Elpis CHOW: Sprawl
周紫羚《蔓延》
               |
17 January – 7 March 2026
3/F, Gallery EXIT Gallery EXIT presents ‘Sprawl’, a solo exhibition by Elpis CHOW featuring her latest and recent oil paintings. The works mostly focus on natural scenes found throughout Hong Kong—plants, animals, and quiet corners near bus stops or parks—transformed through the artist’s keen observation into personal records of the urban landscape. Chow is known for her ability to depict the texture and form of plants within the cityscape. She reimagines overlooked spaces on her canvases, bringing a new sense of order through her distinct color palette and composition. Evolving from earlier close-up studies of living forms to broader urban scenes, Chow continues to explore depth and spatial relationships in her work. She uses layered brushstrokes to build texture and convey materiality. In this exhibition, her style leans more toward realism, with richer colours and multiple perspectives. A centerpiece of the exhibition is the large triptych 'Kai Yip Estate', which presents the same location from various angles. Though the scene appears realistic, the composition is carefully constructed—elements are deliberately rearranged, almost like a collage, to create visual harmony. Chow seeks to balance the spontaneity of nature with the rigid lines of urban architecture. This contrast reflects her search for breathing space within the structured rhythms of city life, adjusting each canvas until a sense of harmony emerges. As the artist remarks, “These paintings aren’t about realism, but about seeing.” She invites viewers to slow down—like taking a quiet walk through a park—and find a moment of calm within her vision of the city’s natural beauty. Elpis CHOW (b. 1996) is a Hong Kong-based painter graduated in HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity in 2017, majoring in illustration and painting. Chow’s works often feature the “odd side” of the Hong Kong cityscape - street corners, buildings, construction sites, housing estate corridors, and ramps etc, these are places that we regularly pass by in real life but never cared to stop and look. Through depicting these ordinary but forgotten scenes on canvas, the artist evokes a visually contrasting sense of familiarity and strangeness. Her solo exhibitions include: ‘Painting 2020 – 2025‘ (ACO Art Space, Hong Kong, 2025), ‘Ambiguous Space’ (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2023), ‘Under The Sun’ (Touch Gallery, Hong Kong, 2023), ‘The Other Side’ (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2021), ‘Irozuki’ (Ryokosha Books, Kyoto, 2019), and ‘Blunt’ (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2018). She has participated in the following group exhibitions: ‘@N1MALX: Non-Human Life’ (Bonhams, Hong Kong, 2025), ‘New Page’ (Touch Gallery, Hong Kong, 2023), ‘The Unsung’ (JC Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2021) and ‘To Each, His Zone’ (Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2017). The artist currently lives and works in Hong Kong. |