We take photos to capture the moments worth cherishing forever. But sometimes that is not enough - so thought two artists who turned their photos into paintings.
To celebrated the opening of a new space, Woaw Gallery presents The Record, the Double, and the Singular, a duo-solo exhibition of works by artists Kitty Ng and Taedong Lee.
Ng, a talented artist who is merely 24 years old, expresses through her art focused on the theme of intimacy with friends and family.
She said: "I paint only from photographs from my camera roll, so it's like looking into these daily occurrences with people that are closest to me, and trying to record this moment."
One, S to S, frames a precious reunion moment with a friend who had studied abroad with her. The painting depicts the two of them sharing a drink.
The original photo was taken when the friend flew into Hong Kong, and they shared their favorite drink, Aperol Spritz. "I just thought I was so grateful to him for coming to visit me, so I wanted to keep a painting, to keep a memory of this."
The painting draws a resemblance to the iconic scene in the movie Lady and the Tramp, as Ng enjoys incorporating popular culture elements into her works.
She said the creative gesture is an attempt to infuse humor in her paintings. "There's always a bit of humor inside everything. Especially with intimated memories, you would always have a lot of inside jokes and these complicated, mixed feelings."
As she recently graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a bachelor of fine arts in painting, the current stage of her life feels like a transitional phase. "Now in my early 20s, it feels like I'm in between different places and different stages of life, " she said.
Perhaps it is part of the reason she wanted to turn her memories into paintings. "When I think about these intimate everyday moments, I feel like I won't be able to experience it the same way again, so I just try to record it."
While the Ng's intimate paintings are exhibited at Woaw Gallery's original space at 5 Sun Street in Wan Chai, the works of Korean artist Taedong Lee are showcased a few steps away, at the gallery's new space at 3 Sun Street.
Born in Seoul in 1989, Lee also draws his artistic inspiration from photographs capturing moments of intimacy with loved ones.
In An Exceptionally Bright Night, the composition portrays three individuals - the artist and his parents - positioned on horseback, gracefully swirling within the rich blue-green hues that form their surroundings. It is based on a photograph of the artist when he was about eight years old.
Lee said he is trying to create a "phantom place" in his paintings, which he explained is a space between memories of the past and feelings of the present.
"My work begins by reflecting on the experience of a landscape, the vision, the touch, the smell, and the sounds of that time," he said.
"More than just transferring memories, the recollected landscape elements are reinterpreted into a new space with various color harmony and techniques that express my own fundamental feelings."
Exhibition curator and founder of the gallery Kevin Poon said the new location being steps away from the inaugural space was not intentional.
"It just happened organically," he said. "We love the street and we find it very attractive. When we found that a place nearby was available we just decided to do it."
Now the close proximity of the two places has allowed this unique duo-solo exhibition to transpire.
"It's very rare in Hong Kong that we're able to do this. And I think it creates a great dialogue between the two artists, how they both paint from photos and memory and how that brings out their understanding of everyday life."
The duo-solo exhibition will be on show until October 22.
