Cover Wallace Chan, jewellery designer who is hosting an art exhibition that coincides with the Venice Biennale 2026 (Photo: courtesy of Wallace Chan)
Wallace Chan, jewellery designer who is hosting an art exhibition that coincides with the Venice Biennale 2026 (Photo: courtesy of Wallace Chan)
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Hong Kong jewellery designer Wallace Chan celebrates his 70th birthday this year with a dual-site titanium sculpture exhibition that coincides with the Venice Biennale
Venice’s Bovolo Tower, built in 1499, has mesmerised generations of tourists with its curious-looking white Istrian stone spiral staircase; bovolo means “snail shell” in the Venetian dialect. Recently, the building, which was the home of Italy’s powerful Contarini family in the 15th century and used by astronomers as an observatory in the 1850s, has been embellished with colourful contemporary sculptures of Greek mythical characters such as The Three Graces and Mercury, their appearance somewhat at odds with the Renaissance structure.
A 15-minute walk away, at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, where Antonio Vivaldi once composed and performed, three tall sculptures shaped like chrismaria, the containers for holy oils found in Catholic churches, provided an equally interesting contrast to the baroque architecture. These sci-fi creations, glowing with a metallic sheen, may seem out of place, but it is Hong Kong jewellery designer and artist Wallace Chan’s intention to connect the past, represented by the historic setting of Venice, to the present. The sculptures are part of a dual-site exhibition: Vessels of Other Worlds at the chapel, and Mythos at the Bovolo Tower. The show, which opened on May 8 and runs until October 18, coincides with the world-famous Venice Biennale.
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Above Wallace Chan with ‘Mythos’ at the Bovolo Tower (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
Wallace Chan with ‘Mythos’ at the Bovolo Tower (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
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Chan has held three previous exhibitions during Venice Biennales—Titans (2021) and Totem (2022) at Fondaco Marcello and Transcendence (2024), at the same chapel as this year. This year’s show, which is on a larger scale and takes place across two venues, is the most ambitious chapter of his artistic practice so far.
Not that Chan, now 70, would likely have been able to put on this show any earlier. “It is a combination of my life experiences and learning after coming across different cultures, artworks and peoples,” he says. The three sculptures at the chapel represent the fundamental stages of life. The concept was sparked by a visit to a church in Italy where Chan observed three vessels for sacred oil.
The first piece, Birth, features four faces of different colours, representing the four seasons, all twisted to represent a person’s malleability at the beginning of life. Atop the piece, a reflective sphere mirrors the world, signifying an individual’s relationship with the cosmos. For Growth, Chan used elements in yellow and red tones. “Yellow represents the yellow earth from which life sprouts, while red signifies the vigour and energy required for competition and survival,” he explains. The piece invites complex thought; visitors looking into the sculpture find an empty interior filled with mirrors “reflecting infinite knowledge and untapped energy”.
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Above ‘Mythos’ by Wallace Chan, shown at the Bovolo Tower (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
‘Mythos’ by Wallace Chan, shown at the Bovolo Tower (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
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The final piece, Death or Rebirth, draws from his own brushes with mortality. Having nearly drowned as a child, he describes the experience of being rescued as a shift from “terrifying helplessness” to a “floating, illusory state”. “These vessels are containers of memory, spirit and transformation; sculpted and carved in the material closest to eternity: titanium. Rather than solid materials, they contain what cannot be held: moments, emotions and the passage of time—in other words, the journey of human lives,” he says.
While the exhibition space is a Roman Catholic institution, Chan’s artworks reference the concepts of life across cultures and religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Greek mythology, as well as artworks such as Hieronymus Bosch’s 16th-century painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. The artist’s own understanding of life is similarly a tapestry woven from the threads of various religions. Born into a poor family, he would visit churches which would give out bread and milk. At home, his grandmother followed the Chinese ritual of burning incense sticks for his ancestors and deities. Later in life, he explored Buddhism. “Religion, to me, isn’t just a belief. It gives you knowledge. It’s a practice, an understanding of life,” says Chan, who is now secular. “I believe that once I’ve learnt what I need to know from one religion, I can move on to another to explore different faiths, cultures and perspectives.”
