Kurt Chan

陳育強

works in Hong Kong (b. 1959, Hong Kong)

Kurt Chan Yuk Keung was born in Hong Kong in 1959. He graduated from Department of Fine Arts, the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1983. Later, he obtained his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, USA. Chan is regarded as a prominent figure in the Hong Kong contemporary art scene since the 1990s, with installation and mixed media art as his early artistic practices. He began his pedagogic career in Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1989. Having pioneered in teaching installation and mixed media art in systematically structured courses, he nurtured a generation of local art talents. His students also include pivotal figures in the Hong Kong contemporary art scene and educators from various tertiary education institutions. In 2016, Chan retired from his 27-year teaching career at CUHK and later became the Acting Director of Hong Kong Art School.

Chan participated in more than 80 exhibitions, including the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) and the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1999). His creative process is mainly about redefining the textual relationship of found objects through their physicality, which instils his works with a poetic aura. In 2016, he began deploying painting as his major creative medium which is backboned by methodologies of Chinese calligraphy. He focuses on the calligraphic quality in painting and searches for a balance between the Western rational tradition and the Eastern expressionist tradition in his practice.

Chan’s creative principle focuses on comparing Chinese and Western cultures, while exploring the restrictions of various artistic rhetoric and mediums. In his artistic practice, he tries to embrace the diversity in current times using simpler forms and to deploy his exquisite traditional training into the contemporary expressions.

Apart from creating and teaching, Chan has put his focus on public art since 2000, curating and participating in in various large-scale public art projects. He is also one of the founders and editors-in-chief of the Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook.

1959	Born in Hong Kong, China
1983	Bachelor of Art, Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong
1988	Master of Fine Art, Cranbrook Academy of Art, the United State
Now	Lives and works in Hong Kong, China

Selected Solo Exhibition

2025	Old Landscape, Contemporary by Angela Li, Art Basel Hong Kong 2025, Hong Kong China
	Kurt Chan, A Gallery, Art Taipei 2025, Taiwan, China
2023	Old Landscape: Lightning, Water and Rocks, Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong, China
2022	Sky Rains Grain, Contemporary by Angela Li, Hong Kong, China
2021	Perhaps Words – Bone. Skin and Dust., Touch Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2020	Fa-mular, Touch Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2017	Why Not Start Again, Giant Year Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2008	Refabricating City: Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale Festival Urbanism/ Architecture, Hong Kong Institute of Architecture, Hong Kong Institute of Planners and Hong Kong Design Association, Hong Kong, China
2007	Quiet Listen/ Speak Slow, Too Art Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, Chia
2003	QK- New Works by Chan Yuk Keung,Hong Kong Arts Centre and Para Site, Hong Kong, China

Selected Joint Exhibition
2026	KunstRAI Art Amsterdam 2026, The Netherlands
2024	Beyond the Singularity, The Hong Kong Arts Development Council, China
2023	CUHK 60th Anniversary Alumni Art Exhibition – “Where Great Minds Shine”, Arts Pavilion, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, China
2022	Almost Silence, Not Black Yet, Art Next Gallery, Hong Kong, China
	1.5, Eli Klein Gallery, New York, USA
	緣古迎新 —— 岩彩繪畫展, Hong Kong, China
	A Collection in Two Acts, Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong, China
	Ink: A Witness to Millenia, Galerie du Monde, China
2021	Shining Moment, TANG Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China
	Residual Heat, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2020	Reflections on Paper, Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong, China
	Drawing As The Core, Koo Ming Kown Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China
2018	Why Art?, Museum Ulm, Germany
2017	Composing Stories with Fragments of Time, Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong, China
	Evolving Images – Modern Hong Kong Printmaking, Sun Museum, Hong Kong, China
2015	Ceramics Show by Non-ceramics Artists, 1a Space, Cattle Depot, Hong Kong, China
2005	Investigation of a journey to the west by micro + polo, the 51st Venice Biennale, Italy
	Hollow City Inverted, The 51st Venice Biennale, Hong Kong, China
2000	Art for Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany
	Art+01 – A Digital Exploration, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong, China
1997	Contemporary Art of China, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
1996	The Second Asia Pacific of Contemporary Art Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
	Fusion: Hong Kong / New Zealand Artist Exchange, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand