Hope real estate

HONG KONG — The art scene here was largely closed off to the world for three years, but the city’s self-imposed pandemic isolation has been an unexpected boon to the local art scene. There has been soul-searching, and freshness injected with the addition of some radical (for this city) young newcomers. At No. 3 Staunton Street in the city’s SoHo district, the roughly 1,300 square-foot ground floor was once used as a parking space for a Ferrari. Now it has a new purpose, as a gallery space for a new venture — the Young Soy Gallery . “Young Soy” is Cantonese slang for ugly, and the “ugly” gallery is determined to shake up the conservative local art scene. The gallery’s strong mission statement, or manifesto , is to be inclusive, unconventional in their approach, and to cultivate artists with potential to claim a position in art history. They see the artists whose work they show as “philosophers, educators, rebels, visionaries, perhaps even degenerates.” As Hong Kong continues … [Read more...] about Hong Kong’s New Kids on the Block

HONG KONG — Michele Chu has always been interested in exploring the intimacy between strangers. She has built art installations with fabric barriers and designed social experiments eliciting public participation, and intended to base her upcoming exhibition at the contemporary gallery PHD Group — her debut solo show — on the cleansing rituals at a bathhouse. But the work became more raw and personal when, a few months ago, her mother applied to receive euthanasia after a protracted battle with cancer. The exhibit, “ You, Trickling ,” is about anticipating the loss of a maternal figure. It also explores how rituals and a renewed connection with one’s own body might facilitate healing. Ms. Chu brings the hot air, mist and steam reminiscent of an onsen, a Japanese communal bathhouse, into the sprawling 3,000-square-foot gallery space of PHD Group, which she divides with fabric into womblike chambers and tunnels. “On a city-level, there is an undercurrent of loss everywhere,” she … [Read more...] about In Hong Kong, a New Exhibit Creates a ‘Space for People to Feel’

By JILL COLVIN (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — For 40 years, former President Donald Trump has navigated countless legal investigations without ever facing criminal charges. That record may soon come to an end. Trump could be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury as soon as this week, potentially charged with falsifying business records connected to hush money payments during his 2016 campaign to women who accused him of sexual encounters. It’s one of several investigations that have intensified as Trump mounts his third presidential run. He has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and accuses prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated “witch hunt” to damage his campaign. An indictment in New York would mark an extraordinary turn in American history, making Trump the first former president to face a criminal charge. And it would carry tremendous weight for Trump himself, threatening his long-established ability to avoid consequences despite entanglement in a … [Read more...] about Trump’s potential indictment caps decades of legal scrutiny