PMQ Central｜The 10th HKwalls Street Art Festival 2025 Exhibition

Description

The 10th Street Art Festival, one of Hong Kong's major arts and cultural events, hosted by local non-profit art group HKwalls, has been unveiled. It will run for nine days from March 22 to 30, 2025, bringing a wonderful street art and cultural experience to the city!

The highlight of the annual HKwalls Street Art Festival is definitely the street murals created by many overseas, domestic and local artists. This year, HKwalls has invited 30 artists from all over the world, including 14 overseas artists from Europe, Oceania and Asia, 6 artists from Mainland China and 10 local artists from Hong Kong. They will gather in Central Soho, Mid-Levels, Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun for nine days to paint large-scale street murals* on the streets of Hong Kong. The works of many artists can be found on the exterior walls of buildings, shop gates, tin-roofed stalls, gardens and even streets, adding interest and a strong artistic atmosphere to the urban landscape. At that time, the public can start from scratch, witness the birth of unique public art works, and even interact with artists to experience a different street art journey.
*For details, please refer to the Appendix: Street mural creation locations of overseas, domestic and local artists

This year's HKwalls Street Art Festival 2025 is packed with activities that are definitely not to be missed: in addition to using PMQ as its base camp, bringing the new "HKwalls Rooms" exhibition plan, providing venues for artists to create murals, and hosting a series of comprehensive art exhibitions and workshops; it also continues to partner with Sino Group to exhibit original works designed by overseas and local new media artists on the 4,000 square meter Sino Light Art Curtain Wall in Tsim Sha Tsui Center and Empire Center. In addition, HKwalls has collaborated with Kai Tak Sports Park for the first time to provide a mural creation venue for three local young artists participating in the "Mentorship Art Scheme" to give them space to unleash their creativity and showcase their talents.

HKwalls Street Art Festival is the largest and most representative street art event in Hong Kong. This year's lineup is still strong. It has received support from the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), which has invited a total of 12 overseas artists, mainland Chinese artists and local Hong Kong artists to participate in this street event.

Together with 18 other artists, the highlight project of the 10th Street Art Festival - Street Mural Creation has brought together 14 overseas artists from Europe, Oceania and Asia, 6 artists from Mainland China and 10 local Hong Kong artists, aiming to inject new vitality into Hong Kong's street art landscape.

Many overseas artists gathered in Hong Kong to create murals in the streets and alleys of Central and Western District

El Rughi (@el_rughi) from Italy is a self-taught artist with a passion for creation. His unique creative style combines psychedelic culture, graffiti, underground comics and contemporary graphic design to create his own style. Emic (@emicartist) from Ireland is good at combining realism and abstraction. He tells personal experiences and explores social issues in his works, showing the rich cultural heritage of the city. HOPARE (@hopare1) from France has become one of the representatives of urban art at the age of less than 35. With his endless creativity, he has dabbled in art media such as murals, oil paintings, sculptures and Azul tiles. Like a traveler looking for the promised land, he creates new works with every encounter. Isaac Cordal (@isaaccordal) from Spain They are also involved in street art and sculpture creation, using miniature art installations to reflect social issues, often depicting the fragile postures of characters, reflecting on the relationship between human conditions and urban life; Joana Merlini (@jojo_stickers) from Portugal likes to design stickers with street art elements to let everyone know about interesting sticker art and lower the threshold for appreciating art; NeSpoon (@nes.nespoon) from Poland is famous for its exquisite lace patterns, combining traditional crafts with modern urban art, praising women's dexterity with beautiful lace designs, while exploring themes such as feminism and cultural heritage; Stohead (@stohead) from Germany His artistic career began with graffiti, and he is currently a freelance artist and illustrator. His works often feature overlapping contrasting colors, creating a strong visual impact. Czech artist Toy_Box (@toybox010101) is a street artist, illustrator and cartoonist. His works are deeply influenced by childhood memories and popular culture, combining reality with fantasy. His style is vivid, fantastic, bold and colorful.

Australia’s George Rose (@george_rose) vividly explores the natural world through his creations, with a particular focus on the fragility of nature. He often paints endangered native plants and animals, magnifies the details, and creates dynamic compositions with bold colors, adding a unique gradient effect that has been described as “sweet”; Japan’s Mon (@monmon2133) is both a DJ and hip-hop music producer, and often explores the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness; South Korea’s XEVA (@xeva) is deeply influenced by American superrealist master Chuck Close. At the beginning of his creation, he pursued photorealism, but later gradually turned to an abstract style with diverse colors and patterns, which is more experimental.

A new generation of domestic artists shows off their talents and brings refreshing street art works

As for domestic artists, Chan13 (@chan20002), who is also an architect, has been focusing on Chinese graffiti creation since 2013. His works combine traditional Chinese calligraphy, architecture and decorative art to form a unique style; Nut (@nut.chi), a representative of Gen Z, was born in Zhanjiang, Guangdong in 2000. He started to get in touch with graffiti culture and began to create at the age of 15. Since 2020, he has integrated blue and white porcelain into his personal artistic style, successfully established a new art form, and became China's first "blue and white porcelain style" public graffiti creator; Seve (@mr.seve) Zelam Lim (@zelamlim), who lives in Shanghai, is not only one of the country's leading graffiti artists, but also the co-founder of Chengdu's first American West Coast-style tattoo shop. He is fascinated by Chicano culture. Zelam Lim (@zelamlim), who lives in Shanghai, is good at integrating street graffiti with oriental artistic conception, using different materials and media to display a diverse artistic language.

