Art Totems Bridging East & West - Eddie Lui`s Four Decades of Artistic Pursuit

The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), The University of Hong Kong, is delighted to present Art Totems Bridging East & West Eddie Lui's Four Decades of Artistic Pursuit, an exhibition of artworks documenting the artist's long and distinguished career. A successful banker, Eddie Lui began as a part-time artist before changing his corporate career for a full-time engagement with his passion for art. The public display at UMAG, as well as this accompanying book, follow a strict chronology and honour the artistic contribution of one of the city's most celebrated contemporary artists. In the early 1970s, Eddie Lui completed art and design courses with the Department of Extra-Mural Studies at The University of Hong Kong (now HKU SPACE), followed by a one-year contemporary ink painting programme with a celebrated group of Hong Kong painters that included Lui Shou-kwan (1919-1975) and Wucius Wong (b.1936). Over the past forty years, Lui has developed a new language of naturalistic and abstract motifs highlighting his deeply felt admiration for nature. As a draftsman, painter and sculptor Lui is one of the founders of contemporary art in Hong Kong. His artworks--whether in ink, gouache, Japanese handmade paper on canvas, or sculpted in clay--are reminiscent of poetry that connects humans with nature and appeals to our range of senses. Over the years, Lui's palette has altered, and the often bright and flamboyant colours now give way to more muted monochrome inks. At the same time, in artworks large and small, the fine execution of each detail and the certainty with which the artist's brush moves remain of the highest quality. Lui has also been a gifted teacher and arts administrator, instructing students and helping to develop New Ink Painting in Hong Kong as a discipline.