On the Cover: March 2025On the Cover: March 2025

Stephen Wong Chun Hei’s “What’s the Reason for Leaving This Beautiful Place?” sold for HK$254,000 at Phillips New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art auction on Oct. 4, 2024 in Hong Kong. 

Nature and the mountainscapes of his native Hong Kong inspire Wong’s sought-after paintings. Already an established artist in the primary market, Wong has seen a rapid increase in popularity at auction in recent years, setting new auction records for himself.  

It’s not difficult to see the appeal in Wong’s paintings, which leave collectors clamoring for more. Taking a bird’s-eye view approach, Wong’s en plein air works capture a combination of rough sketches, memory and his imagination. His vivid and high contrast acrylic paintings (according to Wong, he’s allergic to oil paint and had to switch early in his career) reference the works of artists such as David Hockney and are influenced by animé and video games.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, Wong got creative and took to Google Earth to scout out inspiration for his paintings while the world was on lockdown. A fun fact about many of his landscapes is that he paints a small-scale model of a car into it, which reflects his growing toy car collection. 

Some of our other favorites, from Phillips New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art auction on Oct. 4, 2024 in Hong Kong, appear throughout the issue.