Now it’s Hong Kong. After coming face to face with the Kings of Spain at the Madrid Arco fair, the artist from Gijón Edgar Plans continues his triumphant walk through the universe of contemporary art with a stop in Hong Kong, where he already took his ‘Juanín’ in 2021. There he begins today and Art Central will take place until Saturday, a fair that brings together a very extensive list of galleries from around the world that exhibit a little bit of everything, from paintings and sculptures to mixed media works and large-scale installations, while promoting debate with talks, welcomes video and other artistic representations.
In that context and that place, Villazán Gallery has decided to move Plans’s work to the former British colony, which lately does not stop traveling the world, from Moscow to New York, passing through Paris. His little superheroes, his works full of pure color, take over the rooms these days to show why he has become one of the Spanish artists of the moment. Last year his name rubbed shoulders with Picasso himself, since he was the Spaniard who sold the most works at auction after that man from Malaga who lives in the league of eternal painters.
He is lucky. And he knows it, and for that reason success is accompanied by solidarity. At the end of last year, the creator made a donation to the NGO Save the Children of more than 33,000 euros with the aim of promoting its project to support the global fund against hunger. He has also collaborated with Galbán in the fight against childhood cancer.
Of course, beyond the theaters, Hong Kong also takes to the streets these days. The K11 Art Mall hosts an exhibition that displays its collaboration with the NBA. ‘GameOn’ is the title of a project carried out in collaboration with the contemporary art institution MishaMade. With his hand, that square is transformed into a street basketball court that is decorated with pop motifs and doodles. His little heroes are there, including a three-meter-tall figure.
The exhibition is part of the 75th anniversary of the NBA. More than a year ago, the official brand of the National Basketball League contacted the artist’s studio to commission a job in which its characters had to sweat the jerseys of well-known teams such as the Bulls or the Lakers. On June 24, it premiered in Shenzhen, a modern city that connects Hong Kong with the Chinese mainland, and is now settling in the former colony in the middle of artistic March.
Text by: Marifé Antuña.
El Comercio Newspaper.
