Sun Museum’s Unbound Moves Mineral Painting from a Bird to a Soup Can
Opening October 30 in Sai Ying Pun, the exhibition brings together 33 works by nine artists through February 28,2027. Three official artwork images suggest different approaches to colour and texture.
Sun Museum in Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun schedules Unbound: A Narrative of Mineral Painting for October 30,2026–February 28,2027. Its first Colour Painting Series exhibition presents 33 works by nine artists. Here mineral pigments can describe a bird, an abstract surface or an everyday product. Rather than assigning the medium a single classical style, three official artwork images offer a way to see how related materials produce very different pictures.
Start with how colour occupies a surface
Chan Yuk Keung’s Glittering Light is labelled 2025, mineral pigment on canvas,70×88 cm. On a pale grey-green ground, curling white lines separate areas of blue, brown and yellow-green. Some edges appear worn or flaked without resolving into an easily named scene. The eye can follow a white line or pause between dark patches and open space, noticing how density and texture take the place of clear object outlines.
The museum’s preface says Chan has collected coloured sands and stones from mountains for his recent practice, extending the connection with land beyond subject matter. An artwork image supports observations of colour and texture, but a screen does not establish the actual size or sheen of every particle. When looking closely, compare how colours meet and how white moves through other layers rather than expecting a recognisable landscape.
A bird and a soup can speak through the same medium
Chen Wenguang’s Soaring,2018, is mineral pigment on paper measuring 55×75 cm. A bird with extended wings emerges as a bright, mottled form against red. Its long beak, radiating wing rhythm and scattered flecks generate movement. The red is an active counterweight to the pale body. Gold-coloured areas in the photograph do not by themselves identify an unlisted metallic material.
Chen Wenguang, Soaring,2018; mineral pigment on paper,55×75cm.
Chung Tai Fu’s Salute to Andy Warhol,2021, is mineral pigment on paper,65×90 cm. A Campbell’s soup can tilts amid blue-green and pink ripples, with a distorted reflection below. Familiar lettering remains legible while the surrounding layers prevent it from reading as a flat advertisement. Alongside the bird, it suggests that mineral painting can address popular culture and consumer symbols as well as inherited imagery. This is an interpretation of a painting, not a brand collaboration announcement.
Chung Tai Fu, Salute to Andy Warhol,2021; mineral pigment on paper,65×90cm.
Finding a route through 33 works
The nine artists are Chan Yuk Keung, Chen Wenguang, Chung Tai Fu, Ikuo Hirayama, Hu Mingzhe, Asuka Irie, Ayana Otake, Yau Wing Fung and Zhu Jin, from Japan and different Chinese cities including Hong Kong. The official preface also discusses screen decoration, fabric folds, coarse and fine particles, and minimal composition. Instead of treating 33 works as demonstrations of one technique, choose a question—how colour conveys weight, for example—and compare representational and abstract pictures.
The museum occupies the ground and first floors of Artisan House,1 Sai Yuen Lane, Sai Ying Pun. Regular hours are Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays and public holidays. Official visit information states free admission without advance appointment for ordinary visits. Enquire separately about group arrangements; these general admission terms do not mean every tour or activity accepts walk-ins. October 30 is the first scheduled exhibition day, and visits must still follow opening hours. Check temporary arrangements and holiday closures before travelling.
