Previously unseen collagraph plates by Ha Bik Chuen discovered, shifting focus from documentarian to artist

The Para Site in Hong Kong recently opened an exhibition titled "Reframing Strangeness," which is the first in-depth look at the printmaking of the late Ha Bik Chuen. He was born in Xinhui, Guangdong, in 1925 and moved to Hong Kong in 1957. Ha, who passed away in 2009, became well-known for his detailed documentation of art shows starting in the 1980s. After his death, a significant collection of his photographs, brochures, magazines, and scrapbooks was digitized and preserved at M+ and other institutions. Newly catalogued materials have uncovered over 100 original collagraph plates from the 1970s to the 1990s, highlighting his artistic legacy over his role as a documentarian. Efforts to organize the Ha Bik Chuen Archive have been ongoing for the past decade.