Artwork Description

Title:Glistering as Stars

Artist:
Koon Wai-bong

Date:
2014

Medium:
Oil painting (multi-panel installation)

Dimensions:
9.8 × 9.8 × 4.7 in (25 × 25 × 12 cm) (each panel); overall dimensions variable (installation format)

1. Artwork Identification:
Glistering as Stars is a refined and conceptually nuanced oil painting installation by Hong Kong artist Koon Wai-bong, presented as a sequence of twelve square panels, each measuring 25 × 25 centimeters. Hung in a linear configuration, the work invites viewers to encounter a panoramic yet fragmented visual experience. Each canvas features a strip of muted green foliage or treetop forms near the upper margin, painted with lyrical abstraction against a largely unmarked beige or off-white lower field. This spatial tension between the organic and the empty evokes both the presence and absence of landscape, resulting in a restrained yet poetic meditation on nature, form, and perception.

2. Artistic Style and Influences:
Rooted in literati painting traditions and minimalist aesthetics, Koon Wai-bong’s work harmonizes East Asian ink sensibilities with contemporary installation logic. While rendered in oil, the visual rhythm of the work draws from classical Chinese scroll compositions, where negative space is as significant as mark. The organic forms—part botanical, part abstract—recall Song dynasty depictions of nature distilled into essence, while the serial format engages with modern conceptualism, akin to the practices of On Kawara or Agnes Martin in its meditative repetition. The result is a subtle hybrid of tradition and modernity, restraint and resonance.

3. Historical Context:
Koon Wai-bong is known for bridging the aesthetics of classical Chinese painting with modernist formal exploration. Created in the context of an increasingly urbanized and environmentally stressed Asia, Glistering as Stars can be read as a reflection on nature’s fragmentation in contemporary consciousness. This piece emerges within a wider discourse of ecological awareness and the visual reinterpretation of nature in an era of both reverence and rupture.

4. Provenance and Authenticity:
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation:
The installation is in excellent condition. The oil surfaces are clean and stable across all twelve panels, with no evidence of surface abrasion, discoloration, or structural instability. The panels are housed in uniform, minimalist frames designed to facilitate clean alignment during wall installation. No conservation action is necessary.

6. Artistic Significance:
Glistering as Stars is a poignant example of Koon Wai-bong’s elegant synthesis of heritage and contemporary form. Through its serialized structure and atmospheric restraint, the work encourages slow looking and conceptual engagement with nature as a fragmented memory, not a fixed panorama. It invites viewers to pause, assemble meaning from fragments, and reflect on the act of seeing itself. This piece would make a distinguished addition to collections focused on contemporary Asian art, ecological aesthetics, or cross-cultural abstraction.