AS THE GROUND HOLDS
Léonard Tsuguharu FoujitA, Zenzaburō KojimA, Lê Phổ, and Mai Trung Thứ
21 MAY – 8 AUGUST
Dates
21 May – 8 August 2026
Location
VILLEPIN
53-55 Hollywood Road
Central, Hong Kong
VILLEPIN is pleased to present As the Ground Holds, a focused exhibition bringing together works by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Zenzaburō Kojima, Lê Phổ, and Mai Trung Thứ—four artists who made Paris their home at a moment when the city stood at the forefront of modernism. This presentation marks Zenzaburō Kojima’s debut in a Hong Kong gallery, reuniting his work with that of his peers within migrant artist circles in Paris.
“There is a special poignancy in reuniting Lê Phổ and Mai Trung Thứ, who journeyed from Vietnam to France together in 1937; Kojima and Foujita, Japanese compatriots navigating the École de Paris in the 1920s; and Lê Phổ and Foujita, who exhibited together in the late 1950s. Almost a century later, As the Ground Holds weaves together the unseen networks of migrant artists in Paris, allowing them to speak to a new era. In a time shaped by displacement, these artists show us how to hold onto a world within which we can no longer live, while feeling new ground beneath our feet.”
Rishika Assomull, Senior Director of VILLEPIN
Featured works
Lê Phổ, La femme au lilacs (The woman with lilacs), 1968, Oil on silk mounted on masonite, 89 × 116 cm
Lê Phổ, Les Tulipes Jaunes (The Yellow Tulips), Oil on canvas, 82 x 100.3 cm
Zenzaburo Kojima, View of Lake Ashi, Circa 1942, Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 52.6 cm
Zenzaburō Kojima, Roses, 1958, Oil on canvas, 40.9 × 31.8cm
Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, La fille à l'écharpe jaune, 1950, Oil on canvas, 27 × 22 cm
Mai Trung Thu, Portrait d’une jeune femme blonde (Portrait of a Young Blond Girl), Circa 1941, Gouache and ink on silk, 52.5 x 40.5 cm
Mai Trung Thứ, Femmes du peuple (Women of the people), 1967, Ink and colour on silk. In its original frame made by the artist, 22 × 35.7 cm
Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Femmes et bébé sur la plage, 1917, Watercolor on paper, 54.5 × 45 cm