Never End 明天會再來

Widely respected and beloved as one of Hong Kong’s most original painters, Gaylord Chan (1925-2020) had a dynamic career that traversed cultural epochs and the boundaries of media. He made his first serious foray into painting only at the age of 42 after enrolling in an extra-mural studies art course organised by the University of Hong Kong in 1968. Chan’s late start, however, did not at all limit his potential. While he worked as an engineer for Cable & Wireless by day, Chan continued to experiment and refine his creative practice. The artist eventually developed a unique abstract language of bold colours and rustic forms that reflects on the simple wonders of daily life, science and metaphysics, and the contemporary human condition. Referencing an evocative painting by Chan from the 1990s, Never End: The Art and Life of Gaylord Chan, presented by Asia Society Hong Kong Center, is a tribute to the late master and his invaluable artistic legacy. It explores the development of Chan’s art and pedagogy, presenting a curated selection of paintings and a rarely exhibited collection of digital artworks projected in cinematic format. Upon the fourth anniversary of his passing in 2020, this thematic retrospective enriches extant research on Chan with newly organized archival materials and celebrates the art and legacy of a resilient free-spirit in his first institutional monograph in over 40 years.

陳餘生（1925-2020）是香港最具原創性的畫家之一，跨越不同時代、文化及媒介的創作備受喜愛、影響深遠。在1968年，42歲的陳餘生入讀香港大學校外藝術與設計課程，首次正式涉足繪畫，雖然已過不惑之年，但起步較晚并沒有限制他的潛能。他當時在大東電報局擔任工程師，閑時醉心鑽研精進創作，漸漸發展出色彩濃重、形態稚拙的獨特抽象藝術語言，抒發他對日常生活、科技和形而上學、當代人類境況等等的感悟。本展覽借題自陳氏於1994年創作的繪畫《從未了結》，亦引用藝術家寫於2014年的詩作《明天會再來》，回顧並致敬已故大師的藝術生涯與其自成一派的創意。透過探討陳餘生的藝術發展和教學方式，本展覽展出了精選的畫作，並以大型投影展示多幅從未展出的數碼繪畫。藉著藝術家自2020年逝世四週年，本次展覽整合了現存文獻，拓展了有關陳氏的現有研究，並回顧他四十多年來的藝術生涯，頌揚他堅韌和自由的創作精神。

Gaylord Chan (1925-2020) was a prominent Hong Kong artist who only formally began his painting career in his 40s, developing a unique, youthful, and iconographic mode of abstract painting that he continued into digital art in his later years. Chan was also a beloved teacher, basing his pedagogy off his own experiences as a painter and shaping the next generation of Hong Kong artists. Never End includes a selection of paintings, rarely exhibited digital drawings, and newly organized archival materials that pay tribute to the artist’s art, life, and ongoing legacy.

陳餘生（1925-2020）是香港著名藝術家，四十多歲時才正式開始繪畫生涯，發展出一種獨特、年輕、圖像化的抽象繪畫模式，並在晚年延續到數位藝術。陳先生也是一位受人愛戴的老師，他的教學基於他自己作為畫家的經歷，並塑造了下一代香港藝術家。 「明天會再來」包括精選的繪畫作品、罕見展出的數位繪畫以及新整理的檔案材料，向藝術家的藝術、生活和持續的遺產致敬。