Stephen Leung

Artist Bio

Known as Swimming Dragon — my Chinese name and also representing the journey of self-discovery — an ongoing movement towards authenticity. This exploration is deeply rooted in Hong Kong, the city I was born and raised, where I found my connection to the pulse of nature. My foundation was laid in photography and videography, and is now also flowing with the art of Chinese calligraphy to step further into my authentic self and embrace pure honesty.

New Life

Artwork Description

Back in 2017, I mistakenly believed shaving my head — a changed outlook — meant a new beginning. But the subsequent years brought a deeper understanding: to truly embrace life is to enrich one’s soul and broaden one’s perspective, which, rather than being an external act, needs to take place internally. Over the past two years, I learned to simply be with the rise and fall of my inner tides, to converse — and sometimes fight — with my truest self, which I once perceived as disgusting and ugly. Emerging from that introspection and confrontation is a sense of spiritual rebirth that I now carry with sincerity.

Quiet Noise

Artwork Description

The pandemic in 2020 was a sudden pause upon the world but an unexpected gift to me which forced me to slow down. My previous life was a symphony of the external: a mix of crowds, noises, and energies constituted a comfortable escape from silence that I never knew existed. When the volume of the external world was turned down, a different chorus arose during the long time spent at home with the family I most loved — any noise became inescapable. It revealed to me my long unacknowledged craving for a quietness in which to finally breathe. This revolutionary journey to find peace began with the quietness offered by noise cancelling headphones, followed by the realisation of a deeper truth: peace is not the absence of sound, but the relaxed serenity found in embracing both the calm and the storm, which mirrors the courage I found in quietness while facing myself in the darkness.