The inaugural Hambrecht Contemporary Gallery installation, Memento, includes two works that speak to contemporary global issues of urbanization and political uncertainty.

Personal Space (2001), a layered, dreamlike painting by Kolkata-based artist Jayashree Chakravarty (b. 1956), is an imaginary map built up from painted strips of paper. At eight feet tall and more than 30 feet wide, the colossal scroll furls and unfurls, establishing an architectural presence in the gallery. As you circle the work in an attempt to chart a course through the chaos of streets, signs, and natural landmarks, you experience the disorientation the artist felt as the rapidly expanding city swallowed the countryside of her youth.

The immersive video installation A day of two Suns (2019) by Hong Kong–based artist Lam Tung Pang (b. 1978) captures a changing Hong Kong. On both sides of a suspended diaphanous paper screen, unsynchronized images from four projectors combine with shadows of museum visitors, inviting us into an emotional landscape. “This work is prophetic and nostalgic,” notes Head of Contemporary Art Abby Chen about the newly acquired work. “It documents a city, and a system, in the process of fading and awakening.”