Alvin CK Lam is a home-grown artist who, while exploring watercolour urban sketching in 2020, inadvertently embarked on a journey of rediscovering his hometown Hong Kong —a place that often felt so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time. Raised in Hong Kong and later having spent a number of years abroad, upon his return Alvin soon noticed how Hong Kong’s cultural landscape has evolved, and at an unprecedented pace in the past decade. Family-run, multi-generational businesses that have once been the backbone of Hong Kong society vanished one after another; cottage industries that once flourished and shaped our city gradually faded away in the wake of progress and urban redevelopment.

With immaculate detail and vibrant story telling, Alvin’s live-sketching captures real stories of ordinary heroes whose lifetime of devotion and spirit of perseverance weaves into the formidable rise of Hong Kong and the rich cultural identity that makes Hong Kong so uniquely Hong Kong. Paying homage to an extraordinary generation and era, each painting tells of a not-so-distant past and future, and the timeless struggle between progress and tradition, reality and ambition.