Villepin ‘Worlds Within Art as Refuge’ Featured Image
Image courtesy of Villepin

Villepin Presents ‘Worlds Within: Art As Refuge’ With Zao Wou-Ki, Fernando Zóbel, Lê Phổ, & Kang Myonghi

Currently at Villepin, ‘Worlds Within: Art as Refuge’ unites four pioneering figures – Zao Wou-Ki, Fernando Zóbel, Lê Phổ, and Kang Myonghi – whose works traverse cultural boundaries to offer solace amid global rupture. Curated in response to an era of conflict and disinformation, the exhibition recasts art as a sanctuary of presence while spotlighting transcultural modern and contemporary art in Hong Kong.

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Villepin ‘Worlds Within Art as Refuge’ Spanish-Filipino modernist Fernando Zóbel
Image courtesy of Villepin

The Vision: Art As A Compass In Chaos

The exhibition emerges as a timely meditation on fortitude. As gallery founder Arthur de Villepin notes, ‘These artists carried their homes within them.’ Through abstraction, memory, and reimagining, their practices transform displacement into meaning, silence into resonance, and turbulence into harmony. Each artist’s odyssey – shaped by exile, migration, and transcultural dialogue – converges in works that give form to unity in diversity, spiritual reflection, and the coexistence of tradition and modernity.

Villepin ‘Worlds Within Art as Refuge’ Fernando Zóbel Saeta Serie Negra
Image courtesy of Villepin

Pioneering Firsts: Zóbel And Lê Phổ Claim The Spotlight

A pivotal moment anchors the exhibition:

Fernando Zóbel, the Spanish-Filipino modernist celebrated across Madrid’s Museo del Prado and Manila’s Ayala Museum, receives his first-ever Hong Kong showcase. His signature Saeta and Serie Negra paintings – crafted with surgical syringes to trace electrified lattices of colour – reveal a mind unafraid of emptiness, balancing precision and poetic wandering.

Lê Phổ, the Vietnamese-French artist, stars in his most comprehensive Hong Kong exhibition to date. His tender depictions of women, gardens, and interiors – born from conflict-driven exile – preserve ‘the gentle Vietnam of his memories,’ offering fragrant havens of nostalgia and longing.

Villepin ‘Worlds Within Art as Refuge’ Kang Myonghi
Image courtesy of Villepin

Artists In Focus: Transforming Rupture Into Radiance

Zao Wou-Ki (China/France): The Chinese-French abstract master, honoured by Paris’ Grand Palais and Shanghai’s Power Station of Art, begins his inaugural Hong Kong showcase. His cosmic canvases – fusing ink-wash traditions with gestural expressionism to dissolve East-West binaries – transmute exile into reverberating silence, charting universal roots through pure luminosity.

Kang Myonghi (Korea/France): The Korean-French painter, acclaimed at Seoul’s National Museum of Modern Art and Paris’ Centre Pompidou, features in her most significant Hong Kong presentation to date. Her geological palettes – layering mineral pigments like compressed strata to oscillate between void and substance – craft sanctuaries of meditative equilibrium, distilling soil and time into chromatic contemplation.

Villepin ‘Worlds Within Art as Refuge’ Lê Phổ
Image courtesy of Villepin

Curatorial Resonance: Southeast Asia’s Modernists Command The Spotlight

Curator Rishika Assomull (formerly of Sotheby’s) champions the exhibition’s criticality: ‘Rarely do blue-chip galleries strategically feature Southeast Asian modernists.’ By juxtaposing Zóbel’s architectural grace with Lê Phổ’s poetic reverie, Zao’s radiant expanses, and Kang’s earthly meditations, ‘Worlds Within: Art as Refuge’ reveals how porous identities forge new artistic languages. ‘These artists move between worlds,’ Assomull reflects, ‘helping us understand our own.’

Villepin ‘Worlds Within Art as Refuge’ Exhibition
Image courtesy of Villepin

The Villepin Experience: A Collector’s Sanctuary

Marking its fifth anniversary, Villepin inaugurates a transformed gallery space on Hollywood Road – a serene, residential-style sanctuary designed for contemplation. Pierre Paulin sofas and Noguchi chandeliers invite contemplative engagement, reflecting the gallery’s ethos: ‘a home, not just a gallery.’ This collector-centric vision amplifies art’s role as a compass in uncertain times.

Exhibition Details

Gallery Address: 53 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
Dates: Through 31 August, 2025

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Catherine Pun Author Bio
Catherine Pun
Editorial Director |  + posts

A Hong Kong native with Filipino-Chinese roots, Catherine infuses every part of her life with zest, whether she’s belting out karaoke tunes or exploring off-the-beaten-path destinations. Her downtime often includes unwinding with Netflix and indulging in a 10-step skincare routine. As the Editorial Director of Friday Club., Catherine brings her wealth of experience from major publishing houses, where she refined her craft and even authored a book. Her sharp editorial insight makes her a dynamic force, always on the lookout for the next compelling narrative.

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