☞**Mak2*☜
All works © mak2 2024
Mak2 (b. 1989, Hong Kong) is a conceptual artist. Her work contemplates 21st-century issues through the study of philosophy, art history, culture, shifting socio-political environments, the Internet, and new technology. The aesthetic experience she crafts is bound by the dualism of humor and intense inquisitiveness. She creates, installations, paintings, drawings, video work, youtube videos, stand-up comedy routines, and Instagram filters.
Her iconic Home Sweet Home (2019-) series are triptychs on canvas that make use of the popular American life simulation video game “the Sims” and are each painted by three separate painters on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. She uses "the Sims" as a virtual construction tool for her ideas of both utopia and dystopia in the context of Hong Kong. In the game, she creates bizarre environments such as bedrooms filled with CCTV cameras, lonely millennial hangout spots, and pools on roofs filled with flowers. She takes screen-captures of these digital fantasies and divides the resultant images into thirds. Each third is subsequently painted by a separate painter found on Taobao, who is given as little instruction as possible. Through fracturing the process of production and allowing external factors to intervene in the actualization of her artwork, Mak2’s "Home Sweet Home" series not only elucidates the inevitable disparity between fantasy and reality, but it also crafts a comment on authorship, “copy-cat” culture, and the complex narratives that construct her understanding of home.
Mak2 is also well known for her conceptual installations. Her work You Better Watch Out (2017), was included in an exhibition presented by MoMA PS1 and K11 Art Foundation titled ".com/.cn". Through the use of a giant snow globe, colorful balls, QR codes, and a CCTV camera, the artwork explores the troubling duality between contemporary modes of entertainment and the growth of surveillance states across the globe.
Mak2's artwork has been exhibited internationally in: Mirage or Reality, Shanghai K11 Art Mall, Shanghai, China (2021); The Principle of Hope, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2021); How Do We Begin?, X Museum, Beijing, China (2020), Home Sweet Home, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China (2019); We Didn't Mean To Break It (But It's Ok, We Can Fix It), Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes, Goethe-Institut China, Beijing (2019); The Anything Machine, de Sarthe, Beijing, China (2018); Invisible Cities, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, USA (2017-18); com/.cn - Co-presented by KAF and MoMA PS1, K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai, China (2017-18); Reversal Ritual, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China (2017); COMEINSIDE: EAT ME, PingPong 129, Hong Kong, China (2017); COMEINSIDE: BABY SHOWER, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong, China (2017); Artists' Film International, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2016); The Second "CAFAM-Future" Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (2015); Artistic or Autistic - The Seventh
Annual Exhibition, Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2014); Almost Empty, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong, China (2014); and SOFT OFF: But I love it when your mouth is a little shut, ltd Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA (2013).
Mak 2 lives and works in Hong Kong.
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Love in Sky House, DE SARTHE, Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Love Pool, Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany
Palace of Love, Tao Art, Taipei
2021
House of Fortune, DE SARTHE, Hong Kong, China
2019
Home Sweet Home, DE SARTHE, Hong Kong, China
2018
The Anything Machine, DE SARTHE, Beijing, China
2017
COMEINSIDE: EAT ME, PingPong 129, Hong Kong, China
COMEINSIDE: BABY SHOWER, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong, China
2016
Art-It, HOCA Foundation, Hong Kong, China
2014
Almost Empty, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong, China
Fotanian Open Studios, Hong Kong, China
2012
Funny Stationery, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong, China
Group Exhibitions
2024
What We Are, DE SARTHE, Hong Kong, China
2023
Peres Projects, Art Basel Miami Beach, Florida, USA
System Update, DE SARTHE, West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai, China
Peres Projects, Art Basel in Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Bordercrossing: Possibilities and Interactions, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China
Peres Projects, Kiaf SEOUL, Seoul, South Korea
Along the Way, THE SHOPHOUSE, Hong Kong, China
Perceptible Escapisms, DE SARTHE, Taipei Dangdai, Taipei
Peres Projects, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Perceptible Escapisms, DE SARTHE, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
DE SARTHE, Art SG, Singapore
2022
On-Going, DE SARTHE, Hong Kong, China
Peres Projects, Art Basel Miami, U.S.A.
