Tang Contemporary Art is proud to announce to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our Hong Kong space, we are presenting a large-scale group exhibition "Decade One: Chronolect" from December 18, 2025, to January 31, 2026, at both of our Central and Wong Chuk Hang spaces. The exhibition's title, "Chronolect" – a lexicon of time – captures the distinct artistic language developed over this inaugural decade. The exhibition aims to focus on the most precious gains in artistic practice—namely, "accumulation and growth"—connecting the iterative evolution of the artists' works, the gallery's and collectors' explorations within the industry, and the unwavering adherence to their original aspirations.

Since taking root in Central in 2015, the space has borne the academic accumulation of nearly 100 exhibitions, becoming a vital bridge connecting Chinese contemporary art with global dialogue. The second Hong Kong space was established in Wong Chuk Hang in 2023, focusing primarily on pan-international projects with young artists, interspersed with group and solo exhibitions featuring artists from Europe, America, Southeast Asia, and Japan.

This "Decade One: Chronolect" exhibition stands as a milestone connecting past and future. The Central space will bring together ten artists of international influence, using diverse media to outline the ecosystem of contemporary art. The participating lineup spans creative lineages across multiple generations: from internationally renowned art pioneer Yue Minjun, to mid-career representatives Qin Qi and Cai Lei, to highly anticipated new forces Wang Xiyao and Leng Guangmin; from Jonas Burgert, a profound thinker of German contemporary painting, to Spanish conceptual realist Edgar Plans, to Southeast Asian unique aesthetic practitioners Yunizar and Natee Utarit, as well as Jigger Cruz, whose practice transcends cultural boundaries. The juxtaposition of these ten artists gives form to the "Chronolect" – a unique vocabulary of time shaped by a decade of practice. We are not only gathering the artistic brilliance of the past decade but also converging a stellar spectrum that crosses geography and generations. The exhibition is not merely a retrospective of past achievements but hopes, through these powerful works, to reflect a facet of the development of contemporary art from both Hong Kong and a global perspective, heralding a prospective view of the next artistic decade.

Jonas Burgert, with his epic, grand scenes, is dedicated to constructing a profound theater of the human psyche. Over the past decade, his paintings have continually gathered fragments of existence—pain, longing, and life itself—solidifying them into moments filled with drama. His works contribute a profound syntax to the "Chronolect," acting like searchlights, guiding the viewer to the sublime spiritual dimensions that art can reach in the digital age.

Cai Lei has deeply cultivated the boundary between two and three dimensions for a decade with his minimalist geometric language. He gathers space and light themselves as materials, transforming cold plaster and pigment into tactile poetry. Each seemingly minor advancement redefines the dimensions of perception, embodying a profound academic trajectory accumulated through focused exploration and adding a unique grammatical structure to the exhibition's temporal lexicon.

Jigger Cruz deconstructs and reshapes art historical classics with a ferocious yet precise painterliness. He "gathers" the dialectic of destruction and creation through the layering of pigment, showcasing a unique growth trajectory that transcends cultural barriers and introduces a bold, textured vocabulary into the "Chronolect."

Leng Guangmin calmly gathers the readymades and artificial textures of the consumer era, translating them with exquisite skill into ambiguous painted objects. Beneath their smooth, jade-like surfaces, his works conceal profound questioning of material culture and nihilistic aesthetics. Over this decade, he has continuously refined his unique, cool aesthetic, contributing a tone of critical reflection to the decade's evolving language.

Edgar Plans's "little heroes," with their innocence and imagination, confront the complexity and norms of the adult world. His creation consistently gathers and guards that initial childlike wonder and courage; this unchanging original heart has become the warmest beacon on his artistic growth path. His works contribute a universal dialect of pure emotion to the "Chronolect," proving to be the best bridge connecting different cultures.

Qin Qi's canvases resemble an ever-expanding museum of styles. Over ten years, he has freely gathered fragments of art history, everyday objects, and personal memory, reassembling them into spectacular scenes filled with dramatic tension. His creative journey itself is an unceasing experiment and iteration, his eclectic style forming a crucial and expansive chapter in the exhibition's narrative of time.

Yunizar's works are filled with mysterious organic forms and primal energy, as if they were visual bridges connecting ancient myths and future fantasies. His artistic practice is like that of a gatherer, collecting nourishment from nature, spirituality, and dreams. He weaves a constantly growing, iterating visual star chart, contributing a timeless, mythic pulse to the "Chronolect."

Natee Utarit employs masterful classical techniques to carry complex narratives concerning Thai modernity and colonial history. His canvases cleverly gather Eastern and Western symbols, arranging them into visual allegories full of metaphor. Over the past decade, his works, through continuous dialogue and iteration, have demonstrated profound cultural insight, enriching the "Chronolect" with a sophisticated and politically-aware narrative voice.

Wang Xiyao's canvases are direct manifestations of flowing emotions and inner landscapes. Her vibrant brushstrokes gather every moment of intuition, struggle, and ecstasy from the creative process. As a highly-touted emerging artist, her practice iterates rapidly, growing naturally like an organism. She speaks the "Chronolect" with a raw and vital accent, recording the most precious original aspirations and burgeoning creativity of a young artist.

Yue Minjun, a pioneer of Chinese contemporary art, has seen his iconic laughing images become cultural symbols of an era. In the flowing light of the past decade, his works, like never-eroding mirrors, continuously reflect individual anxiety and social reality beneath collective revelry. This presentation secures his legacy within the "Chronolect," not only gathering a segment of glorious historical light but also bearing witness to the precipitation and reverberation of his critical spirit through the long river of time.

"Decade One: Chronolect" is more than an anniversary celebration; it is a powerful testament to the enduring language of contemporary art, spoken in the distinct dialect of a decade. It captures a pivotal moment in time—a confluence of personal journeys, artistic evolution, and a gallery's vision—that together form a coherent and compelling narrative. This exhibition not only deciphers the first chapter of our shared history but also sets the stage for the future dialogues and lexicons yet to be written, ensuring that the conversation between art, time, and memory continues to resonate long after the final piece is viewed.