b. 1980, Hong Kong, China; lives and works Hong Kong, China.

Kwan Sheung is a conceptual artist known for a practice that often examines power structures and societal issues, using humour and irony to provoke thought and discussion. Kwan works across a variety of media, including sculpture, installation, video, and performance. At the core of his practice is the depiction of certain realities as seen and experienced by ordinary citizens. There is often a specific discussion of capitalism present in the works, which continually reappears as a topic of reflection in various ways. Rooted in discussions of Hong Kong as a financial centre, Kwan does not avoid Hong Kong’s emphasis on money as a vehicle for impact and governance, nor his own complicity in such systems. Rather, with this as a context of his enquiry, he presents multiple mediums that conceptually critique a political status quo, assignations of value and modes of existence. Employing simple gestures and ideas, Kwan deconstructs Hong Kong’s relationship to money, its political framework and the methods of living that those who inhabit it develop in this specific context.

Kwan Sheung Chi won the inaugural Hugo Boss Art Prize in 2013. Recent projects include Killing TV, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2023); Back to Basics, Oi!, Hong Kong (2018); Art and China after 1989: Theatre of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017); Social Fabric: New Work by Mariana Hahn and Kwan Sheung Chi, MILL6 Foundation, Hong Kong (2016); Globale: Global Control And Censorship, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2015); A Hundred Years of Shame - Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations, Para Site, Hong Kong (2015); and The Part In The Story Where A Part Becomes A Part Of Something Else, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2014).

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