Kwok Tsui – Many Moons Ago

Huge congratulations to QSS studio holder Kwok Tsui on their major upcoming solo show ‘Many Moons Ago’ at The MAC Belfast.

‘Kwok Tsui’s quiet, process-driven paintings express belonging and liminality through materiality rather than overt narrative. His subtractive method — removing rather than adding paint — becomes a metaphor for diaspora identity, where absence, erasure, and memory coexist.

Working primarily through subtraction, paint is removed from the surface to reveal light and form, creating shadows within, an order and tension between presence and absence, belonging and disconnection. This push and pull opens a contemplative ‘in-between’ space that feels otherworldly yet safe.

The muted, largely monochromatic surfaces are built from thin layers of paint, exposing traces of previous iterations and identities. Lines repeat across the surface in a unified horizontal direction, shaped by deliberately controlled brushstrokes. These linear rhythms hold a quiet vibration.

Recurring silhouetted circles evoke a range of associative and representational elements, often suggesting the moon, a portal, and the concept of completeness deeply rooted in Chinese culture.’