Since its opening on 15th May 2015, Sun Museum has reached its 10th anniversary. We mark the beginning of our second decade with our relocation to Sai Yuen Lane, and the current exhibition "Profound Impressions: The Art of Liu Chunjie's Original Plates and Prints" serves as both a culmination of our ten-year celebration and the opening of a new chapter in our new venue. Sun Museum has always been dedicated to promoting Chinese culture and art, particularly paintings, with the aim of enhancing public understanding and appreciation of Chinese art. This exhibition is the first print-focused showcase since the museum's relocation, following the 2017 exhibition "Evolving Images: Modern Hong Kong Printmaking." It is also this year's "Sun Delight" programme. Featuring 48 works by renowned contemporary Chinese printmaking artist Liu Chunjie, created between 1991 and 2013, the exhibition is titled "Profound Impressions." Beyond highlighting the expressive force within every carved line of woodblock prints, the title also reflects the artist's deep contemplation and relentless exploration into the essence of art.

As Liu Chunjie notes in his artist statement, "Beyond Recognition: My Forty Years," he was born in Heilongjiang and has been creating for over four decades. Beginning with woodcut prints, he used the knife as his brush and wood as his paper. His early series of Beidahuang fully captures the grand spirit and local customs of northern landscapes. After moving to Nanjing in 2004, he conceived the idea of "Private Thoughts", finding a new direction. He created and published works such as Private Thinker, Private Thoughts, New Private Thoughts, Private Thinking Upon Lu Xun and Thinking about Lu Xun etc. By adding text alongside his prints to express "Private Thoughts", he demonstrates profound insights into history, human nature, and society. The series of Private Thinker, combining images and text, represents a breakthrough. Later, in the series of Zen Mountain and Sacred Water, he incorporated layered techniques such as dyeing, texture strokes, rubbing, tearing, and collage onto the pictorial surface. Another breakthrough style emerged through the integration of installation art, as seen in the Keep Flooding the Screen, Three Thousand Scraps of Paper and Arrays series. These works involve a greater use of materials, techniques, and three-dimensional space, with increasingly complex and layered content. From there, his creative practice has continued to deepen toward what the artist describes as "beyond recognition," where the works skilfully and seamlessly blend traditional craftsmanship with contemporary concepts.

This exhibition primarily showcases Liu Chunjie's Beidahuang series from his forty-year artistic journey. Beidahuang bears distinct imprints of its era, serving as the artist's first spiritual source. Sun Museum aims to offer audiences in Hong Kong — a tropical coastal city in southern China — a chance to experience the vastly different northern landscapes and rural scenery, as well as the pure, serene, lyrical, and passionate beauty of the black soil of the north, expressed through the artist's bold style.
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The most distinctive feature of this exhibition is its departure from the traditional print exhibition format by spotlighting the original woodblocks. The prints are displayed alongside their corresponding woodblocks, with 14 pieces featuring only the original blocks presented as independent, complete woodcut artworks — rather than mere tools to aid in understanding the printmaking process. The artist hopes that by fully presenting these original creative templates, viewers can glimpse the "first scene" of artistic creation. The varying depths and textures of the carved marks on the woodblocks may feel more directly than the finished prints. As the essence of the print works, the woodblocks draw attention to the procedural and spiritual dimensions of the creative process, inviting viewers to engage in deeper reflection — precisely what the artist intends to inspire.
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To promote the development and exchange of local culture and arts, Sun Museum has launched the "Sun Refresh" initiative at its new venue in Sai Yuen Lane. This programme invites local artists to create works in response to the museum's exhibitions, injecting fresh and vibrant creativity into the space. It enables Hong Kong artists to engage in an artistic dialogue with the exhibiting artists through new paintings presented within the gallery.

For this exhibition, we have invited the young painter Xie Chengxuan to contribute a response. Xie earned his Master of Arts in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2023. The two artists differ significantly in age, place of residence, and artistic training. Through this young artist’s creative response, we hope to offer audiences a refreshing and inspiring perspective on the museum’s exhibitions.
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Lesley F.H. LAU
Director, Sun Museum