As soon as Hong Kong singer and actress Karena Lam saw Watanabe Mayumi's works, she knew she had to bring them to Hong Kong. We spoke to the pair in light of the artist's debut solo exhibition in Hong Kong
Karena Lam is a well-known actress and singer in Hong Kong and recently, she's taken on a new role as art curator.
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Having curated her first show for Japanese calligrapher Inoue Yuichi in 2016, Karena has put together her second art exhibition for one of her favourite Japanese artists, Watanabe Mayumi, from now until April 8. Titled Send In The Clowns, this marks Watanabe's debut solo exhibition in Hong Kong.
We sat down with the seemingly unlikely duo to find out how this collaboration came about, and the moment the Osaka-based artist knew her works had a special place in Karena's heart:
How did the two of you meet?
Karena: In 2015, I was in Tokyo and walked into a bookstore. At the back of the store was a room showcasing a mini-exhibition of Watanabe’s Monolog series and I was blown away. The lines of her paintings were so simple yet contrasted and each painting has its own narration. I remember walking around the exhibition and wanting every single piece in the room. In the end, I bought three of her pieces.
I went to her exhibitions in Japan a few times after that and decided I would like to bring her works to Hong Kong, so I approached her last February. She probably thought I was crazy, as she did not know anything about me at that point. During the whole process of working together, we relied on Google Translate due to our language barrier.