Above ‘Mythos’ by Wallace Chan, shown at the Bovolo Tower (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
‘Mythos’ by Wallace Chan, shown at the Bovolo Tower (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
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He believes humans all experience the same life cycles, even if they have different interpretations of the “path” they take in Christianity or of what is referred to as dao in Buddhism. “I invite you all to contemplate the cycle of birth, growth and death, and to imagine that beyond these passages [of life] lie other worlds yet to be discovered.”
This belief is also at the foundation of an exhibition he is launching in Shanghai next month in a move to set up an east-meets-west cultural dialogue. “Both Venice and Shanghai are closely tied to water and, like water, both cities have their own stories of changing states and the capacity to hold, reflect and transform,” he says. The show at Shanghai’s Long Museum will provide a dramatic shift in scale. While his Venice vessels are about the size of a chandelier, their Shanghai counterparts will measure between seven and ten metres tall. These gigantic structures will feature kaleidoscopic, mirrored interiors—visitors can step inside them and look at their own images as a metaphor for their own life journeys. There will also be cameras transmitting live footage between the two cities, creating a conceptual “portal” that allows audiences in one venue to glimpse those in the other.
Above ‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ Wallace Chan, shown at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ Wallace Chan, shown at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
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Chan’s earliest introduction to art was none other than the city of Venice itself, which he first visited 38 years ago. “I didn’t know what art was back then. I just tagged along with some European friends,” he recalls. “I didn’t even know what Venice was; the only ‘Venice’ I knew was a cha chaan teng in To Kwa Wan, where I lived when I was young. Their milk tea and pineapple buns were very nice.”
He visited the Arsenale, a complex of former shipyards and armouries which are now used as an art space for the biennale, and was intrigued by the installations. “There was a pile of sweets in one corner, and a pile of stones in another. There was a burnt wooden ladder. I didn’t fully understand what they meant, but it got me thinking about the creative use of materials in expressions.”
Above ‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ Wallace Chan, shown at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ Wallace Chan, shown at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà (Photo: courtesy of Federico Sutera)
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Chan went on to make a name for himself as a jewellery designer; then, eight years ago, he remembered his first Venice experience and decided he was ready to experiment with bolder, more creative practices outside of the delicate profession of jewellery making. “Just as the artists then used sweets or stones to explore their understanding of materials, I decided to use titanium—a strong material that can withstand weathering and high temperatures—to express my understanding of forms and materials in the world.”
Titanium is now a favourite medium; he is fascinated by the metal’s properties: lightweight, chemically stable and biologically compatible—it’s often used in dental implants and spacecraft. Yet it also is notoriously difficult to work with, requiring temperatures of 1,700 degrees Celsius in an inert gas environment to be cast. “The material is unrelenting,” he says, adding that he identifies with its “stubborn” spirit of resistance. “It is a perfect metaphor for my unyielding quest to pursue spiritual and artistic knowledge.”
Above The ’Birth’ sculpture in ‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ by Wallace Chan, shown at Shanghai’s Long Museum (Photo: courtesy of Wallace Chan)
The ’Birth’ sculpture in ‘Vessels of Other Worlds’ by Wallace Chan, shown at Shanghai’s Long Museum (Photo: courtesy of Wallace Chan)
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And the 70-year-old shows no intention of slowing down. He remains deeply invested in experimenting with different elements, from diamonds and titanium to light, shadow, time and water. He views himself not just as a jeweller or an artist, but as a creator who must understand geography, humanity, philosophy and chemistry. “I don’t think I’m old at all; I’ve never thought about retiring,” he says, observing that many of his peers who retired at 60 became “stuck in the past”. “I want to keep learning, and I want to have all these different dialogues with the different eras I live through. That is how you remain creative.”
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
