“What is this giddying place, With no firm-fixéd floor, That I knew not of before?" "It is Life," said a mask-clad face. — The Masked Face, Thomas Hardy, 1917

Admit it. We are narcissists. From commissioned portraits of kings and nobles to “leaked” nudes of celebrities, we can’t help but be obsessed with immortalising our image.

Young Soy Gallery is proud to present “Unmasked”, a group exhibition that gathers four Hong Kong artists, Mr Koo, Louie Jaubere, Jerome Leung, Sai Pradhan, and one international artist, Jake Scharbach, to challenge the tradition of portrait making, propelling viewers to see portraiture as a mirror that reflects societal conditions and the shared emotions of our time.

In Mr Koo’s ambiguous faces and Jerome Leung’s mouthless figures, the two artists draw references from their day-to-day encounters to explore the transformative power of emotion and the nuances in human connections.

While Louie Jaubere and Jake Scharbach’s mixed media works interrogate our preoccupation with celebrity and the power structures that dictate society, Sai Pradhan’s introspective paintings challenge the stigma around work and (un-)productivity.

“Unmasked” invites viewers to re-examine “portraiture”, prompting them to see beyond what is visible, abandon the giddy masks, and contemplate on the complexity of the human condition that makes each face.

Rip away mask-clad faces and reconsider the images people present to the world at Young Soy Gallery between the 26th of September until the 13th of October.