Irene Chou was born in Shanghai in 1924 and worked as a journalist after graduating from St. John’s University in 1945. Arriving in Hong Kong in 1949, Chou began to study Chinese painting under Lingnan master Zhao Shao’ang. Her career as an artist reached a breakthrough in the early 1960s when she met Lui Shou Kwan, leader and pioneer of the New Ink Painting Movement. It was under Lui’s influence that Chou began to paint in an expressive and personal manner. Chou’s works are especially known for her bold use of colour, line and sphere to convey her powerful, explosive expressions and emotions of the human life and the universe.