Judy Gee
Open Water at Stanley
2025
H 61 x W 122 cm
Oil on canvas
Unique
Stepping into the ocean, the world falls away. The embrace of the waves, the push and pull of the currents, this is open water swimming. Famed as the world’s third-largest financial hub, in Hong Kong, you can escape to open ocean as quick as 15 minutes. Off Blake’s pier in Stanley is a regular swim spot for the Open Water swimming community in Hong Kong. This piece celebrates a side of the city that lies beyond its iconic skyline, highlighting the island’s coastal backdrop of old and new architecture integrating with the landscape. Saturated hues and strong contrasts reflects shifting light and movement, the dialogue between water and skies. Sky, mountain, sea is a classic chinese subject. This piece has the added aspect of a swimmer’s perspective, a view only seen from in the water which Judy knows well as she is both a painter and an avid open water swimmer here in Hong Kong. Her two loves of swimming and painting merge as one in this piece, celebrating the historic past of Stanley, the present by the unique activity of open water swimming, while looking forward to the future of this magical city, Hong Kong.
The work is created uniquely for Design Trust Charity Benefit 2025 at Murray House, Stanley Plaza responding to the historic site and curatorial theme of the exhibition. The work has been auctioned off during the Charity Auction on March 22nd 2025 and creatively loaned by the generous bidder for Design Trust Charity Exhibition: Transformational Exceptions.
About Judy Gee
Judy is a Hong Kong based painter. She holds a B.A. with honors in Studio Art and Economics from Wellesley College, completing a thesis in painting. She also holds an M.S. in Communications Design from Pratt Institute in New York. After many years of working professionally as a graphic designer in New York City and Shanghai while painting on the side, she made the leap to become a full time Artist. Her paintings tell stories where every day details weave into scenes of the past and present, merging into the future. We are all in a state of permanent impermanence. Holding on to the past, while in the present, looking forward to the future. Nostalgia is a common theme running through her art. She uses urban landscapes, cultural references, every day overlooked objects to present social and cultural observations about heritage, culture, identity, and the metamorphosis of environments and of ourselves.
