Dr. Joseph Leung Mong-sum is an artist and researcher whose work encompasses a diverse range of mediums, including images, text, found objects, and installations. His intermedia practice serves as a conceptual inquiry into the manifestation of affects, with a particular focus on anxiety across various socio-political contexts.

Leung holds PhD in Art from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and had previously studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the City University of Hong Kong and Syracuse University New York. He is a co-founder of Negative Space, an art space dedicated to lens-based media and experimental practices in Hong Kong.

His works have been shortlisted for notable awards including the 24th ifva Awards (Media Arts category), the Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize, and the WMA Masters Photographic Awards. Leung’s art is represented in notable collections across cities such as Basel, Luxembourg, Paris, Vienna, and Hong Kong.

• Angst
• Post-Digital Practices
• Artistic Research
• Contemporary Art
• Image-Based Practices

• Leung, M. S. (2025). Notes on Language as Technology: The case of Chinese Characters. Newsletter of Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture, 16
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2024). On Post-digital “Alterity” and “Hostility”. Art Research Envelope, 6, https://doi.org/10.22501/envelo.2738166
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2024). An Immanent Breeze – The Need for Poetry in Times of Silence. Question Me and Answer: Opinion Piece. https://www.questionmeandanswer.com/opinion-piece-an-immanent-breeze
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2024). Post-digital Angst: Direct Angst. Reposition: Journal of Reflective Positions in Art & Research, 2, https://doi.org/10.22501/repos.2481763
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2023). POST-DIGITAL ANGST: Research Context and Keywords. Art Research Envelope, 5, https://doi.org/10.7748/phc.2016.e1162
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2022). Online Liminality [Book Section]. What have we done? Peer-to-Peer: UK/HK 2022 Memoir (p.14). Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022.
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2022). The Consciousness of the Millennium (2018), Two Sides of a Plant (2019), A Mark (Self-Portrait) (2017), Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb(2015), [Artwork documentation]. Future Memories: Utopia Dystopia Nature (116, 152, 162, 164). Ediciones Triton.

• Leung, M. S. (2021). On Being An Archival Flâneur and Beyond. Videotage VMAC newsletter, December 2021. https://www.videotage.org.hk/web/subpage.php?mid=37
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2021). Transitorische Turbulenzen: Flag of Hong Kong [Artwork documentation]. Connected space ein Berner Staffellauf der Kunsträume: Oktober 2019 – Juli 2021 (pp. 200-201). Petit Palais. Die kleine Edition.
  
  
• Leung, M. S. (2021). Eventually Obsolete [Artwork documentation]. Fleurs des Lettres, 91, 70.

  Conference Presentation

• Leung, M. S. (2025, October 13-15). From the Face to the InterFace: Post-digital Proximity, Shame, and Responsibility [Keynote address]. Philosophy and New Media Conference, University of Macau.
  Leung, M. S. (2025, May 13-16).

• Post-digital Angst: On The Dispositif of Angst [Keynote address]. Public Colloquium 2025, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
  Leung, M. S. (2024, May 14-17). An Intersubjective Angst in the Digital Milieu [Keynote address]. Lecture –> Performance <– Lecture – Public Colloquium 2024, Vienna, Austria.

• Leung, M. S., Busch, M., O’Brian, J., Faisst-Miedl, V., Anderwald, R., Grond, L., & Badura, J. (2024, April 10-12). Ethics Platform Poster [Poster Session]. SAR 15th International Conference on Artistic Research, Tilburg, Netherlands.

• Leung, M. S. (2023, September 22-23). Post-digital Angst [Keynote address]. re:publica x Reeperbahn Festival, Heiligengeistfeld, Hamburg, Germany.

Solo

2025   

• • Post-digital Angst, Zentrum Fokus Forschung, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, Vienna

2022   

• • The State of Being Dragged, Spielzimmer, Vienna, Austria
  • The State of Being Dragged, lotsremark projekte, Basel, Switzerland

2019

• • Digital and Transcendental, Death and Light, Cheng Ming Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

2018

• • Eventually Obsolete, Cheng Ming Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Group

2025

• • Asterisks, Mooroom, Hong Kong
  • Found & Felt, CRASH, JCCAC, Hong Kong
  • Crossong, Galerie Du Monde, Central, Hong Kong
    
    

2024

• • Seagrapes, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, Vienna, Austria
  • Hong Kong Qi, Mangrove Gallery, Shenzhen, China
  • Raum für Forschung – Vermittlung von Kunst und Wissenschaft, Zentrum Fokus Forschung, VordereZollamtsstraße 7, Vienna, Austria

2023  

• • QUIETLY loud: QUESTION ME & ANSWER Group Show, GALERIE Peter Gaugy, Vienna, Austria
  • Zeitwärts (Rotlicht Festival), Semmelweis Klinik, Vienna, Austria
  • COUPLET PAIR REBUS: The Principle of Cause and Effect in Art, University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong University
  • QMA Exhibition 2023, GALERIE Peter Gaugy, Goldschlagstraße 106, 1150 Vienna, Austria
  • Wanderlust. Sharing of things resonante, Zentrum Fokus Forschung, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, Vienna, Austria
  • In the Presence of Artistic Research, Postsparkasse (Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab), Vienna, Austria

2022  

• • Paris Internationale 2022, No. 16 | rue Alfred de Vigny, Paris, France (Under Negative Space)
  • Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022, Online Festival (and Physical Display at Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, UK)

2021

• • FUTURE MEMORIES – Utopia Dystopia Nature, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Center, Hong Kong

  2020

• • Triangle, Circle, Rectangle, Negative Space, Foo Tak Building, Hong Kong
  • Transitorische Turbulenzen, Bern Art Festival, Connected Space, Kunstraum Dreiviertel, Switzerland

2019

• • CINEMA 2.0 Media Arts Exhibition: Acrylic Dreams, Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong

2018

• • Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize, The Hive Spring, Hong Kong
  • HKFOREWORD 2018,10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
  • WMA Masters and WMA Film Exhibition – Transition, Hong Kong central library exhibition gallery, Hong Kong

2017

• • MATLAB & Guests. Drawing & Painting: (Trans) medial experiments, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland
  • October School 2017, Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi, IndiaPost-digital Angst, Zentrum
    Fokus Forschung, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, Vienna

• The 6th QM&A Artist Collective Grant, 2023
• Hong Kong Arts Development Council Project Grant, 2020
• The 24th ifva Awards (Media Arts category) Finalist, 2019
• Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize Finalist, 2018
• WMA Masters Photographic Awards 2017/18 Finalist, 2018
• First Smash 4 Art Project Finalist, 2017
• Julian Lee Asia One Photographic Awards, 2017
• HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund – Talent Development Scholarship (2014-2015)
• HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund – Talent Development Scholarship (2013-2014)

Grants

“Establishment of a STEAM Lab at HSUHK”, Strategic Development Grant 2025/26, HSUHK (Funded 20,000 HKD)   

“Sound-object Translation Using Digital Fabrication Technologies”, University Research Start-up Fund 2025/26, HSUHK (Funded 10,000 HKD)   

“CURATE & CREATE: Collective Learning through Exhibition”, Teaching Development Grant 2024/25, HSUHK (Funded 100,000 HKD)