‘A projection of my brain’: Roberta takes art show to big city

9 February 2019 rmedcalf ART 0

Sai Kung artist Roberta Boffo will stage her first solo exhibition outside the town from 2 March. Entitled “A Projection of My Brain” it will be at WeWork Gallery, New St, Sai Ying Pun, where Roberta will showcase her pen and ink artwork until 15 March.

The two shown here are “Clarity” and “Milky Way”, Both now sold. She has commissions to do similar pieces for other clients. Her supporters and art lovers are invited to an opening reception at WeWork Gallery at 6:00 pm on 1 March.

Clarity lores — CLARITY: “This artwork was created with a calligraphy brush and ink. I drew all of the symbols and patterns as a first layer and then filled the big central circle with millions of dots, all hand-dotted. The work took me just shy of 100 hours of work. It is named Clarity to provoke the viewer to find clarity and simplicity in the work, for nothing was ever complex, everything started from just a dot, as my favorite Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky used to say”. © Roberta Boffo

With her partner Wendell Paulus, Roberta runs a gallery at first floor, 11 Man Nin St under the brands RAH Studio Gallery and Roberta’s Art House. Here she works delicately with fine pens creating her quirky art. She also holds art classes weekly for children — “I take them into the world of zentangles and abstracts” — and for adults monthly. Classes range from $250 up.

Milky Way lores — MILKY WAY”This work was created with an extra fine pen-liner. I started from the central butterfly, which has one transparent wing. That effect was achieved through hatching (closely spaced parallel lines) to create shades and a tonal effect, where you can still see through the underlying drawing/design. From that, everything else developed. The composition was all done free-hand, including floral and mandala-like creations. All the dot work on the background is also hand-made with a fine liner. Milky Way is called, as it reminds me of when I used to look up to the sky, in the countryside where I grew up with my family and used to see this beam of light shine through a pitch black night sky with bright stars everywhere. Milky Way, my work, is sort of the inverted version of that view. ” © Roberta Boffo

Roberta studied Chinese and other Asian Languages at La Foscari University in Venice and marketing and business at Capital Normal University in Peking. There she met her husband-to-be Wendell; they now live in Tai Mong Tsai village. A native of Suriname, Wendell runs an Amazonian food importing business from the same Man Nin St premises. The couple are worshippers at Resurrection Church and often seen at The Hive when they hold art and food events.

bulbuls — Bulbuls snuggling © Robert Ferguson

From 23 to 27 March Roberta’s Art House will host a display of Robert Ferguson’s wildlife photography. A Sai Kung resident, Robert says most of his award-winning photos are taken within 10 minutes walk of his home. His show in Sai Kung is entitled “Portraits of Wild Creatures in Hong Kong”. Photos of at least 50 species will be on show. There will be an opening reception at 5:00 pm on 23 March and a talk by Robert from 2:00 to 3.30 pm on 24 March.

For more on Robert’s photography see www.wildcreatureshongkong.org.

More of Roberta’s art may be seen at https://www.facebook.com/robertaboffoart

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