Hong Kong artist Stephen Wong on why he shows the city from space in his exhibition The Star Ferry Tale

Stephen Wong Chun-hei, a Hong Kong artist known for his iridescent panoramas of the city’s rolling hills, has just completed a new landscape series painted from a very different perspective: outer space. The works in his latest exhibition, called “The Star Ferry Tale”, at Gallery Exit, in the city’s Aberdeen neighbourhood, are still scenes from Hong Kong, just observed from a higher point, he says. Some familiar traits remain: real landmarks are blended with fantasy, and a mode of transport is featured. Instead of the taxis and camper vans that give scale and a sense of motion in his earlier works, it is Hong Kong’s Star Ferry that pops up. In the set of 11 large-scale oil paintings inspired by space documentaries, Wong reimagines a Star Ferry as a spaceship. With distant galaxies the backdrop, tiny Hong Kong can still be seen from space, easily identifiable from the glimpses of Victoria Harbour, the twinkling skyline at night and its many hills. In The eye II, a reference to the destructive Typhoon Saola that hit Hong Kong in 2023, the Star Ferry is seen carrying the Lion Rock mountain, a symbol of the city’s resilience, in the storm’s eye. It is a sentimental work that also mourns the loss of local heritage: the original Star Ferry terminal in Central which was demolished in 2006, and Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, which sank at sea after it closed in 2020, appear in the vast piece as small meteorites hovering above the city. The alienating effect of seeing the city from space symbolises the rapid changes that have taken place in the city, Wong says. “It feels strange that Hong Kong is not the same home as I have in my memory.” His career has seen a transformation in the past few years, too. Since he quit his teaching job during the Covid-19 pandemic to paint full time, demand for his landscapes has become so high that he now ranks among the city’s most expensive artists. In 2023, his 2021 painting titled MacLehose Trail: Section 10 was sold for HK$1.1 million (US$140,000) at auction, double its presale high estimate, setting a new auction record for the artist. For Wong, his spacious studio in Fo Tan, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, is his happy place. In the industrial neighbourhood, long favoured by artists, Wong has created a calm oasis for himself, packed with his vast collection of Japanese anime figures and toy cars. “I also collect old toys – they remind me of my childhood,” he says by way of explanation. In a corner stands his beloved bike. Riding is both a relief from stress and a source of inspiration. “Sometimes I’ll be cycling along a river and will stop and draw … I take my sketchbooks everywhere.” Well, almost everywhere. On a trip to Japan in 2022, Wong was excited about drawing Mount Fuji. It was a clear day, a perfect one, he says, until he realised he had left his sketchbook at the hotel two hours’ drive away. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stephen Wong Chun Hei (@dtm319) “It was the worst thing that could have happened in the world … I was so dramatic,” says Wong, who is holding an anime-inspired exhibition in Tokyo this July. Luckily he found an envelope in his backpack, so he drew on that, the deep creases still visible on the sketch that today hangs on a wall in the studio. Board games and art books line the shelves, including one by British painter David Hockney, the page opened to a photo spread of his 2007 painting Bigger Trees near Warter. Wong is a big fan of Hockney’s Yorkshire landscapes but he is frustrated by being frequently referred to as “Hong Kong’s Hockney”. “I’d prefer to be known as Hong Kong’s Stephen Wong,” he says. Wong does not want to settle into an easy formula, as he shows in his new series. He is one of the participating artists in a highly experimental exhibition about AI (artificial intelligence) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council that has also just opened. For the show, called “Beyond the Singularity”, he let go of his usual routine and just painted whatever AI told him to. “A lot of people ask me if I feel stressed about the development of AI, but I’m optimistic,” he says, comparing concerns to those when photography entered the scene. “It is the future of art, so it’s up to us how we deal with the new technology, how we befriend it.” “Stephen Wong: The Star Ferry Tale”, Gallery EXIT, 3/F, 25 Hing Wo St, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. Tue to Sat (midday-6pm). Ends April 20.