Kandasamy launched The Mahjong Palace in September 2024 with two aims in mind: to champion small galleries and to build a community in New York. He recently ran an event with Studio Ashby in London, ...

After carving out 144 tiles, Mai Jeh colours each one using red, green and blue dyes, scraping off any excess dried paint afterwards. As simple as it sounds, carving mahjong tiles is meticulous work.

Eyebrows furrowed in careful concentration as he chisels images and Chinese characters onto mahjong tiles, 70-year-old Cheung Shun-king is one of the last craftsmen of his kind in Hong Kong.

“In mah-jongg , you need to adjust your strategy depending on the situation, like watching the tiles discarded by your opponents to decide which tiles you want to discard,” Ikeya said.