Bao Ho, the queen of Hong Kong’s street art scene
Self-taught artist had only been working for a year when she won Hong Kong Secret Walls contest. She's already making a living from her art thanks to commissions from shops and restaurants
Street artist Bao Ho is the reigning champion of Hong Kong wall art. Ho, who won the Hong Kong leg of the Secret Walls art battle that concluded in July, is making a living from her art – not bad for someone who has only been in the business a year.
She is nothing like the old-school image of a graffiti artist – a tattooed rebel wielding a spray can and operating under the cover of night. Polite, soft-spoken, not a tattoo in sight, the 27-year-old Hongkonger is modest about her win and says she’s got so much to learn. But beneath the sweet smile – perhaps more a cheeky grin, like the ones she gives her “Bao” characters – she has a feisty streak. She didn’t prepare for the July 3 final of Secret Walls – in which artists battle to create the best work in front of a live audience – preferring to freestyle.
“I was really angry that day – I was annoyed by something one of my clients said which was rude – so I drew on that emotion,” says Ho.
She didn’t know until she got on stage to face her competition, fellow artist Jay Pelmet, in a 90-minute paint-off at the Backstage Live venue that she would paint an angry figure – multiple bulging eyes and clenched fists. At the heart of Ho’s success is a confidence to recognise how she is feeling and channel those emotions. Fortunately, most of the time Ho is a happy soul and her delightful, whimsical murals occupy some key wall space in Central and Sheung Wan.
Ho has a distinctive style, her black and white murals a striking graphic mix of human bodies, animals, flowers and patterns with the addition of perhaps one colour. A self-taught artist, Ho has always enjoyed doodling, but it wasn’t until she went overseas in 2013 that she got the courage to do something about it.
