Jerry Kwan (Chinese: 關晃, 1934–2008) is a Hong Kong artist, Born in Xinhui, Guangdong in 1934, in southern China, Kwan moved to Hong Kong in 1949. He started painting during the 1960s and the 1970s. While Kwan did not work with just one single style in his artworks, his main focus was on oil paintings.
In 1972, Kwan moved to the United States to study Art and Design. He lived and worked in New York City. Kwan returned to Hong Kong in 1997 and taught at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
He received awards from the Ford Foundation for excellent works in 1978 and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for artists (1995/96) in the U.S.[1]
Since 1971, Kwan has organized several solo exhibitions in Hong Kong and New York and group exhibitions in Hong Kong, Korea, the United States and Macau. In 2000, Kwan worked in Fanling studio and worked as part-time tutor in Chinese University in 2001.
In Mr. Jerry Kwan's early life, he used oil painting to be his major medium expression to himself. In the 1970s, he left for the United States for further studies in fine arts and graduate in the Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio, and the Syracuse University, New York. He stayed in US around twenty years. And he joined many exhibitions that were awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1995. In 1997, he came back to Hong Kong. Besides of his working on painting, he also became a mentor in Polytechnic University, the Art School of Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In May 2008, Kwan died. His friends in the painting community and his students remember him by holding an exhibition for him. The exhibition will display works of Mr. Kwan, many are shown on a loan basis with the kind consent of galleries and friends, as well as related articles, photos and information. It will not only provide a broad view of the creations of Mr. Kwan, a core figure of our art scene, but also an opportunity to look at the life of an enthusiastic and committed artist.
Dedicated to his life to art making, Jerry used oil painting as his major medium of expression in his artwork. He claimed that he had no interest to create his artwork with strong individualistic. Also, he did not have the fixed topics and ideas in his artwork because he attempted to find out new topics and ideas for his artwork in his lifetime. Long Tin has described Jerry as an artist who lures people to misread him and his artwork.
You can get the meaning of different social issues from the artwork of Jerry. For example, he made the series of the artwork of insert to represent different social issues at that time after his return to Hong Kong in 2000s.
1978- Ford Foundation for excellent works 1995/6 National Endowment for The Arts' Fellowship for artists,USA
1997-98 Guest lecturer at School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University 1998-2004 Part-time tutor at the Hong Kong Arts Centre/RMIT 2001- Part-time tutor at Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University