Hayley Chiu’s Crowded Rooms 在懵懂中見澄明：趙之希
The Markham‑born painter uses dense interiors to think about home, Hong Kong and growing up between two places
English 英 & Chinese 中：Maggie Ho
Photography: Hayley Chiu, The Fête Chinoise Team
As Featured in 2026 Fête Chinoise Design Annual
PHOTOGRAPHY: The Fête Chinoise Team.
A young woman sits alone in a small room. Around her, the space is packed: lucky cats, red lanterns, mahjong tiles and painted carp. At first the scene looks light and playful, almost like a cartoon. Look longer and the scene tightens. The room feels less like decor and more like a mind crowded with memory. These are the kinds of interiors that Canadian artist Hayley Chiu returns to in her work, not as decoration but as a way to think about identity, home and the pull of Hong Kong from far away.
Born in 2001, Chiu was raised in Markham, Ont., to parents who immigrated from Hong Kong in the 1990s. She went to high school in nearby Unionville, where Chinese restaurants, shops and neighbours were the norm. “Growing up here really made me feel that I never felt out of place with my culture, because I was surrounded by it,” she says. That ease with her background, held alongside the distance from Hong Kong itself, later became one of the undercurrents in her art.
Drawing came first. Chiu sat at the kitchen table filling page after page. Her parents, both designers, gave her pens, paper, and a computer with Photoshop. They commented on her drawings, but she learned to decide for herself what to keep and what to ignore.
Needle-Felted Work by Hayley's Mother. Photography: The Fête Chinoise Team.
Heavenly Horse / 天馬行空. PHOTOGRAPHY: The Fête Chinoise Team.
一個短髮掛臉，圓圓臉蛋的小女孩穿梭於不同的奇幻空間：時而昂首站立於萬重山水之間，引頸張看；時而蜷曲身體於狹小空間內，俯身窺探；時而靜坐於書桌前，若有所思。懸浮在她四周的，是各式有趣風光與精緻小物：招財貓、紅燈籠、麻將牌、漂浮的鯉魚、鋁窗框……畫面豐富，像莊周夢蝶般徘徊於夢境與真實、存在與感知之間。這些正是新晉藝術家趙之希（Hayley Chiu）的標誌性油畫作品兼自畫像，在玩味與喧鬧之下，以娃娃般的童趣視角觀察世界。
繽紛的童年
於安大略藝術設計大學畢業的Hayley ，出生並成長於萬錦市，父母在九十年代從香港移民加拿大，生活小康。「回想起來，我三歲時畫畫，那不過是胡亂畫畫而已，但爸媽卻看出我有點天份。」從事設計行業的父母不單單是純粹的鼓勵，更一直以各種方式培養並支持她。年幼時，他們教導她接觸 Photoshop 設計軟件；平日 Hayley 在家廚房內的餐桌上作畫，他們總在身旁走動，經過時也會探頭看看，隨口分享意見。「我會盡量不讓他們影響太多，但有時候能聽聽專業人士的想法，其實也很好。」她笑言。
A Calm Heart Cools the Body / 心靜自然涼. PHOTOGRAPHY: Hayley Chiu.
Periphery as Core Series. PHOTOGRAPHY: The Fête Chinoise Team.
In the evenings she watched films and television from Hong Kong. On screen, the city appeared as gods and ghosts, slapstick flats and New Year gatherings built around food, mahjong and other touchstones of its pop culture.
Those images and sensations, stored in the back of her mind, now sit in her painted rooms. There, Chiu packs objects and figures close together, outlining and patterning them until they press against one another. Figures often seem lodged inside piles of things rather than standing apart. The rooms feel busy but contained, like a mind trying to keep many pieces in play at once. She works in saturated reds and oranges, bright greens and sharp contrasts she takes from Hong Kong streets and cinema.
「我在萬錦市 Unionville 長大及讀書，那是一個非常華人的社區，到處都是中餐館和華人臉孔。」跟不少居住於萬錦市的加拿大華人小孩一樣，Hayley 的成長一直被不同程度的華人文化影響：家中習慣以廣東話交談，港產片電影、電視劇、流行曲等為她建構了一個既熟悉又陌生的世界，同時孕育出源源不絕的創作靈感。
Ordinary Romance. PHOTOGRAPHY: Hayley Chiu.
Ordinary Romance II. PHOTOGRAPHY: Hayley Chiu.
港式文化培養
《西遊記》及《封神榜》是 Hayley 反覆翻看多次的電視劇，裡面諧趣的神話角色與歷險旅程，豐富了她的想像；電影《嚦咕嚦咕新年財》則讓她深深迷上麻將這種傳統「國粹」，麻將牌、麻將桌、麻將綠色均是她常用的創作元素。「那些電影電視其實很胡鬧，甚至有點不合情理，但你不會真的去質疑它。」她說。這種大堆頭「炒埋一碟」敘事方式，幽默、樂觀且靈活變通，也直接影響了她的創作手法。
她的作品混合多重形象，層層堆疊、彼此衝擊，營造出荒誕又新奇的畫面張力；色彩上，同時承襲了香港電影獨有的霓虹色調。那像被艷陽火燒過的鮮橙紅色，遇上青蔥翠嫩的綠意，形成鮮明對比，既濃烈綺麗又帶點懷舊色彩。
Hayley's_20th_Birthday. Photography: Hayley Chiu.
