Barbara Choi Tak-yee (lives and works in Hong Kong) received her BA and MFA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2011 and 2015 respectively. She also received studio art training at Zhejiang University and the Beijing Fine Art Academy. Choi specialises in archaic blue-green landscape paintings. She expresses her emotions and concerns through a blend of reality and fiction, and she especially excels at creating antique wonderlands in which Hong Kong buildings are nestled into mountains wreathed in clouds.
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Choi has held three solo shows and participated in local and overseas group exhibitions, including Fine Art Asia (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018), Art Basel Hong Kong (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), and Ink Asia (2016). Her work was selected for the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards 2012. Choi has received numerous awards such as the Talent Development Scholarship 2014 (HKSAR Government Fund) and the Honourable Mention Award at the Liu Kuo-Sung Ink Art Award 2021. Her works have been collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, as well as local and overseas collections. 

蔡德怡，香港居住及工作，畢業於香港中文大學藝術系，獲文學士（2011）及藝術碩士（2015），期間赴浙江大學藝術學系丶北京畫院交流進修。蔡氏主修中國工筆畫，尤擅長青綠山水，善於營造雲煙繚繞而古意盎然的奇幻意境，並以現代香港建築入畫，虛實相融，呈現其情感關懷。
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蔡氏曾舉辦三個個展，及參與多個香港及海外藝術聯展，包括「典亞藝博」（2012，2014，2015，2017，2018），「香港巴塞爾藝術展」（2015，2016，2017，2018）及「水墨藝博」（2016）等。蔡氏作品入選「香港當代藝術獎2012」，並獲得多個獎項，包括才藝發展獎學金2014（香港特別行政區政府獎學基金）、劉國松水墨藝術獎2021優選獎等。作品為香港藝術館、本地與海外藏家及機構等收藏。

Artist’s Statement 
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I work primarily in blue-green landscape painting (qinglü shanshui), exploring the use of traditional painting styles, techniques, and materials in the contemporary context. I am particularly interested in the various possibilities of the practice of ink, such as using different materials to add texture and a sense of age to xuan paper, thereby creating impressions or traces of time. I also attempt to combine shanshui painting and contemporary urban life, utilising shanshui as a way of transforming my thoughts and personal experiences into painting. 

My works are generally small or medium-sized paintings, giving them a bit more distance from real life. Inspired mainly by early blue-green shanshui painting, I use shanshui to express my own emotions and aspirations. The paintings do not represent or depict actual landscapes; they are vehicles for illusionary, emotional spaces. Hong Kong is the subject of most of my work, which portrays scenes related to my personal experience, such as old neighbourhoods, buildings, and shops. I situate them within a nostalgic blue-green landscape, and in the paintings, I create an illusory world that approaches paradise, a perpetual memento of these people and things in a landscape hovering between fantasy and reality. In recent years, I have focused more on observing and depicting Hong Kong markets; I want to record these places, which can vanish so quickly, and capture the human touch in everyday neighbourhood life.

The Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market is Hong Kong’s largest wholesale fruit market. At over one hundred years old, it is still standing, despite many changes to the area. The one- and two-story brick buildings that house the market are quite distinctive, and every morning, fresh fruit from all over the world comes to this urban marvel. The painting takes a bird’s-eye view of the area, and the magical mountains and clouds, as well as the movements of the sun and moon, tell the story of the fruit market from day into night.

The Pang Jai Fabric Market in Sham Shui Po is an area of street vendors that appeared in the 1970s, and it has naturally developed into today’s only surviving fabric market. The Pang Jai Fabric Market is temporary, and while the exterior is unassuming, once you squeeze inside, you discover a profusion of stalls with every kind of fabric imaginable. Dazzled by the possibilities, you feel as if you’re embarking upon a treasure hunt. Lush banyan trees grow densely around the Pang Jai Fabric Market, offering cool shade but also concealing it from the surrounding shopping area and adding a sense of mystery. In this series, the Pang Jai Fabric Market is hidden within and among landscapes, buildings, and clouds; we only catch glimpses of this secret place, seemingly cut off from the world, through the corners of roofs or narrow entrances.
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藝術家自述

我的創作以青綠山水畫為主，一方面探討傳統繪畫語言、技法和材料在當代的運用和選擇，尤其是水墨實踐的各種可行性，如利用不同物料來增加宣紙的肌理和陳舊感，製造歲月的痕跡；另一方面嘗試結合山水畫與當代都市生活，進一步運用山水作為轉化心靈和個人體驗的繪畫語言。
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我的作品偏好中小型畫幅，令其與真實生活多一些距離感，主要從早期青綠山水畫中獲得靈感，借山水來抒發個人心中的主觀情感和願望。畫中的山水不是實景的再現和描繪，而是寄託幻想和情感的空間。作品大部分以香港為題材，描繪一些與個人經歷有關的景物，例如舊社區、舊建築、老店鋪等，嘗試把它們置於復古青綠山水之中，在畫面上營造一個近乎仙境的幻想世界，讓這些人和事在幻想與現實之間的山水中永恆存念。近年我比較關注於觀察和描繪香港的市集，既為這些可能快將消逝的地方留下記錄，亦捕捉日常社區生活的人情味。
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油麻地果欄是香港規模最大的水果批發市場，已有過百年歷史，幾經變化，依然屹立。那裡的一二層磚石建築羣極具特色，每日都有源源不斷來自世界各地的新鮮水果供應，是都市奇葩。畫中以俯瞰視角探視這地方，並營造出奇山秀雲，日月輪轉的景致來訴說果欄市場晝夜的故事。
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深水埗棚仔本來是七十年代香港一個小販擺賣區，後來自然發展成今日碩果僅存的布料集賣區。棚仔是臨時搭建的市集，外表不起眼，但只要鑽進去，就會發現裡面小鋪林立，各款布料應有盡有，琳瑯滿目，有如開啟一段尋寶旅程。棚仔周邊茂密生長的大葉榕樹，為它帶來一絲榕蔭清涼，也把它隱護在鬧市中，增添神秘感。在這組畫作中，棚仔藏於山水、樓房和雲海之中，是個隱密的地方，只現出部分棚頂或細小入口，仿佛與世隔絕。