True to Form IV at Tai Kwun ends October 28: six artists explore cloud commuters, money and gestures
Touch Gallery’s True to Form IV is nearing its close. Six artists depict urban spaces, animals, flowers and gestures in oil, acrylic and Japanese ink. Explore the exhibition through the materials, dimensions and details of six works.
Touch Gallery’s True to Form IV in Hong Kong runs until October 28, bringing urban corners, animals, clouds, flowers, money and gestures into a shared question: what else can realism do? The six participating artists are Fung Chim, Ryohei Matsumoto, Yu Sheng Yu (Ethan), Deng Xiao, Wang Hao Zhun and Mak Chung Yan (Grace). Their imagery is recognisable, but it does more than reproduce objects with photographic accuracy. For anyone planning an exhibition visit on October 27, this group show is nearing its end. Its appeal lies in comparing how similarly meticulous depictions can produce very different senses of reality.
From potted plants to cloud passengers: making a city feel real
Fung Chim’s Terrace Planting I is a 2026 oil painting on canvas measuring 42 × 62 cm. White pots line the railing, their plants adding a finely broken rhythm to the otherwise rigid grid of tiles and metal. A yellow vertical pipe cuts through the composition. Rather than identify the city through a landmark, the painting reveals traces of everyday use in the compressed relationships between pots, windows and walls. Start by following the red-and-white tile grid, then return to see how the leaves interrupt it.
Fung Chim’s Terrace Planting I (2026) depicts an urban corner through dense potted plants, railings and tiles.
Yu Sheng Yu (Ethan) carries a similar sense of everyday life into a train carriage. 《通勤者》, a 2026 oil painting on canvas measuring 41 × 27 cm, shows a white, cloudlike figure seated inside a triangular hand strap, with more straps and blurred figures behind it. Something normally held in the hand becomes a frame large enough to contain a person. This shift in scale turns the commuting space into a stage for a temporary pause. The image is in no hurry to explain the figure’s destination; instead, being suspended in transit becomes clearer than any endpoint.
Lifelike animals and flowers in spaces that defy reality
Ryohei Matsumoto’s A Cat and Small Birds with Peach Blossoms measures only 22.7 × 15.8 cm, yet packs a vivid red background, peach blossoms, a cat and several birds into a compact composition. The cat lifts a front paw while birds appear along the branches. Fur and feather details offer a lifelike texture, although their overall relationship suggests an imagined scene of coexistence. Acrylic and Japanese ink on panel distinguish this work from the preceding oils on canvas. Comparing materials and dimensions helps reveal why these six artists’ precise styles should not all be treated as the same realist technique.
Ryohei Matsumoto’s A Cat and Small Birds with Peach Blossoms (2026) places a cat and birds among peach-blossom branches against vivid red.
Deng Xiao’s 《容器—花心NO.3》 is a 2026 oil painting on canvas measuring 75 × 65 cm. A transparent, heart-shaped container encloses flowers, while bright reflections fold interior and exterior forms into one another. The dark background and luminous petals establish a dramatic distance. The point here is less a list of identifiable flower species than the overlapping relationships between container, reflected light and objects. Follow the petals outward along the transparent outline, and seeing something clearly proves quite different from easily understanding its space.
Deng Xiao’s 《容器—花心NO.3》 (2026) constructs a still life from a transparent, heart-shaped container, flowers and bright reflections.
Money, fingers and visiting details: slow down to see more
Finally, view Wang Hao Zhun’s 《1313蚊》 alongside Mak Chung Yan (Grace)’s 50/50 五十五十. The former is an oil painting on canvas measuring 41 × 31.5 cm, with folded banknotes given visible thickness and coins scattered across a surface. The latter, an oil painting on panel measuring 15 × 15 cm, freezes a gesture involving a hand and an airborne coin. Both were made in 2026. In one painting, money is still life that can be arranged; in the other, it is bound to bodily movement. Moving from creases in paper to the curves of fingers shifts attention from the number of objects to texture and a fleeting instant.
Wang Hao Zhun’s 《1313蚊》 (2026) depicts creased banknotes and scattered coins, giving money the thickness and texture of still life.Mak Chung Yan (Grace)’s 50/50 五十五十 (2026) creates a fleeting scene of movement using a hand and an airborne coin.
The exhibition occupies Touch Gallery’s Room 204 on the second floor of Block 3 at Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, in a separate room from the gallery’s other exhibitions. The official exhibition page gives the dates as October 6–28; the October 10 opening reception has already ended. Before visiting, browse the official exhibition and artwork page for details you would like to examine, and contact the gallery on +852 2562 9000 to confirm that day’s opening arrangements.
