Lucid Dreams of Johnson Tsang

Born in Hong Kong, Tsang’s works mostly employ realist sculptural techniques accompanied by surrealist imagination. In 2002, Tsang started to represent versatile splashes with ceramics. He created the Yuanyang series, which were then collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Yingge Ceramics Museum of Taiwan.

The mind-bending sculptures of Johnson Tsang push the limits of imagination and sometimes even of gravity. By turns whimsical, lyrical, and provocative, his works capture the fluidity of both physical motion and human emotion while challenging us to see the world in a different way. He uses babies in most of his artworks.
Johnson Tsang:
“My works depicting babies were expressing my point of view to the world through the eyes of a child—my inner child.”

Sculptor Johnson Tsang (previously) continues to push realism’s boundaries in his sculptures of faces that are stretched and opened up in surreal ways. In his latest series, Open Mind, Tsang incorporates hand gestures and metaphorical materials like growing leaves and rippling water to convey a sense of open-mindedness in his sculptures.
The artist shares with Colossal that he has always been creative, but due to an impoverished upbringing and poor grades in school, he initially focused on trade work, including as an air conditioning assistant and a potato chip fryer.

Tsang first took a clay modeling class in 1991, during his thirteen-year career as a policeman. He describes his first experience with the material to Colossal: “The clay seemed so friendly to me, it listened to every single word in my mind and did exactly I was expecting. Every touch was so soothing. I feel like I was touching human skin. I found peace and joy in it. I’ve felt in love with it ever since.”

During the past decade, Tsang continues to develop his techniques in capturing the instantaneous moment of splashes with white porcelain and stainless steel. In 2011 and 2012, Tsang’s works, “Bowls of Fantasy” and “Splash of Wonder”, were awarded the Special Prize of Korea Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale 2011 International Competition and Grand Prize of 2012 Taiwan International Ceramics Biennale respectively. Tsang is the first Chinese artist to have received both of these two prestigious international ceramics awards.

Apart from ceramics, Tsang has worked on stainless steel sculptures and public art projects since 2004. He has been commissioned by a number of private and public organizations.

In 2009, Tsang received “The Secretary for Home Affairs' Commendation” from the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for his outstanding achievements in international art events. Tsang has been appointed as the Expert Adviser of the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

Tsang, now 58, is a prolific creator, and reports that he completes about a sculpture a week. He shares new work on his website as well as on Instagram and Facebook, where he also chronicles works in progress.

Follow this amazing artist here:
https://www.instagram.com/johnson_tsang_artist/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/johnsontsangcs/