HILARIE HON
A relative newcomer to Fo Tan, Hilarie Hon moved her studio—and her pet guinea pig, Phoebe—to the district in 2018. “I liked the bigger spaces here and the higher ceilings, and many of my friends also have studios here,” she says. “We don’t organise lots of official events for artists; it’s more informal. Like, ‘Do you want to meet my guinea pig?’ ‘OK!’”
Hon works in her studio every day from about noon “until I’m exhausted, so tired I go almost straight to sleep,” making ceramics and her signature colourful paintings. “I love really bright colours,” says Hon. “I go to a lot of effort to make the colour as bright as possible. When I start painting, I have the colour in my mind, and sometimes a feeling, but I don’t know the composition until I start.”
Multiple paintings in progress are always propped against the walls of Hon’s studio. “I work at two or three at a time, and when I’ve finished one, I hang it on a wall for one more month just to look at it. Is it finished? Is it what I want?”
Hon is currently preparing for a solo show at Gallery Exit later this year. “I’m working on a new set of works— they are paintings in cabinets,” says Hon. “Painting is very personal, very private. Sometimes it doesn’t feel necessary to me to show it to anyone. It actually bothers me a lot. So, with the cabinets, the viewer has the option to not look at the painting.” Hon may have given them the option, but it’s hard to imagine collectors closing the doors on her vivid, vibrant canvases.