She knows those streets from trips to the city as a child. On visits, Chiu often slept on a sofa in a relative’s living room, with a metal‑framed window at her feet. Outside was a factory building wall, lined with rows of air‑conditioning units and a strip of sky that shifted from dark to pale blue before dawn. Years later, she turned that view into a painting called Zhong Kui, after the ghost‑catching figure from Chinese folklore. In the picture, the window sits like a frame inside the room, holding a city that is present but slightly distant.
One of Chiu’s key bodies of work, Snail’s Home (蝸居), turns the idea of a cramped flat into a way of thinking about the body. In Cantonese, “snail home” refers to a tiny, crowded apartment – a shell barely big enough to live in. For Chiu, the image stretches further. “Snails live in their own bodies. Their shell is their home. Wherever they go, they carry their home with them,” she says. In these paintings, human figures and shells fold into each other. Rooms feel both protective and tight.
Trim. PHOTOGRAPHY: Hayley Chiu.
Looking for the Minibus. PHOTOGRAPHY: Hayley Chiu.
天地為家
Hayley 自小習慣生活於不同文化中：加拿大輕鬆的生活，讓她免受功課壓力，自由發展藝術；每次回港旅行探親，令她感覺親切好玩，卻始終無法完全融入。這種微妙的矛盾，成為她創作裡反覆出現的情緒。在《Zhong Kui （鍾馗）》中，她描繪了香港清晨的景象。「當時我睡在親戚家的客廳，躺下時腳對著窗，外面是一棟工廠大廈和一排又一排的工業冷氣機。」香港高樓常見的鋁窗框，被她轉化成強烈的文化視覺符號；幽藍色調、排列整齊的冷氣機，構成一種既熟悉又疏離的城市景觀。
Creating them often starts with a few words on the page. Short Chinese phrases, idioms or scraps of conversation go into her sketchbook first and give her something to build on. Chiu then works out how to move those ideas into images, turning balance and softness into decisions about line, space and colour on the canvas.
She studied drawing and painting at OCAD University and graduated in 2023 with the program medal. Since then she has taken part in fairs including Artist Project and Art Toronto, received the Untapped People’s Choice Award, and held two solo Toronto shows, Half by Half at the Ascent Gallery in 2023 and When the Mud Settles at the Abbozzo Gallery in 2024.
What Does the Cicada Know of Ice? / 夏蟲不可語冰. PHOTOGRAPHY: Hayley Chiu.
Grandpa’s Garage. Photography: Hayley Chiu.
童真有趣中包含淡淡的孤寂，好奇探索卻時刻保持距離及冷靜思考，正是 Hayley 作品的個人特色。她的成名系列《Snail’s Home （蝸居）》，原意是狹小如蝸牛殼般的居所，更是她對自身所在及文化的隱喻。「那種狹小、擁擠的感覺，就像活在自己的身體裡。蝸牛本來就活在自己的身體之中，牠們的殼就是牠們的家。無論走到哪裡，都可以把『家』帶在身上，時刻受到保護。」身體、文化與家，或許帶來束縛限制，卻同時提供安全感。於是，「家」不再只是地理位置，而是一種承載家庭記憶、自身成長經驗的存在。它隨身而行，既是歸屬，也是一種重量。
Today, Chiu stays in close touch with other Asian Canadian artists she met at school and in exhibitions. “People are more willing to listen,” she says. “There’s space now to share stories, to be curious.”
Looking ahead, Chiu is preparing to start an MFA in studio arts, focusing on painting and drawing, at Concordia University in the fall. It will be her first time living away from her parents. She calls the upcoming move “a big and pivotal moment” and imagines a quieter, more contained life centred on the studio. “I feel like I can focus on my art and how to become a better artist,” she says. “I know myself better now, so I can be more prepared.”
For now, she keeps returning to the same scene: a figure in a room, surrounded by objects that mean more than they first show. Each new work is another attempt to get that room right. The image asks how much of a life, and how much of a past, can fit inside a small shell.
Out of the Shell / 破殼而出. PHOTOGRAPHY: The Fête Chinoise Team.
面向未來
新世代亞裔加拿大藝術家在主流藝術圈的影響力日益增長，Hayley 便是近年備受矚目的其中一員。她於2023年畢業於 OCAD ，並獲得該屆繪畫與素描獎項，其後於2024年獲頒 Untapped People’s Choice Award ，作品曾參展 Art Toronto （2024 、2025），並先後舉辦過兩次個人展覽。
二十五歲的她並未因此而停下，她將於2026秋季入讀滿地可康考迪亞大學（Concordia University）Studio Arts 碩士課程，主修繪畫與素描，這將是她首次離開父母獨自生活。
「我希望能處於一個相對封閉的環境，專注創作，好好思考如何能成為更好的藝術家。為了再度回來，我需要先更了解自己。我希望有一天能成為真正出色的藝術家。」知人者智，自知者明，對於未來，Hayley 信心滿滿。
Heavenly Horse / 天馬行空. Photography: The Fête Chinoise Team.
Fat Fat White White / 肥肥白白. Photography: Hayley Chiu.
More from Fête Chiniose
A young woman sits alone in a small room. Around her, the space is packed: lucky cats, red lanterns, mahjong tiles and painted carp. At first the scene looks light and playful, almost like a cartoon. Look longer and the scene tightens. The room feels less like decor and more like a mind crowded with memory. These are the kinds of interiors that Canadian artist Hayley Chiu returns to in her work, not as decoration but as a way to think about identity, home and the pull of Hong Kong from far away.