Louis To Wun is a versatile contemporary artist, his works ranges from Chinese to Western painting, sculpture in the Fine Arts to candy and bamboo sculpting, two ancient crafts of intangible cultural heritage that he self-taught and explores in contemporary ways. His artistic career started in the 1990’s, young To Wun and his group of painter friends rented an old house in Lamma Island and share days of vigorous painting, influencing one another. His paintings often explode with firey energy, colours and multi-dimensional spaces. 1992-94 Louis’s paintings received Awards of Distinction in Phillippe Charriol Foundation Modern Art Competition three years in a row. He exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art for the Contemporary Art Biennale in 1996 and 1998. His first major solo show was held in 1998 at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. In 2000he was part of the Inside Out: New Chinese Art show in New York PS1 MOMA. In 2001, his oil painting titled Scream was exhibited at the British Museum. Some of his paintings were collected by the Bahamian Embassy. He also had several shows in Beijing, Shanghai and Macau, some includes exhibiting his 3D Chinese character sculptures.
In 2004, along with his long-time friend Rupert Wong, To Wun founded the famous Art Gallery and Music Club SENSE 99. The art hub is a very popular gathering place between artists, musicians and filmmakers. It nested numerous creative projects, among many other cultural activities, workshops, exhibitions, concerts and film shootings have taken place over the years. The media coverage for the establishment has been extensive including CNN Travel, BBC, The Guardian, Japan SHIFT magazine etc.
To Wun also dedicated himself to inheriting and innovating two intangible preserved cultural heritage, that he entirely self-taught, transcending them both through technical advancement and contemporary aesthetics. In order to share a long lost childhood memory with his daughter, he revived the disappearing 600-year-old heritage art of candy sculpting in 2010. As he was unable to find any teachers, he taught himself through countless experiments, constantly developing and upgrading his sculpting technique, his original ingredient, cooking method and tools, allowing diabetes to enjoy a more natural healthy sweet, and kids to touch and make candy art which was traditionally too high in temperature. To Wun’s candy sculpting has been extensively featured on every kind of media platforms, including Ted Talk and notably in Tatler Asia. His sculpting performance has been brought to countless schools and organisations, as well as special needs kids in Europe, his clientele including Louis Vuitton. The artist name he uses in this field is Hong Kong Sugarman.
The second preserved heritage he dedicated himself to is bamboo sculpting. Living on Cheung Chau island, he was invited to repair festival Qilins, this gave him the opportunity to dissect and study the intricate structure and engineering of the ancient craft on his own, inside and out. Being a painter, he developed his own style to fashion the visible appearance of the Qilin, and being a sculptor, he soon created his very unique structures, which are hard to qualify as they are three dimensional at the same time as being exquisitely painted. He was commissioned from 2013 to 2019 to create the leading Qilin of the Tai Ping Ching Chiu Festival. As it rains quite often during the festival, in 2015, he invented a method to make the bamboo sculpture and its painted paper entirely
waterproof. In order to test this modified material, he swam with the ‘new’ bamboo and paper sculpture in the sea. Subsequently, he went on to introduce the ritual dancers to perform sea ceremonies. This technical breakthrough also enables much larger sculpture making thereafter and conservation of these bamboo sculptures to be lasting generations to come.
Inspired to take these ancient arts on to the contemporary stage, To Wun got involved in theatre and using bamboo, he created wearable bamboo costumes for dancers. He created motion sensitive and automated bamboo stage installation especially designed for the hearing-impaired. For sight-impaired audiences, he created an interactive bamboo sound instrument. To Wun also instilled a new life into this art by bringing it into cinema. In 2015 he played a character ( the postman ) in Christopher Doyle’s film Hong Kong Trilogy, dancing with his bamboo sculpture. In 2018 Leica Design week Kyoto : along side Kyoto bamboo craft masters, Louis To Wun was invited as speaker representing Hong Kong. In 2022 he held a solo exhibition The Art of BAMBOO: from Qilin to Contemporary Sculpture at GEGF Galaxy Art Foundation. The same year his new work San Syu Wat Leot ARE NOT HERE! was selected for Art Central’s large scale installation the Yi Tai Project. The four 2-sided sculptures to be appreciated in 360 degrees are also multi-dimensional paintings. Being a painter and a sculptor, Louis To Wun is the first artist to have successfully adapted pictorial pioneering techniques such as Cubism to the art of bamboo sculpting. Abstract lines, connecting points
and planes shuttling time and space. A certain philosophy, rooted in the idea of emptiness and yet of fullness, is a constant balance. The complex physic of bamboo engineering expresses itself in pure spontaneity, playfulness and fluidity. The contemporary piece is iconic and has received lots of media attention.
In each artistic field he chose, Louis To Wun has mastered classical techniques, through technical breakthroughs, he goes beyond tradition, creating his own unique and original aesthetic expression.
