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Winnie Mak
Biography
Winnie MAK was born in Hong Kong. She lives and works in Hong Kong, and creates ink art on a full-time basis.
She studied Chinese ink painting and calligraphy in Calgary, Canada in the 1970s. She attended workshops organised by the late LEE Byng, the foremost watercolourist from Hong Kong, and the late Chin Shek LAM, a leading contemporary Chinese ink painter based in Canada.
In 1994, Winnie co-initiated and conducted a series of experimental art classes for children from 3 to 15 years of age. And in the late 1990s, she began co-presenting and taking part in the annual Asian International Art Exhibitions of the Federation of Asian Artists.
She is a key member of the FAA - Hong Kong Committee. She set up ceramic workshops in Foshan, China in 2000, and has since been involved in various public art initiations and installations in Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific regions.
In 2013, Winnie was elected President of the Hong Kong Union of Visual Artists.
She was invited to take part in the Asian Artists Workshop in Krabi, under the aegis of the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture of Thailand in January 2013. Her completed artwork was included in the permanent collection of the Ministry of Culture, and featured among art pieces contributed by leading visual artists from all over Asia at the 27th Asian International Art Exhibition (19.1-22.3.2013) at the Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Center in Bangkok.
In 2014, her one-person exhibition, titled: LINES and BEYOND: Contemporary Ink by Winnie Mak was presented by the A GALLERY in Taipei (2.8-13.9.2015). In December, the same year, her artwork was featured in the Contemporary Modern Exhibition, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Modern Art Society Singapore at the ION Gallery, Orchard Turn, Singapore.
In September 2015, she took part in the Modern Chinese Culture (HOP) Invitational Exhibition co-organised by the Institute of Arts, the Beijing University; and the St. Petersburg State University’s Confucius Institute, the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science; and presented by the Diaghilev Modern Art Museum of the University.
Her representative artworks were presented in the “Epoch of Ink Paintings - Inheritance and Transformation Exhibition” curated by Ms. Henrietta Tsui-Leung, at the Liang Yi Museum (7-18.10.2015), forming a part of the “Intangible Culture Heritage Festival” organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
She was invited to take part in the “Our Cities—The 5th Shenzhen & Hong Kong Metropolitan Ink Art Exchange Exhibition” at the Hong Kong Central Library Exhibition Galleries (opening 8.10.2015) and the exhibition continued at the Shenzhen Art Institute (opening 18.2.2016).
Her ink art was also featured in the “Shanghai-Hong Kong-Macau: Modern Chinese Ink Painting Exhibition 2015” organized by the Hong Kong Modern Ink Painting Society at the Hong Kong Central Library Exhibition Galleries (10-17.11.2015).
Artist’s Statement:
“I adore Nature and it is my source of inspiration. I enjoy using Chinese ink and brushes to illustrate its meticulous elegance.”
