Chui Tze Hung

Chui Tze Hung

Born in hong kong

award-winning new ink painter and calligrapher

Chui is an artist, writer, art critic, and art instructor.

Chui studied print-making with the American print-maker Joan Farra, and then he apprenticed with Lui Shou-kwan to learn ink painting. He excels in Chinese ink and colour painting, as well as Western art forms such as watercolor. In his early years, Chui derived his pictorial themes of mountains, rivers, waterfalls and woods from the Chinese painting tradition with profound mastery of light and shading effects, perspective and the modulation of lines. His watercolours are noted for bright colourful palette, spontaneous brush strokes and bold colour splashes. Chui also excels in calligraphy with swift and free play of brush work that exudes sense of vigour with a unique style by blending the brush work and transformation of ink and colour splashes and washes. Chui successfully achieves a synthesis of calligraphy and painting which is marked by the creative vision of putting calligraphic scripts in painting and unrestrained rhythmic play of ink and brush and master a personal artistic vocabulary. 

Chui has received numerous accolades, including the Urban Council Fine Arts Award (Painting, 1979; Calligraphy, 1994) at the Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition held by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. In 1988, he won the U.S. International Artist Award and a Federal Fellowship to spend 6 months as an artist-in-residence at the “Artists’ Retreat.” He has also been invited as an “International Guest” to visit and exchange ideas worldwide. In 2005, Chui was awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Home Affairs Bureau for his contributions to the arts. 

His works have been extensive showcased in over 460 exhibitions, including solo and group shows across Europe, North America, Canada, Australia, Southeast Asia, and China. Highlights includes his solo exhibition at Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in 2024, his first solo New Horizon of Ink Painting at the American Library (1968), solo exhibition at the Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong (1987), Hong Kong Art 1997 organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing and Guangdong Museum of Art, 1997) and others. 

Chui’s works are held in prestigious collections locally and internationally, including M+ Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong University Fung Ping Shan Museum, the Luis de Camões Museum of Macao, National Gallery Singapore, National Museum of History, Taiwan, Vice President’s Residence Art Collection in the U.S., Cathay Pacific, and Four Seasons Hotel.

As a pioneer in Hong Kong’s ink art movement, Chui was a founding member of the “One Art Group”, a key collective in the new ink movement of the 1970s–1980s, and a member of “In Dao Art Association”. He has been committed to promoting ink art and mentoring the next generation of ink artists, inspiring the formation of groups like “New Ink Movement” and “Ink Dimensions” by his students since the 1990s.

Chui’s name has been celebrated in “Who’s Who in Hong Kong”, “Reference Asia”, “Who’s Who in Australia and Far East”, “International Biography”, “The Contemporary Chinese Painters” and “The Elites of Hong Kong & Macau” etc.

Chui has been the chairman of International Society of Plastic and Audio-Visual Arts Hong Kong Branch, vise-chairman of Hong Kong Artist Association, founding director of Hong Kong Artists’ Guild etc., has been the adjudicator of Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition, invited by Hong Kong Arts Development Council as an examiner of visual art sector, and currently an advisor of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, The University of Hong Kong (visual art).

He has served as a lecturer of the School of Professional and Continuing Education, the University of Hong Kong, Department of Extra-mural Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Academy of Visual Arts, the Baptist University of Hong Kong, etc. Currently Chui is an advisor of the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, the University of Hong Kong (visual arts).

Chui has been invited to write articles for art columns in many newspapers and magazines, and was the vice-chairman of Hong Kong Writers Association, and vice-chairman of Hong Kong Art Critics Alliance. His publications include Beyond the Brush (1991), Art World Talks (1993), Chronicles of the Art World (1998), Hongfenghuqu (Grandeur and the Essence of Teapots), Yitanyitan (Arts Community, Art Talks), Yitanfengyunlu (Happenings in the Arts Community), A Collection of Calligraphy Works by Chui Tze- hung, etc