M+ in Hong Kong is preparing to open what it presents as a first-of-its-kind survey of fantasy in Asian visual culture. 'Myths and Monsters: The Art of Fantasy in Asia' opens on 17 October 2026 in the museum's West Gallery and runs through 4 April 2027, tracing how imagined worlds have been pictured across the region over more than a century.

The exhibition is organised in four chapters. It begins with pre-modern traditions and folklore, then follows the spread of Surrealism across Asia, the post-war rise of Japanese manga and anime, and finally the ways myths and monsters continue to surface in twenty-first-century visual practice across disciplines and regions. The museum frames the show as a two-way encounter between imagination and reality, examining how artists have used the fantastic to respond to shifting social and political conditions.

Rather than treating fantasy as simple escapism, the exhibition looks at how legends, monsters, and speculative imagery have moved from ritual and popular storytelling into painting, moving image, comics, and digital aesthetics. By bringing together material from the nineteenth century to today, the curatorial narrative argues that fantasy in Asia is not a marginal genre but a long-standing mode of cultural expression with global resonance.

The show is supported by HSBC as lead sponsor, Cathay as major sponsor, and The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong as an additional sponsor. Its October opening places it among the autumn season's most prominent Hong Kong presentations, and the museum's own announcement presents the exhibition as a world-first in its scope.