Hongbo, you were the Grand Prize Winner in The 2017 Sovereign Asian Art Prize: how has your career as an artist progressed since then? Can you share any new projects you’ve been working on?
Firstly, thank you very much for awarding me The Sovereign Asian Art Prize. It has given me great encouragement and support, and made me feel more confident to engage in an artistic career.
Currently, I hold one solo exhibition and participate in at least ten group exhibitions every year. I also create more than ten new artworks every year: steadily moving forward according to my own vision. My plan for the next ten years has already begun.
Next year, I have plans to hold solo exhibitions in the United States, France, and China. Due to the pandemic, these exhibitions were postponed to 2021, therefore, the exhibitions overlap. In light of these postponements, I have used 2020 to concentrate on creating and I gained a lot. For example, I created two installation works, Yu and Yunshui, for the Shandong Art Museum this year.
Your winning work, Desire (below), acts as a warning against selfishness and reckless cruelty. Do you believe that art is a means through which we can incite societal change?
Art does not necessarily trigger societal change, but it can provoke thinking and then change the society!
