Frog King Kwok Mang Ho

Biography

Born in 1947.
Frog King — Kwok Mang-ho — is a pioneer of Hong Kong contemporary art who has crossed every established boundary. Setting out from traditional ink painting and calligraphy, he expanded his practice into bodily expression and installation; his plastic-bag installation at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the late 1970s is recorded as the first work of performance art in China.
Active in New York through the 1980s, he pursued an experimental practice fusing Eastern and Western cultures. In 2011 he represented Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale, and he has also taken part in Art Basel Hong Kong and M+ Museum.

Working from every conceivable medium — the body, water, fire, ink — under his own aesthetics of 「任次元」(Any Dimension) and 「混統美学」(Hybrid Aesthetics), he has realised over 3,000 international projects and continues an insatiable practice. He is a treasure of Hong Kong contemporary art.

He is convinced that art holds a universal power to open the human soul and to nurture love for humanity. Guided by that conviction, he continues to build an art of his own through many years of refinement and technical discipline.

CV

Career

2001
Founded and ran the Frog King Museum at Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong

1998
Emeritus Fellowship, Hong Kong Arts Development Council

1987
Honoured by the City of New York in connection with “Best Community Arts Service”

1980s
Based in New York, developing an experimental practice fusing Eastern and Western cultures

1979
Presented “Plastic Bag Happenings” at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, and at the Great Wall of China
Historically regarded as among the earliest works of performance art in China

1974
Founding member of the Hong Kong Visual Arts Society

1947
Born in Guangdong Province, China; raised in Hong Kong

Major Exhibitions

2026
Solo Exhibition “Frog Dream 2026” BrainBrunnGALLERY, Hachioji, Tokyo
Yuko MIZOBUCHI Neo-Primitive Art Exhibition + Frog King Kwok Mang Ho Response Exhibition, frogTOPIA open, Hong Kong
Edible Art Fair, Central, Hong Kong

2025
“Kwok Art Institute Recall Show” (Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong)

2024
Solo Exhibition “Not so Frog King” (Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong)

2023
Public sculpture, Hong Kong International Airport, commissioned by the Hong Kong Airport Authority

2022
Art Basel Hong Kong

2021
Participated in “Ink City” at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong

2020
Solo Exhibition “Frog King Kwok: A Living Legend” (10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong)

2019-2020
“A Sense of Place: From Turner to Hockney” / “Classic Remix: Hong Kong Viewpoint” (Hong Kong Museum of Art)

2018-2019
“Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s”
(National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Gallery Singapore)

2018
START Art Fair (Saatchi Gallery, London)
Art Brussels, Belgium

2017
Solo Exhibition “Frog King at 70: Experimental Ink Art Since the 1970s”

2016
H Queen’s Public Art Project and Solo Exhibition at Shanghai Tang, Hong Kong

2015
Invited to “Mobile M+: Live Art” (M+, Hong Kong)
Presented a performance reinterpreting “Plastic Bag Happenings”

2011
54th Venice Biennale, representing Hong Kong

Collections

Chung Mun Kyu Museum
M+ Museum, Hong Kong
Hong Kong Museum of Art
MTR Ho Man Tin Station (Public Sculpture)
Macao Museum of Art
Tainan Museum of History, Taiwan
Hong Kong City Hall and Fringe Club
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Smithsonian Video Collection, Washington, D.C., USA
Denver Art Museum, USA
World Bank, Washington, D.C., USA
Bank of China, New York, USA
Fortune Magazine, New York, USA
Reader’s Digest, USA