HONG KONG — Hong Kong artist Michael Lau is reemerging on the city’s street-culture scene with Flowers, Flowers Everywhere!, a colorful exhibition co-presented with Carhartt WIP that blends fine art, streetwear and designer toys. The show runs Aug. 13-23, 2026, at the Carhartt WIP flagship store at 13 Pak Sha Road in Causeway Bay.
A Pioneer Returns to His Roots
Lau first captured international attention in the late 1990s with his Gardener series, a collection of stylized figures inspired by himself, his friends and street-culture archetypes. Those characters helped define the designer-toy movement and established Lau as one of its most influential figures. His practice has since expanded across sculpture, painting, illustration, fashion and collaborations with major global brands.
The new exhibition reflects Lau’s refusal to stay within a single creative category. He has never drawn a firm line between fine art, commercial design, popular culture and collectibles — instead treating all these worlds as material for the same creative playground.
When Flowers Become Characters
At the heart of Lau’s recent work is a simple but compelling concept: turning flowers into people. His paintings feature blooms with oversized eyes and expressive personalities. Rather than functioning as decorative botanical images, the flowers become characters with emotions, attitudes and relationships.
The eyes are especially significant. They give each flower a sense of consciousness, transforming something familiar from nature into something strangely human. One flower may appear curious, another romantic, another uncertain or playful.
This approach continues Lau’s fascination with creating fictional worlds populated by recognizable personalities. Where the earlier Gardener figures represented people through collectible characters, the flower series uses nature as its cast.
Pandemic Roots
The flower series developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Lau spent more time at home and became increasingly interested in the flowers around him. At a moment when everyday life had become restricted and uncertain, the flowers offered a source of color and optimism.
That background adds unexpected depth to the work. At first glance, the paintings are bright, cheerful and playful. Look longer, however, and the flowers begin to feel like small portraits of human experience. Their expressions suggest relationships, emotions and the search for connection.
For longtime followers of Lau’s career, Flowers, Flowers Everywhere! represents another chapter in a story that began with Gardener more than 20 years ago. One of the most ambitious examples of this connection was The Flowery Surprise, a large triptych that reimagined Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper with flowers replacing the traditional figures.
Why Carhartt WIP
The decision to present the exhibition at a streetwear flagship rather than a conventional gallery is deliberate. Carhartt WIP occupies a world of workwear, skateboarding, streetwear and youth culture — all areas that have long overlapped with Lau’s creative universe.
The partnership also includes a Hong Kong-exclusive capsule collection, extending the exhibition beyond paintings and sculptures into fashion and collectible culture.
What Visitors Should Know
The exhibition runs for only 11 days, giving it a limited-edition pop-up feel. Visitors should plan about 30 to 60 minutes to take in the exhibition itself, though collectors and longtime fans may want more time to explore the associated fashion collaboration.
Exhibition details:
- Dates: Aug. 13-23, 2026
- Location: Carhartt WIP flagship, 13 Pak Sha Road, Causeway Bay
- Duration: Approximately 30-60 minutes recommended
Broader Significance
Lau’s importance extends beyond the individual objects on display. When the Gardener figures appeared in the late 1990s, he helped demonstrate that collectible figures could occupy a space between art, design and popular culture — an idea that has since become a major part of contemporary creative culture.
His flowers continue the same philosophy in a different form. They are paintings, characters, cultural references and potential collectibles simultaneously. They can be appreciated as colorful images, read as portraits of human emotions, or understood within the larger history of Hong Kong’s street and designer-toy culture.
For anyone interested in contemporary Hong Kong art, designer toys, street culture or fashion, Flowers, Flowers Everywhere! offers a concise introduction to the visual world Lau has been developing since the late 1990s — and a reminder that in his universe, flowers are also people, personalities and reflections of the city around them.