Asia Society Hong Kong Center is pleased to present Singing and Dancing with Brush and Ink: The Art of Wesley Tongson, the first comprehensive exhibition on Hong Kong experimental ink painter Wesley Tongson (Tang Jiawei 唐家偉, 1957–2012) held at a major Hong Kong institution in over a decade. A homecoming of Tongson’s work after a string of well-received presentations abroad, this exhibition is also the final installment in ASHK’s two-part exhibition series Celebration of Ink, honoring the legacy of ink art. 

Titled after a seal Tongson used to sign his works, Singing and Dancing with Brush and Ink captures both his virtuosic technical mastery over classical Chinese subjects—deftly innovating through “ink play” techniques—and the transcendental role painting played in his life. Engaging in creative experimentation within an elevated artistic realm offered Tongson a vital outlet for his struggles with mental health and his questions about gender identity. 

Tracing Tongson’s development from his experiments with Chinese and Western materials to his triumphant final ink landscape series Spiritual Mountains, the exhibition unfolds across five sections in the Chantal Miller Gallery: 

1. Early Years and Biography (Annex) displays photographs from Tongson’s life alongside early experimental works created in Toronto in the early 1980s. During this period, Tongson began synthesizing the Western training he received at the Ontario College of Art with the literati styles of Koo Tsin-yaw (Gu Qingyao 顧青瑤, 1896–1978), marking his first steps into developing his own language of ink. 

2. Brush and Beyond the Brush (Chamber 1) introduces Tongson’s practice through his treatment of traditional brush painting, with works from the 1980s to the 2010s. Featuring ink studies from his training under Koo Tsin-Yaw and Harold Wong (Huang Zhongfang 黃仲方, 1943–2022), alongside examples of his own expressive, brushless painting styles, this gallery demonstrates his understanding of classical Chinese painting and his willingness to break convention. 

3. Mountain Landscapes (Chamber 2) explores Tongson’s application of traditional techniques and playful experimentation in his development of his landscape painting practice in the 1990s and early 2000s. Seeking his own signature language of Chinese landscape, Tongson mirrored the literati tradition of freestyle “ink play” (墨戲) painting to arrive at his ethereal and dynamic “splashed ink” landscape style through technical and material innovation.  

4. Faith and Spirituality (Chamber 3) examines the connection between Tongson’s artistic and spiritual practices in the 1990s to the 2010s, using artmaking as a Zen meditation practice. Tongson’s work drew on the philosophies of Christian, Buddhist, and Daoist thought, which allowed him to transcend boundaries around both landscape and self through his signature “Tongson Colors.” 

5. Mental Health and Gender Identity (Chamber 4) reveals how painting became an outlet for Tongson from the 1980s onward, channeling daily pressures into technical breakthroughs. His personal notes underscore the profound connection between Tongson’s personal and creative life—such as his perfection of finger-painting, which offered reprieve from his struggles with mental health and his questioning of his gender identity.