Co-founder Jason Dembski on 10 Years of HKWalls

Following a successful 2025 edition of HKwalls, co-founder Jason Dembski tells Stephenie Gee about how it all started, celebrating 10 years, and what's next

The HKwalls Street Art Festival staged its 10th edition from 22-30 March, bringing together a diverse line-up of international and local artists - including Alexandre Monteiro, more famously known as Hopare, and Italian artist El Rughi - who transformed the city's walls into vibrant canvases. For the first time this year, the festival also debuted a new HKwalls Rooms initiative hosted at its headquarters in PMQ, bridging the gap between street culture and the wider art market by offering exhibition space to independent galleries.

What inspired you to start HKwalls? What was your vision and has that evolved since?

In 2014, inspired by many of the artists we would eventually invite to the festival, we started HKwalls with the goal of giving street artists opportunities to create work legally in the streets of Hong Kong, where it could be shared and appreciated by everyone. We did not have a five or 10 year plan; we had more like a two month plan. We just set the simple goal of getting a minimum of 10 walls in the Sheung Wan area for Hong Kong-based artists to paint. We identified a number of open-minded partners and we begged, bartered and collaborated to make things happen; we got t-shirts, spray paint and advertising space donated to us. Half the ad space we then sold at a highly discounted rate and used that money to buy more spray paint and tools artists would need. We hosted a closing block party with Little Burro (the go-to for good Mexican food at the time), Young Master Brewery, which had only launched 5 months earlier, provided beer, and DJs James Woodward Jr (now Broadback) and Re:Flex supplied the tunes. The party filled the street and people could walk around, meet the artists and see all the new artwork in the neighborhood.

In the end, 17 artists including one visiting from the UK painted murals around the Tai Ping Shan area. While it was hard work and we learned a lot, our goals were achievable, nothing was too forced, and everyone came together to do cool stuff and have fun.

The first year set the tone, but each year, we aim a bit higher, try new things and grow. In year two, eicó paint, who is still a major partner today, started providing us with amazing environmentally friendly acrylics, and we got our first major cash sponsorship which let us fly in artists and pay for scaffolding. We also added a pop-up exhibition and experimented with a second location. The third year we moved the entire festival to Sham Shui Po, and surprised everyone with artists painting entire buildings from cranes. Since then, we have had artists work in projection mapping, augmented reality, and thanks to an on-going partnership with Sino Group, across giant digital screens facing Victoria Harbour. We are always trying to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves rather than set too rigid of expectations or goals for the festival.

For our 10th anniversary, we are lucky to have PMQ as our festival headquarters, where we are taking over the courtyard with temporary murals, graffiti and workshops, as well as launching a new initiative called HKwalls Rooms.

Tells us more about HKwalls Rooms. What was the objective and what are some of the highlights?

This year, we launched HKwalls Rooms to create opportunities for like-minded independent artists and galleries, as well as emerging collectors, to participate in Hong Kong's Arts Month without the financial barriers typically associated with traditional art fairs. Its main objective is to provide accessible exhibition space while fostering a rich, immersive art experience that bridges street culture with the contemporary art market while collectively amplifying our impact. This initiative not only drives foot traffic to local spaces and attracts media attention, but also encourages collector engagement by making artworks available for sale.

PMQ is also the perfect venue for us to launch Rooms; by activating all the available units throughout the complex and filling them with a diverse selection of exhibitors, HKwalls’ guests combine with those already intending to visit PMQ and are given a reason to fully explore all the amazing things in the building.

Among the highlights of this initiative were exceptional partnerships with a constellation of talented artists and galleries. We were thrilled to work with The Jaunt, an artist residency program from Aarhus, Denmark, known for sending artists on trips around the world to find inspiration from different cultures and environments which leads to creation of new works of art. Chemistry Gallery from Prague also joined us, recognised for its focus on emerging international talent and dynamic installations.

Additionally, we collaborated with the Manila-based Pablo Art Gallery who showcased prints from Marseille based Le Dernier Cri, led by Pakito Bolino. Artists like Reinier Landwehr from Rotterdam, with his kaleidoscopic explorations of dreams and nightmares, and Jelmer Konjo, who seeks to challenge societal norms through whimsical art, also contributed to the rich tapestry of the Rooms' exhibitors.

