Three recent Hong Kong art graduates—Bethany Man Hoi-ying, Elizabeth Li Shan-shan, and Aidan Ng Ho-long—are featured in a new exhibition titled “Free Radicals – New expressions from an untethered generation” at Parallel Space. Co-curated by gallery founder Kim Lam and South China Morning Post arts editor Enid Tsui, the show highlights the artists’ rebellious, non-commercial aesthetic as they navigate adulthood amid algorithmic hyper-efficiency and global shifts. All three graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong between 2023 and 2025.
The exhibition matters because it captures the authentic, untethered voice of a Gen Z cohort in Hong Kong, offering a counterpoint to commercially driven art. By naming the show after a biochemical term for a reactive molecule that sparks critical change, the curators underscore how art from this generation can resonate with society during a period of rapid transformation. It signals a fresh, locally rooted artistic movement emerging from Hong Kong’s youngest artists.