BLOG:: Frog King (aka Kwok Mang-ho): "Totem"
“It’s not a retrospective,” curator Valerie Doran told me of “Totem,” the recent solo exhibition of Hong Kong conceptual and performance artist Kwok Mang-ho, aka Frog King. “Frog King doesn’t recognize borders in time.”
Held at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, “Totem” presented the artist’s works spanning 40 years, from the mid-1970s to present, in a mash-up of techniques and media that integrated his eclectic ink practice across collages, site-specific installations, graffiti, performances, photography and assemblages. Brought up under the tutelage of New Ink Painting master Lui Shou-kwan, Kwok is a gifted ink artist himself. His sophisticated techniques, Doran observed, allow him to execute seemingly-primitive works incorporating ink not just as a material, but also as an action.
