FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tsang Kin–Wah: Wallpaper: Painted Patterns

From June 26, 2006, to August 11, 2006, PicassoMio Gallery Madrid will hold the exhibition “Wallpaper: Painted Patterns,” the first European exhibition of artwork by Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-Wah.

Boca Raton, Florida, and Madrid, Spain (June 22, 2006) - PicassoMio Gallery Madrid presents, from June 26 to August 11, the first European exhibition of work by Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-Wah, winner of the 2005 Sovereign Art Prize, the most prestigious art award in Asia, and the Prize of Excellence at the 2001 Hong Kong Art Biennial. His work can be found in the collections of the Sovereign Art Foundation, the Museum of Design Zurich, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, among others. He has also been named one of the most promising emerging artists in Asia by Art Asia Pacific magazine.

To understand Tsang’s work, it’s important to keep in mind that Hong Kong was a British colony for more than a century, reunited with China only a decade ago. As a result, the inhabitants of Hong Kong have an identity which is different from the rest of China, and that has a much a connection with British tradition as Chinese.

The motifs and designs chosen by Tsang are based upon British wallpaper designs from the Victorian era, which were, in turn, originally inspired by Chinese motifs. Tsang reinterprests them in a radical way, developing designs with organic and geometric motifs that are comprised of carefully organized words and phrases—most of them forceful expressions of protest or social commentary, many of them offensive.

This mix of beautiful and intimate visual language with bold verbal language causes us to reinterpret the image we see. This the vehicle that Tsang uses to investigate, through the use of materials, colors, size and proportions, how certain elements affect and change the visual effects of a specific image and design. As we read the text that makes up the design, our visual perception of the image is altered, and upon experiencing the design, our interpretation of the text undergoes an adjustment.

In the words of the artist: "For me, art is not emancipated from the world but rather reflect or link with it. By posing different kind of questions and thinking about what we are familiar with, what happens around us and the legitimacy of pre-existing things, ideas, believes, etc., showing altered compositions which is different from the existing, and combining and juxtaposing the classic, elegant form with vulgar, secular content, viewer would be lead to rethink about the legitimacy, authority and authenticity of the existing views and ideas from a different angle."

Kin-Wah began to experiment with his artistic language in 2003, creating site-specific installations that covered the entire surface of the space—floor, walls, ceiling. PicassoMio Gallery exhibits examples of these past installations, transformed and presented in a series of 30 paintings and graphic prints with prices between $795 and $6500.

For more information and images, please contact us at press@picassomio.com
Exhibition and works also available at www.picassomio.com/TsangKinWah

About PicassoMio.com/PicassoMio Galleries

With a presence in Europe and the U.S., PicassoMio.com / PicassoMio Galleries is an art company that operates the leading online gallery. In operation since 2000, PicassoMio.com has sold contemporary art to clients in over 50 countries, including artworks by over 1,000 selected artists. The company’s annual sales are in 7-figures and growing at a rate of over 50% per year.

At PicassoMio.com, one can find curated, one-of-a-kind or limited-edition works, including paintings, graphic prints, photographs and sculptures, by modern masters, such as Matisse, Chagall and Miro; contemporary masters, such as Damien Hirst, Hockney and Wegman, and hundreds of extraordinary emerging artists. Their current catalog online includes more than 30,000 different artworks valued at $125 million, with prices ranging from $100 to $100,000.

Every month PicassoMio.com receives approximately 1 million visitors and serves over a hundred clients. The average order size is approximately $1,500. Clients include private parties, businesses and trade companies, including interior designers and galleries and dealers. Customers are served by art consultants, all of whom have significant art business and art history experience.

The website’s powerful art search engine allows buyers to find the artwork of their choice by selecting from medium, style, theme, colour, price, etc. All clients are also assured of a 7-day, no-questions-asked return policy. The company contributes 5% of its gross profits, in cash or kind, back to the art world.

In 2005, El Pais called PicassoMio Gallery "the world’s biggest gallery", Emprendedores magazine selected PicassoMio.com as one of the “100 Best Companies”, the Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money magazine selected PicassoMio.com as the only recommended art website and Financial Times called PicassoMio.com the “Amazon.com” of the contemporary art scene.

In 2004, the company was nominated as a finalist for FAST50, organized by the prestigious Fast Company magazine, and was selected for the Gate-2-Growth forum, sponsored by the European Commission. In 2001, PicassoMio was nominated as a finalist in the pan-European “Milestones” Business Awards, coordinated by the Boston Consulting Group. PicassoMio has also been recommended by Real Simple magazine and ArtsWorld TV, amongst others.

PicassoMio was founded by Allan Majotra and Nicholas Marchalleck and has offices and galleries in Miami, Madrid and Barcelona. In 2006, PicassoMio plans to open two more galleries, in California and the United Kingdom.

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