Biography
Arrow Lai Siu-Wai (黎小威) is a Hong Kong contemporary printmaker working primarily with woodcut, presented in the forms of prints, moving images, and video. He is a lecturer in the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), a position he has held since 2023, and an active member of Hong Kong Open Printshop, a non-profit artist-run print studio in the city.
Lai earned his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Visual Arts, together with a Postgraduate Diploma in Education, from Hong Kong Baptist University, and his master's degree (MA Print) from the Royal College of Art, London, graduating in 2023. His printmaking practice focuses on exploring self-identity as a Hong Konger in relationship with the everyday happenings and engagements in his society — a theme he develops through both single woodcut prints and broader installation arrangements that integrate moving image with the printed surface.
A central body of work is 'A Fleeting Moment,' which contrasts classical woodcut technique with contemporary moving-image technology. Drawing on television footage of the fireworks staged for Hong Kong's national-celebration days between 1997 and 2021, the prints carry timestamp-style titles that pair a time code with a year — for example '21:18:57:23, 1997' — as a way of examining shifting identity and belonging. Lai has continued to develop this line of work, including an ongoing '2047' series begun in 2024.
His exhibition history includes Bainbridge Open 2023 (ASC Gallery, London), 'Third Floor' at the Royal College of Art (London, 2023), 'Two Fold' at Southwark Park Galleries (London), and 'Impact 11' at Hong Kong Open Printshop, with international showings across Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, India, and Spain. At EdUHK, his teaching focuses on print-art technique and the integration of traditional relief printmaking with contemporary moving-image practice.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇭🇰Hong Kong
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 4
Frequently Asked Questions
Arrow Lai Siu-Wai (黎小威) is a Hong Kong contemporary printmaker working primarily with woodcut, presented in the forms of prints, moving images, and video. He is a lecturer in the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), a position he has held since 2023, and an active member of Hong Kong Open Printshop, a non-profit artist-run print studio in the city.
Arrow Lai Siu-Wai's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
