Interview #100
Pocket-Sized Worlds: Hong Kong’s First Art Collection Card Exhibition “Pocket Art”
armechan & Abby Lee Yan Yee & Erika Shiba
Text: Cheung Man Ho
Image: PMQ
Translated by Joel Wong
Art exhibitions often evoke vast gallery spaces, where an invisible distance separates viewers from paintings hung on white walls. But when art is reduced to collectible cards measuring just 2.5 by 3.5 inches, such distance vanishes. Presented by PMQ and curated by local artist armechan, Pocket Art—Hong Kong’s first exhibition dedicated to art collectible cards—reimagines both the viewing and collecting experience.
Grounded in the ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) format, the collectible cards in "Pocket Art" transform original artworks into distinctive pieces to carry and cherish. What happens when the canvas becomes a card? Through the perspectives of curator armechan and participating artists Abby Lee Yan Yee and Erika Shiba, we explore the expansive worlds contained within these small works.
armechan: Metaphors in a Queue
“You cannot hold a life-sized painting in a museum, but you can hold a collectible card in your hand, examine it closely, and enjoy it. There is a unique sense of intimacy in that.”
Curator and participating artist armechan says the exhibition was inspired by his childhood memories of collecting sports cards. “NBA legend Michael Jordan was my favorite. I loved collecting his cards when I was a kid.” Collecting things seems to be a shared human instinct—whether it is a small pebble or a card one can carry.
From the United States to the Netherlands and back to Hong Kong, armechan’s practice has consistently explored the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit. For Pocket Art, he presents WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?, a series inspired by Hong Kong’s queuing culture. From shopping malls and street corners to convenience stores and concert venues, long queues are more than orderly lineups; they invite reflection through everyday street observation. With double-sided cards that can be freely rearranged, viewers can break away from a fixed sequence and uncover different narrative threads.
armechan hopes to introduce art collection cards to younger audiences. He has invited artists whose creative styles are accessible to young people and whose work demonstrates refined techniques. Through related items such as keychains and card sleeves, he hopes that card-pulling can serve as an entry point for the public to discover local artists.
The “Pocket Art” exhibition brings together nine local and overseas artists, including Li Chi Tak, Hsu Yi Hsuan, King Ting Lam, Rex Koo and others. More than 50 original artworks have been transformed into over 150 collectable cards across five rarity tiers: Common (C), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), Signature Rare (SGR), and the extremely rare Original Rare (OR) – each OR is a unique, hand‐crafted original by the artist. Only nine OR cards exist in the entire series.
Abby Lee: Still-Life in the Gaps of a Car Park
“Because it is just too small to include too many elements, or it becomes cluttered.” Faced with an unusually small canvas, Abby Lee Yan Yee initially struggled to know where to begin. Yet that constraint soon became an unexpected source of inspiration.
A graduate of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and of The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Master of Fine Arts program, Abby primarily works in acrylic painting and stop-motion animation. Her practice explores living and working environments and the relationships between individuals and groups. For this exhibition, she turns to one of the most overlooked spaces in everyday life: the parking lot. In works such as The Space Between 2 Parking Areas, The Back Side of a Car, One of the Columns and A Passenger, she distills these empty, alienating spaces into still scenes charged with quiet observation.
Selected collectible card works by Abby Lee Yan Yee, including Several Sides of the Walls, The Back side of a Car, and A Driver.
Lee describes deciding what to include on each card as akin to shooting a close-up. The process reshapes not only the composition but also the way one sees and thinks.
“When painting on such a small card, you become intensely focused. It feels like an exercise in making each card present just one subject and one perspective. I had never expected the limitations of a format to generate entirely new creative ideas.”
Erika Shiba: Holding Fading Memories
People nowadays are accustomed to recording their lives on smartphones. Our photo libraries are full of thousands of images, yet we rarely revisit them. Erika Shiba takes the opposite approach. Drawing on photographs she has collected on her phone over the past five years, she preserves playgrounds, spiral staircases, and architectural structures on physical cards, layer by layer, using Japanese washi paper and pencil. What particularly interests her is the act of viewing Pocket Art.
“Holding a collectible card in your hand feels exactly like the way people scroll through their phones today.”
The small format has made her acutely attentive to every detail and imperfection in an image. Behind that precision lies an appreciation for the ordinariness of time. “I really love the intimacy of holding something in the palm of my hand. Being able to hold these everyday moments is very precious. I hope viewers can slow down and quietly notice the things around them. They may not be the most important moments in your life, but they are still part of it.”
Collectible card works by Erika Shiba.
"Pocket Art" Art Collection Card Exhibition
Date: 29.05.2026 - 21.06.2026
Time: 12:00 - 20:00
Venue: HG11-12, Block B, PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong
Admission: Free
Website: pmq.hk/2m9eY