< 極當代 > 書法行為, 1995
杜煥是一位多才多藝的當代藝術家,作品涉獵領 域包括東西方繪畫及雕塑、及以當代藝術手法演譯的傳統糖雕及竹紥,兩項被列入國家級非物質
文化遺產的藝術,他都是自學成才,無師自通。杜煥的藝術生涯始於九十年代,年輕的杜煥和他的畫友們在南丫島租了一座老房子,共享朝夕作畫的日子,相互影響。他的畫作經常爆發出熾熱的能量、色彩和多維空間。1992 至 1994 年,杜煥的畫作連續三年於「夏利豪基金會現代藝術比賽」中榮獲傑出;作品亦曾於 1996 年和 1998 年於香港藝術館的「當代香港藝術雙年展」展出。他於 1998 年在香港藝術中心舉辦了首場個展 ;2000 年參與在紐約 MOMA PS1 的「 變突破:華人新藝術」展;2001 年他的油畫於大英博物館展出;部分畫作更被巴哈馬大使館珍藏;他曾參與在北京、上海和澳門舉辦的展覽,其中包括展出他的立體漢字雕塑。
於 2004 年,杜煥與好友黃良錫共同創立了著名的畫廊和音樂俱樂部「玖玖」。這裏成為了許多本地藝術家、音樂創作者和電影製作人的聚腳地,玖玖孕育了無數創意項目,不時舉辦各類工作坊、展覽和音樂會,亦曾作為多套電影的取景地,廣泛被媒體報導,包括 CNN Travel、BBC、THE GUARDIAN、日本 SHIFT 雜誌等。
杜煥還有致力於傳承兩項被列入國家級非物質文化遺產的藝術,為這兩項消失中的傳統文化瑰寶開闢了新的境界,在完全自學的情況下,通過技術進步和當代美學超越傳統,其中之一便是糖雕。在 2010 年,當時初為人父的杜煥,為了重現他兒時的回憶給女兒分享,促使他復活了這具有 600 年歷史的工藝。因沒有任何的糖雕師傅傳授手藝,杜煥只能通過自己摸索,不斷鑽研試驗,開發和持續升級他的糖雕技術,包括他原創的糖果成分,烹糖方法以及工具設計,讓糖尿病人也能享受到天然健康的糖,也讓孩子們能觸摸和製作傳統上溫度太高的糖雕。他的糖雕技藝受到大量的媒體平台廣泛報導,其中包括TEDTalk 及 TATLER,他的糖雕表演也被帶到了無數的學校和機構,遠至歐洲有特殊需要的孩子,他的客戶包括 LOUIS VUITTON,並被稱為「香港糖人」。
另一項令杜煥醉心鑽研的文化遺產藝術便是竹紥。住在長洲的他被邀請修復節慶儀式的麒麟,籍此觀摩傳統工匠大師的技藝,剖析麒麟的內部竹紥結構,手法和裝飾外殼。他於 2013 至 2019 期間受邀為「長洲太平清醮」製作領頭麒麟,他用繪畫技巧賦予麒麟矚目的外觀,又以雕塑觸覺塑造革新且獨特的麒麟結構形態 ; 而節慶期間適逢雨季,令紙糊的麒麟容易被打濕,為了解決這個難題,他在 2015 年研發出新技術,使竹紥及彩繪紗紙完全防水。他親自携同這種改良材料製作的紙竹雕下海進行測試,最後成功令竹紥作品能被祭祀者於海上祭祀活動中舞動。這一技術突破亦促使往後能夠製作更大型的雕塑,同時讓這些竹雕能世世代代的保存。
隨後,杜煥將古老的竹藝帶上當代藝術舞台,參與「 聲軀 」劇場聯合創作受啟發,運用竹作為材料製作了讓舞者可穿戴的竹紥戲服,更為聾啞觀眾創作了「語言障礙」舞台佈景裝置,也為失明觀眾設計了互動竹紥樂器。同時,杜煥也將竹藝帶入了電影;在 2015 年杜可風執導的電影「 香港三部曲 」中,他出演了其中一個角色 ( 郵差 ),並在電影裏舞動他製作的竹雕。在 2018 年 LEICA 京都設計周,杜煥受邀作為代表香港,與京都竹藝大師演講。2022 年,法國策展人在 GEGF 銀河藝術基金會為杜煥舉辦個展【竹藝飛躍 :從傳統紥作至當代藝術的演化】。同年,他憑藉新作「神荼鬱壘不在塲 !! 」入選 ARTCENTRAL「 異態 」大型裝置項目。作品既是立體竹紮雕塑,也是多維繪畫,既是畫家又是雕塑家的杜煥,可說是首位成功揉合立體主義繪畫技巧於竹藝紮作中,抽象的點線面時空穿梭,與虛實之間的哲學取得平衡,靈活地把竹藝紮作複雜的物理學帶到純粹即興,流體化的層次,作品的當代標誌性受到了很多媒體關注。
杜煥擅於游走在各藝術領域,透過掌握經典的技巧,突破技術超越了傳統,創造出屬於他獨具一格的美學作品。