Local artists from diverse cultural backgrounds tell their own Eastern stories through their creations

Local artists include Ange Mccalmont (@laydeeange), an Irish contemporary artist whose works explore the femininity of Asian culture; DD Yung (@the_dd_only), who loves to use lines to explore different artistic media and believes that an interesting personality and an optimistic attitude are the key to creating excellent works; Emerico (@emerico), whose cross-disciplinary creations include graphic and font design, visual personality shaping, and mural projection art, showing his rich and varied creative abilities; Erin Hung (@erinhung_studio), who is good at creating murals with bold colors, hand-painted fonts and feminine aesthetic elements, combines her experiences in different cities to tell stories through her works, focusing on issues such as ethnic minorities and physical, mental and spiritual health; Joseph Ellul (@j.e_illustration) He has loved painting since childhood, and painting is an indispensable part of his life. His inspiration comes from the surrounding environment, personal experience and imagination. He hopes to present his inner vision and ideas through his works.

HKwalls PMQ Base Camp provides a venue for artists from all over the world to create murals

As one of the gathering places for artists, this year's HKwalls PMQ Camp will provide a venue for artists from various countries to create murals. HOPARE (@hopare1) from France will paint a mural on the outer wall near Staunton Street. The other seven artists will create around the courtyard, including Jelmer Konjo (@jelmerkonjo) from the Netherlands, PSOMAN (@psoman_ptk) from Belgium, Zemok (@2emokomez1) from Taiwan, Dreams (@schoolofdreamshk) and Sper (@sper_graffiti) from Taiwan, and Boms (@boms_boming_here) and Zorrow (@zorr0_w) from Hong Kong. The public is welcome to come to PMQ to participate in the full range of art exhibitions and workshops, and also take time to stop and appreciate these unique murals and experience the charm of street art.

Join a professional guided tour to discover interesting city sights

In order to allow the public to have a deeper understanding of the creative concept behind each street mural, with the support of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, HKwalls has once again collaborated with local professional cultural tour guide group Wanderlust Walks to organize a number of free guided tours this year. Led by street art expert Alexandra Unrein, participants will roam the Central and Western District, explore the streets and alleys, admire many original murals, discover interesting scenery in the community, and experience the fun of urban exploration.

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/1260469822169

HKwalls Art Training Program Promotes New Talents

HKwalls’ Mentorship Art Scheme is a creative partnership of local veteran and emerging artists dedicated to nurturing emerging artistic talents. Young artists selected for the 2025 Mentorship Art Program include: illustrator and multidisciplinary artist Cherie Kwok (@cheriekwok_), who will be mentored by artist and designer Emerico (@emerico), who has extensive experience in street art and graffiti; Hazel Lau (@hazeldoodleboard), who is adept at conveying hope through clouds, stars and smiles, will be mentored by Vivian Ho (@vvvvnho), whose works include paintings, murals and digital art and are collected by prestigious institutions such as M+ and the Valmont Foundation; Noah Tang (@noahark.ink @noah.nola), who has recently begun to experiment with murals and graffiti inspired by printmaking, will be mentored by Peck, a veteran in the graffiti and street art world. (@who_writes_peck) for guidance. During the Street Art Festival, these three young artists will perform impromptu creations and paint murals at the brand new venue of Kai Tak Sports Park, injecting more artistic colour into the community.

Maria Wong, Co-Founder and Director of HKwalls, said: “This year, HKwalls is celebrating its 10th Street Art Festival. We are very pleased to invite 14 overseas artists from Europe, Oceania and Asia, together with 6 artists from Mainland China and 10 local Hong Kong artists to bring brand new street murals to the event, which has become a highlight of the event and injected new vitality into Hong Kong’s street art landscape. We look forward to continuing to actively promote street art culture in the future. Through this annual event, we will further enhance Hong Kong’s artistic atmosphere and let more people experience the charm and significance of street art!”

HKwalls 10th Street Art Festival: Street Mural Creation
Date: March 22 to 30, 2025
Time: 10am to 6pm
Location: Central Soho, Mid-Levels, Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun and Kai Tak Sports Park
Content: 30 independent artists from all over the world will gather in Hong Kong to create street murals in outdoor spaces in Central and Western District. The public can visit the site to appreciate the artists' impromptu creations and exchange ideas, and witness the birth of the works together.

HKwalls 10th Street Art Festival: HKwalls x Wanderlust Walks Street Mural Guided Tour
Date and time: 29 March 2025, 1pm and 3pm (Cantonese session)
March 29, 2025, 4:00 p.m. (English session)
March 30, 2025, 12:00 noon and 2:00 pm (English session)
12:30pm and 2:30pm, March 30, 2025 (Cantonese session)
Meeting point: PMQ Ground Floor, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central
Content: Led by street art experts from Wanderlust Walks, a professional local cultural tour guide group, you will travel through the streets and alleys of Central and Western District to provide an in-depth tour of this year's original murals. This guided tour is supported by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Fee: Free
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/1260469822169