Juju Mega Is Coming to Central: CJ Hendry Returns to Hong Kong with Her Biggest Drop Yet

‍An Art & Culture Editorial | October 2026

‍

If you have been paying attention to Hong Kong's cultural scene over the past year, the name CJ Hendry will need no introduction. The New York-based Australian artist has made this city something of a second home — and she is about to return to Central this October with her most anticipated release to date. Juju Mega, the latest evolution of her cult collectible universe, is set to take over M88 on Wellington Street from 28 to 31 October, before making history as Hendry's first-ever global online drop on 1 November. For Hong Kong fans and collectors, this is not simply another pop-up. It is the beginning of a new chapter.

‍

‍

From Phillips to Pacific Place: How Hong Kong Became Juju's Home

To understand the significance of the M88 pop-up, it helps to trace how deep Juju's roots in Hong Kong already run. Hendry's relationship with the city stretches back several years, with landmark projects including Complementary Colours, presented in partnership with Christian Louboutin during Art Basel, and Summer Pool Party, a large-scale installation at IFC Mall. But it was the arrival of Juju in late 2025 that marked a genuine shift in how Hongkongers engage with her work — moving it out of the gallery white cube and into everyday life.

The Juju series made its world debut in November 2025 when Hendry transformed the Upper House hotel in Admiralty into a whimsical Christmas installation: a towering tree assembled from 200 oversized plush green Juju figures, each available for adoption in aid of Mother's Choice, a Hong Kong charity supporting children without families and vulnerable teenagers. That same month, her pop-up at Phillips' Asia headquarters in the West Kowloon Cultural District introduced the collectible bag charms — 24 distinct iterations, priced at HK$188 each, offered in blind boxes — alongside the vinyl Edition Sculptures retailing at HK$4,888. The space was reimagined as a supermarket-pink retail environment, a deliberately playful collision of fine art and consumer culture that became one of the most talked-about events of the Hong Kong art season.

The momentum only accelerated into 2026. This past summer, Pacific Place hosted Juju World from 23 July to 16 August — Hong Kong's first large-scale Juju experience, conceived in partnership with creative house Pen & Paper. Centred on a giant Juju figure perched atop a planet installation in the mall's Garden Court, the event introduced a Hong Kong-exclusive iridescent collectible series and drew crowds throughout its run. The M88 pop-up this October marks Hendry's sixth major art project in Hong Kong, a milestone that speaks to an unusually devoted relationship between an international artist and a single city.

Juju Mega: Scaled Up, Still Soulful

Juju Mega is exactly what the name suggests — bigger, bolder, and more considered. Where the original Juju bag charms fit in the palm of your hand, Juju Mega measures 30.5cm by 23cm, elevating the character from accessory to proper collectible companion. The figure's signature features remain intact: fluid, soft lines, oversized drooping ears, and the iconic leather flower obscuring one eye. What changes is the scale, and with it, the presence. This is an object designed to live on a shelf, a desk, or a bedside table — as much a piece of considered design as it is an art collectible.

The series spans 10 unique colorways, each named and curated as a distinct character within Hendry's expanding universe. The pop-up itself has been designed as a comforting lilac faux-fur dreamscape — an environment engineered to evoke childhood wonder and the kind of tactile warmth that Hendry has consistently used as an emotional counterpoint to Hong Kong's high-gloss urban intensity. Every Juju Mega is presented in a dustbag and housed in a custom metal tin measuring 19cm in diameter by 32.5cm tall, accompanied by a fold-out map poster illustrating all 10 variations and a set of stickers. It is packaging conceived as an experience in itself.

M88 in Central: The Stage for the Debut

The pop-up takes place at 2-8 Wellington Street in Central — the M88 building, a mixed-use address that sits at the intersection of Central's commercial core and its more creative, neighbourhood-scaled streets. The choice of Wellington Street, rather than a traditional gallery district or luxury mall concourse, is consistent with Hendry's instinct for placing her work in contexts that are accessible to a wide range of people, not just art-market insiders. The pop-up runs across four days — 28 to 31 October — with doors open from 10am to 8pm daily. Admission is free, and the format is a straight-buy: no lottery, no ballot, no waiting list. Guests choose their preferred colorway directly, subject to a limit of 10 pieces per order. At HK$620 each, Juju Mega is deliberately positioned within reach of a broad collector base.

True to the defining logic of the entire Juju series, stock will not be replenished. Once the pop-up is sold out, it is sold out. This scarcity mechanism, which Hendry has applied consistently across the series, is not mere marketing. It reflects a considered position on the relationship between art and availability — the idea that desirability should be earned through genuine interest rather than manufactured through artificial exclusivity.

The Online Drop: A First for Juju

What makes the October–November 2026 moment genuinely historic within Hendry's practice is not the pop-up itself, but what follows it. For the first time in the history of the Juju series, the collection will be made available globally via online sale. From 7:00pm EST on 1 November, Juju Mega blind boxes will go live on CjHendryStudio.com at USD$79 per unit, with a purchase limit of four per order.

The blind box format for the online release means that collectors outside Hong Kong will receive a random Juju Mega colorway, adding an element of chance that reinforces the collectible culture surrounding the series. Worldwide shipping is available at a flat rate of USD$20, inclusive of customs duties — a deliberately frictionless arrangement for an international collector base that spans New York, London, Seoul, Tokyo, and beyond. The combination of accessible pricing, global shipping, and a single-run scarcity model has the hallmarks of a drop designed to move quickly.

"The love behind the juju projects has been overwhelming," Hendry has said of the response to the series so far. "Seeing how creative people get with them and watching this global community grow is incredible — Juju Mega is really just our giant hug back to everyone."

A Cultural Moment, Not Just a Product Drop

CJ Hendry's repeated return to Hong Kong — and the warmth with which the city has received her — reflects something genuine about the appetite here for art that resists categorisation. Juju occupies a space that fine art institutions rarely touch: it is too design-minded for the white cube, too art-informed for the toy market, and too emotionally resonant to be dismissed as merchandise. In a city that has always been alert to the intersection of commerce and culture, that ambiguity is precisely what makes it interesting.

With Juju Mega, Hendry scales up the physical object while simultaneously scaling up her reach through the first-ever online release. The four days in Central this October are, in that sense, more than a pop-up — they are the public launch of a new global chapter for the Juju universe, and Hong Kong, as it has been so often for Hendry, gets to experience it first.

Sources

• Cj Hendry Studio / M88 Pop-Up Press Release, October 2026
• Phillips Asia x Cj Hendry Press Release, November 2025 — phillips.com
• Pacific Place x CJ Hendry Unveil Hong Kong's First Large-Scale Juju Experience, Arabian Post, July 2026
• CJ Hendry Juju Mega First-Ever Online Drop Info, Hypebeast, October 2026
• Artist Cj Hendry Is Unleashing Her First Collectible Toy, Artnet News, November 2025