Frog King, Kwok Mang Ho – [art]attack 12

Kwok Mang Ho, born in 1947 in mainland China and grew up in Hong Kong, experienced Art life in New York for 15 years, returned and settled down in Hong Kong since 1995.

His “Frog Fun Dimension”, focusing on the ideas of “Time as Art”, “Art as Play”, audience interaction/participation and improvisation, Kwok performed“9 Million Works”, “Frog Fun Lum”, etc. During the exhibition he improvised with the audience and produced a “One Second body Installation’ and a “One Second Live Art”.

Kwok has produced numerous performances, sculptures, paintings and installations in over 3,000 art events all over the world since 1967. He has won several awards, including Hong Kong Arts Development Council Emeritus Fellowship in 1998.

He started the “ Frog King Kwok Museum” project in 2001. In the late 1970s, he started to transform plastic bags into arts objects by connecting them in circles to establish a 3-dimensional installation in an open space in Toronto. His daring art performances to tie plastic bags in Tiananmen Square and Great Wall also shocked the conservative contemporaries.

As a multi-media artist, Kwok received his art training at the Fine Art Grantham College of Education Hong Kong (1967-1970), and furthered his studies in the extramural courses of the Chinese University and the University of Hong Kong (1968-1973). He also pursued overseas studies at the Art Students League of New York (1980-1984).

ABOUT FROG KING
Kwok has produced numerous performances, sculptures, paintings and installations in over 3,000 art events all over the world since 1967. He has won several awards, including Hong Kong Arts Development Council Emeritus Fellowship in 1998. He started the “Frog King Kwok Museum” project in 2001.

「蛙王」郭孟浩在三十年藝術生涯中，從事繪畫、雕塑、裝置，以及觀念、即興、行為藝術等超過三千項活動。他的藝術行為每每出人意表，在世人眼中他是一個行為怪誕，甚至近乎瘋癲的人。「我是下一個世紀的藝術家，因為我的藝術走在時代前端，現在的人無法理解。」 

Kwok Mang Ho , often dubbed to be the most eccentric and unconventional Hong Kong artist, devoted the past 30-year in pursuing his art and having them extended to his companions and the public.

With wide creative range… Kwok is talented in transforming any space into an installation almost intuitively. However, his artwork covers a wide creative range, including painting, sculpture, environmental installations and video installations, to happenings and performances.

While often labeled as contemporary arts fanatic, Kwok has a strong foundation in traditional arts such that Chinese ink ages and calligraphy are his specialties.

Undoubtedly, Kowk is the pioneer of unconventional arts in Hong Kong early in the 70s. While most other artists were working on the realist tradition in Hong Kong, he was working with installation, performances and other forms of art that are unheard of in the 70s and 80s.

His art style… The sense of unbound freedom with chaotic expressions and spontaneous spirits is fully reflected in Kwok’s works, which bring about a very unique personal style in the art community.

Plastic bags, fire, rotten eggs, steel, burnt plastic pipes – all become his raw materials of sculptures or installations. Professing in the making of installations, he goes beyond it by spinning materials through in the established space, as spontaneous as a spider spinning a web. This is often understood as forging a connection between Kwok and the audience and amongst the audience.

Why King of the Frogs ? One may have strong curiosity regarding the “art name” of Kwok – Frog King – which is sometimes more familiar than Kwok’s real name in the public. The frog theme is one which reappears all the time in Kwoks arts – the frog-eyes shape in his calligraphy, his Froggy Glasses Project, even the crown-shaped pattern and his mountainous Hong Kong skyline – all strongly communicating a sense of association between his art and frog. Since then, frog and Kwok’s art simply becomes coexists and becomes the symbol of Kwok Mang Ho.

「對我而言，藝術就是生命，生命就是藝術。」—— 郭孟浩
郭孟浩一向被視為最離經背道的香港藝術家，三十年來對自己的藝術追求孜孜不倦，更積極將之推展至伙伴群眾中間。

多元創作  郭孟浩最擅長將空間創造成感性的裝置藝術。他的藝術傾向卻是多元化的，包括繪畫、雕塑、環境裝置、即興藝術和表演等等。雖然一向被標籤為當代藝術的狂熱分子，郭孟浩的國學美術根底卻甚為深厚，水墨畫和書法都是他的強項。

毫無疑問，郭孟浩是七十年代早期非傳統藝術的先驅。當其他人仍舊守著傳統現實主義表現模式，他已經率先採納七、八十年代鮮為人知的裝置藝術、即興表演等的藝術形式。
藝術風格 隨心而發、混雜無序的表現方式充分反映郭孟浩天馬行空，自由自在的想像，令其作品散發獨一無異的個人風格。

膠袋、火、臭蛋、鋼料、燒焦的膠喉，通通都是郭孟浩雕塑、裝置藝術的原料。裝置藝術是他的專長，一般物料在他手中都能衝破既定的空間，自然而然，猶如蜘蛛吐絲織網。不囿於固定空間，更可拉近郭孟浩與觀眾，甚至觀眾與觀眾之間的距離。

何謂「蛙王」 ?  蛙王——郭孟浩的藝名，耐人尋味，也或許較他的真名更廣為人知。青蛙主題在蛙王的作品中可謂無所不在——他書法中的青蛙大眼、青蛙眼鏡計劃、皇冠圖案以至山巒起伏的港島輪廓——都表現出其作品與青蛙的糾結聯繫。郭孟浩的藝術既然與青蛙如影隨形，青蛙也順理成章成了他的標記。