Mo Kwok is a colourfield encaustic painter.
She works and lives in Hong Kong.

Education

M.Ed Harvard University
B.A. University of Chicago

Awards

2016 Hong Kong Arts Development Council Emerging Artist Grant
2015 Shelby Davis Foundation - Semester at Sea Full Scholarship
2015 Hong Kong Rhodes Scholarship Finalist

Exhibitions

Tai Kwun · Para Site at BOOKED · 2020
U-Haul Exhibition · Non-Sterile Arts Happenings · Two-person · 2018
Harvard Film Archive · Screening of The Black Moon · Group · 2017
Hong Kong Visual Art Centre · The Testament of a 90s Baby · Solo · 2017
The MV World Odyssey · Group · 2016
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts · Group · 2015
Li Po Chun United World College · Group · 2012

Artist Statement

My work seeks to create refuge for those who need to retreat from the mundane brutalities of the everyday. With each piece of work, my vision is to teleport the viewer to an alternative dimension, whether it is the distant past of childhood or the utopic future. To paint these fantasies or「仙境」I have drawn inspiration from growing up in Hong Kong during the 90s and the memories I had spending my teenage years in New Jersey and Chicago. After years of searching for a medium that most authentically mirrors my voice, I have arrived at encaustic painting (hot wax). Straddingly between 2D and 3D, the layers of wax mimic the way I recall a memory. Sometimes hidden, blurred and muted, sometimes loud and vivid. This medium allows me to use household objects frequently such as the iron, a hair dryer, electric kettle without actually cooking, grooming or cleaning. My refusal to use these objects for their intended purpose is in part a kind of liberation from domestic gender roles and in part  protest against the cultural norm that women ought to marry to be valued. To heighten this aspect of the work, the production of some pieces will be filmed as a performance and projected along side with the pieces.

Biography 

Mo Kwok graduated from University of Chicago with honors majoring in Political Science and minoring in Visual Arts. She holds a Master of Education from Harvard University. Mo studied under world renown artist Theaster Gates, celebrated photographer Richard Rinaldi and Award-winning director Guy Maddin. Her love for painting started at an early age. As soon as she was old enough to travel alone, she attended a painting residency in Tuscany with the Maryland Institute of Art. When the opportunity of having a solo show came, she dropped out of law school to focus on preparing for the exhibition. 

Initially, Mo became an artist because creating is her love language. From kindergarten days of making pasta picture frames on Mother’s Day, to throwing porcelain tableware for her friend’s wedding, Mo rearranging existing particles to show care to those around her. It was not until college, when she worked with Theaster Gates, witnessing and participating in the development of the Dorchester Project and Stony Island Arts Bank, that Mo pivots to the role of the artist as an activist and change-maker. 

Throughout her early years she focused on everything but painting, from large scale installations that decries income inequality and cultural imperialism to short films about the problematic language and discourse surrounding people with albinism, Mo did not paint. She was concerned with the limitations of a single image, the lack of interaction and relevance. Until one day, she taught a class at the Harvard Art Museum on Josef Albers’ Interaction of Colors, which took place in the corner between one of Albers’ Homage to Square paintings and Morris Louis’ Blue Veil. She was convinced that painting, too, can be revolutionary. And from that day on, Mo became wildly curious about color theory and began her unending journey in experimenting with stain painting, diluting oil paint with turpentine and pouring it on raw canvas, as well as encaustic painting, mixing damar resin, bee’s wax and pigment and painting with a blowtorch and steam iron. Her YouTube watch history is filled with videos of Zhang Daqian ink painting demonstrations and interviews with Helen Frankenthaler. 

Studio Visit

interviewed by Anqi Li (Para Site), featuring David Odo (Harvard Art Museums)