton Poon (b.1989) expresses himself in a form of abstract sculpture, where his inspiration comes from his daily experiences and life’s journeys in which he focuses on the lines and shapes of buildings, and other architectural forms around him. His goal is to find a subtle explanation of his symbolic work by finding the balance between the literal and abstract while letting the audience understand the narrative behind it.

The emerging artist graduated with honours in 2016 from the Australian National University School of Art and Design (ANU SoAD) and garnered a few awards internationally. Some of Anton’s works are now displayed permanently at the Australian National University Art Collection (ACT) (Synergy, 2016), and the Canberra Grammar School (Not Quite There, 2016).

In addition to these permanent displays of works, Anton was also a 2020 semi-finalist for the Artbox Projects in Barcelona, Spain, and a finalist for the Jan Brown Drawing Exhibition, ACT, and Sculpture in the Paddock School of Art Prize, Yass, NSW both in 2016 and EASS Belconnen Art Centre Solo Exhibition Awards, ACT the year before that. The artist had several solo and group exhibitions around Australia, Hong Kong, Spain, and including the recent 2021 Artbox Projects Open World 1.0 in Switzerland, The 14th Edition of Asia Contemporary Art Show, Hong Kong in 2019, and Art Park Australia, Sculpture on the Wharf 2018, Sydney, and Design Canberra Festival, ACT, Australia in 2017 just to name a few. The young artist continues to explore and develop his craft while currently living and working in Hong Kong.

Anton Poon’s Fabricating Space: Exploring Identities Through Sculpture will be on view online through November 27, 2021 via Po Leung Kuk Young Artist-in-Residence V54, Happy Valley, Hong Kong.

STUDIO TOUR AND INTERVIEW