Domestically, we proudly featured the Hong Kong Arts Collective (HKARTS), which empowers local creatives, and multidisciplinary artist KC Wong, known for his sneaker inspired works. While Yeah!Nah! Gallery's innovative approach and tech inspired collection allowed visitors to act as curators, deciding which artworks to showcase in the future, and TwentyCinco featured a selection of legends from French and European graffiti writers in one room and a solo show from French artist Theo Lopez in another.

For the first time as well this year the Youth Mentorship Program is being held in partnership with Kai Tak Sports Park. 

Our Youth Mentorship Programme pairs young emerging artists with established professionals, providing guidance on creating large-scale murals and facilitating personal and artistic growth. This program, aimed at nurturing young talent, contributes to the growing street art and graffiti scene in Hong Kong by allowing them to learn and refine their skills in a real-world context, under the mentorship of veterans in the field.

This year, we have three incredibly talented young artists participating. Cherie Kwok is teaming up with Emerico, a well-known artist and designer who brings a strong street art background. Hazel Lau specialises in beautiful drawings filled with hope - think clouds, stars and joyful characters. She’s learning from Vivian Ho, whose diverse portfolio includes stunning murals and pieces in major collections like M+ and the Valmont Foundation. Last but not least, Noah Tang is influenced by print engraving but has recently ventured into graffiti. He's paired with Peck, a seasoned artist in the graffiti scene. 

One of the highlights of this program is that the murals created by Cherie, Hazel and Noah will be displayed at Kai Tak Sports Park for a full year. The new venue will host a variety of large-scale events, which means their artwork will be exposed to a diverse audience of visitors - an amazing opportunity for them to have their work showcased in such a prominent location. This partnership with Kai Tak Sports Park is a fantastic way to celebrate creativity and uplift local talent.

Looking back this past decade, what has been one of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered with HKwalls? And how did you overcome it? 

This is a really hard question… The challenges change from year to year as we grow and evolve, and as the city and its perception of street art and graffiti change, so do the challenges. That said, getting permission for good public facing walls for artists to paint is probably still the number one challenge each year, but even the challenges with finding walls has changed. In the early days, when we were focused on smaller ground floor walls, the conversations were quick and usually getting permission from the shop inside was enough. Stan [Wu, co-founder] and I would walk in, have a 1-2 minute conversation and leave with a yes or no answer. If they said “yes”, often they didn’t care which artist or what the content would be; they were just happy someone might paint their wall for free. And if they said “no”, there was nothing that could change their mind.

Now however, murals are more common in Hong Kong and people have opinions about what they like, or don’t like, and almost always want to be involved in the artist selection process and see the designs beforehand. Also, with larger walls, or more complicated tenant, landlord and management situations, opinions sometimes conflict and we find ourselves in the middle. While we want everyone to be happy with the outcome, it creates much more work for us and sometimes the demands become so burdensome and time consuming that we have to pass up great locations entirely.

What would be a standout moment of HKwalls for you? Is there something it has achieved that you’re most proud of?

Honestly, I’m proud every year of all the new artwork we help facilitate. I’m proud of the things we achieve and the challenges we overcome. I’m proud we are still here, doing things we love.  Most of all, I’m proud of and grateful for our amazing team, wonderful volunteers, generous partners, and of course the insanely talented artists; without all of their effort, we would be nothing, and I’m proud and lucky to work with all of them.

What's next?

As we mark our 10th anniversary, when it comes to the annual festival I think it's a great time to reflect on both the challenges and successes over the years, where we started and where we are now, and think about not only what we enjoy the most but what we can do that will be most beneficial for the artists, the culture and community as we move forward… While I can’t say exactly what that means for future iterations, we will start immediately with an open call for people to donate their walls, so we can continue to offer artists the best opportunities to paint in Hong Kong.

Outside of the HKwalls Festival, we are planning for future editions of our thematic touring exhibition, Tools of the Trade, some workshops and artist-in-residence programmes with Hong Kong schools, and we have a few big collaborations in discussion, so we will definitely be busy. But we are always open to new partnerships and projects, so anyone who has ideas, space and most importantly, funding, should get in touch!

See also: Tai Kwun Art Week: A look back at Hong Kong’s cultural celebration