Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) today announced that Trevor Yeung, who explores human relationships via large-scale installations frequently centering aquariums, botanic ecology, and horticulture, has been chosen to represent Hong Kong at the Sixtieth Venice Biennale. M+ and HKADC jointly sponsor the city-state’s pavilion at the event, whose next iteration will take place April 20–November 24, 2024. Olivia Chow, an assistant curator at M+, will curate the pavilion.
“I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to unveil a new body of work at the La Biennale di Venezia—to represent Hong Kong, my hometown, at one of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions in the world,” said Yeung in a statement. “As the world adjusts to the reopening of borders and new ways of interaction after the pandemic, it is particularly meaningful for me to present new work influenced by cross cultures and my immediate surroundings—to bring my vision abroad and connect with the international art community.”
Though not a native of Hong Kong, the Dongguan–born Yeung grew up there, graduating from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2010. Especially concerned with structures, systems, and operations of exchange and participation, Yeung explores these through site-specific installations and in smaller sculptures employing light and scent; as well, he often incorporates photography into his practice. Last year, he participated in the Singapore Biennale and the Kathmandu Triennale; his work was additionally included in the 2019 edition of the Biennale de Lyon and the 2018 editions of Ireland’s EVA International Biennale and Bangladesh’s Dhaka Art Summit. Yeung was one of the half-dozen artists shortlisted for M+’s 2023 Sigg Prize, and will see his work presented at the Hong Kong institution this September. A solo show of his work—his first in England—will open at London’s Gasworks that same month.
Chow, the first M+ curator to organize the Hong Kong pavilion since Samson Young did so in 2017, served as an assistant curator of Shirley Tse’s exhibition at the pavilion in 2019. “I am excited to curate and collaborate with Trevor Yeung, an artist whose unwavering and intricate installation practice I have closely followed since the early days,” said Chow in a statement. “This extraordinary opportunity will allow us to bring Yeung’s daring vision to life in Venice, a presentation that will hopefully create resonance with the international audience.”