Peres Projects, Paris+, Paris, France
DE SARTHE, Asia Now, Paris, France
Peres Projects, Frieze London, London, U.K.
Peres Projects, The Armory Show, New York, U.S.A.
Peres Projects, Kiaf SEOUL, Seoul, South Korea
Peres Projects, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Utopian Reality, DE SARTHE, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
DE SARTHE, Taipei Dangdai, Taipei
2021
Urban Whispers, Woaw Gallery, Hong Kong, China
DE SARTHE, ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China
Mirage or Reality, Shanghai K11 Art Mall, Shanghai, China
The Principle of Hope, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China
Only A Joke Can Save Us, Present Projects, Hong Kong, China
DE SARTHE, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
What’s Next?, WOMANBOSS, Hong Kong, China
2020
A’fair, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, China
Unscheduled, Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, Hong Kong, China
How Do We Begin? – X Museum Triennial 1st Edition, X Museum, Beijing, China
Fragments: Post-Internet Art in Hong Kong and Beijing, Art Basel Online Viewing Room
2019
Hot Flows: Pearl River Delta Arts Retrospective, Ox Warehouse, Macau
Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes, Goethe-Institut China, Beijing, China
We Didn’t Mean to Break It (But It’s Ok, We Can Fix It), Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal
Taipei Dangdai, Taipei
2018
Beckoning the Mutation, Club Pro Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
Invisible Cities, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, USA
DE SARTHE, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
.com/.cn – Co-presented by KAF and MoMA PS1, chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2017
Invisible Cities, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, USA
Reversal Ritual, DE SARTHE, Hong Kong, China
Marching in Circles, Long March, Beijing, China
COME INSIDE: BABY SHOWER, Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, China
2016
Artists’ Film International, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom
COME INSIDE Autograph Signings, OCAT, Shenzhen, China
Bori Bunder, Sir JJ College of Art, Mumbai, India
A Man Who Doesn’t Celebrate His Birthday, Clark House Initiative Mumbai, India
Bori Bunder, VT Station Platform B, Mumbai, India
Performance with C&G @ LUNG CHING Game Zone, Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong, China
Pop-up Shop: Conversations | ruangrupa: Toko Pura-Pura, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, China
Fashion ID, K11, Hong Kong, China
MaD The Free Markerteers Singing Performance with C&G, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong, China
2015
The Second CAFAM-Future Exhibition: Observer・Creator – The Reality Representation of Chinese Young Art, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China
Sparkle! Regarding Lightness: On Life’s Way, Oil Street Art Space, Hong Kong, China
Under the Influence, Floor 5 1/2, Hong Kong, China
After/Image, Studio 52, Hong Kong, China
The Second CAFAM-Future Exhibition: Observer・Creator, K11 Art Mall, Hong Kong, China
Glossy! Shiny! Fertility!, StarProjects, Hong Kong, China
2014
Artistic or Autistic – The Seventh Annual Exhibition, Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing, China
Shampoo Whatever #1, The A-lift Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2013
Regarding Lightness- The Weight of Lightness: Bio-gravity, Oil Street Art Space, Hong Kong, China
BOING!, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong, China
SOFT OFF (but I love it when your mouth is a little shut), ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, USA
SCM Annual, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong
2012
Cool Kids, Lane Crawford, Hong Kong, China
Media Art & The Environment : The Desert Metropolis, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong, China
2011
House of Sound, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong, China
Best Before, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, Hong Kong, China
2010
Micro Narratives: Invented Time & Space, Blue Room, Hong Kong, China
Public Collections
X Museum, Beijing, China
JPMorgan Chase Collection, USA
UBS Art Collection, Hong Kong
M+ Permanent Collection, Hong Kong
Yuz Collection, Shanghai, China
Selected Private Collections
Daisuke Miyatsu Collection, Japan
Divide by Zero Art Collection, Hong Kong, China
Tain Collection, London
Adrian Cheng, Hong Kong, China
William Lim, Hong Kong, China
Awards
2013
Creative Media Award – School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, China
Artist Residencies
2022
West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, China
2016
Bori Bunder @ [En]counters 2016 - Hong Kong X Mumbai Art Exchange Project, Mumbai, India
2014
Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China