Artist: Lam Wong

-----------------------------

Biography

Lam Wong
(b. 1968, Xiamen, Fujian, China; lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada)

“I want to create layers of meaning, not just by building relationship, making connection and creating dialogues of the art works, but also by bringing alight the invisibles, the gaps or intervals, and the mystery. It is achieved by expanding the dimension of time and space in my works.”

”I am fascinated about these mysterious connections between the art works and viewers. And I like the ideas of my works are constantly demanding of each other and having conversations together.”

Lam Wong is a visual artist and curator who immigrated from Hong Kong to Canada during the 1980s and studied design, art history and painting in Alberta and British Columbia. Wong works with painting, installation and performance to engage with themes such as the perception of reality, the role of art and the relationship between time, memory and space. He sees artmaking as an ongoing spiritual practice and his work draws upon his knowledge of Western art history and his interest in Taoism and Buddhism. Wong’s creative approach is often concerned with blending Eastern philosophies and challenging the notion of painting.

Lam Wong has been based in Vancouver since 1998. He has recently exhibited his work and performed at Campbell River Art Gallery, Canton-Sardine, Centre A, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Griffin Art Projects, Unit 17 and Vancouver Art Gallery.

----

Biography (Chinese)

“我想要創造意義的多層次，不僅僅是通過建立關係和聯繫、創造藝術作品的對話，而是通過點亮一種無形的東西，間隙抑或間隔，以及神秘。”這是通過在我的作品中擴展時間和空間的維度來實現的。 ”

“我對這些藝術作品和觀眾之間的神秘聯繫很著迷。我喜歡我的作品的思想是不斷要求對方，並一起對話。”

Lam Wong 王藝林是加拿大視覺藝術家和策展人。他的興趣主要來源於美洲西海岸地區藝術史，強調繪畫的發展及其前衛的敘事。王藝林的創作方法融合東方哲學，並挑戰繪畫的概念。

20世紀80年代，王藝林從香港移民到加拿大，先後在Alberta和BC省學習設計、藝術史和繪畫。目前主要從事繪畫和茶藝相關的藝術創作。王藝林認為藝術創作是一種持續的精神實踐。他主要的主題是對現實的感知，藝術的意義，以及時間、記憶和空間的關係。王藝林自1998年以來一直在溫哥華生活和工作。

----

For enquiries or to schedule a studio visit, please contact:

Unit 061B, SunWah Centre LG
268 Keefer
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V6A 1X5

+1.604.417.4893

----

The World Is As Soft As A Volcano: A Moving Composition

Center A (Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art)
Unit 205, 268 Keefer Street, Vancouver, BC
Janunary 24 – March 14, 2020

Opening Reception: Thur. Jan 23, 6–9 PM
Curatorial Tours: Sat. Feb 15, 1–3 PM, or by appointment

Curated by Henry Heng Lu

Expressed in painting and installation, ‘the world is as soft as a volcano: a moving composition’ by Lam Wong encompasses personal struggles and familial experience as agents of introspection. A collection of Wong’s recent works and part of his ongoing research into the notion of “emotional refuge”, the project delineates a delicate and hidden sense/state of being, communicated through the aftermaths of traumas, sufferings, and griefs. Over the course of the exhibition, the artworks will be rearranged once a week as an evolving cartography of sentiments in accordance with instructions given by the artist.

Lam Wong is an artist, designer and curator based in Vancouver, BC. An immigrant from Hong Kong during the 1980s, Wong studied design, art history and painting, both in Alberta and British Columbia. He is currently practicing painting and tea-related artwork as his main media. Wong sees art-making as an ongoing spiritual practice. His main areas of interest lie in the perception of reality, the meaning of art, and the relationships between time, memory and space. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. Lam has lived and worked in Vancouver since 1998.

More info: Centre A

Click here for Installation View

Lam Wong: the world is as soft as a volcano at Centre A
ARTOMITY 藝源 | Hong Kong's Art Magazine / Elliat Albrecht / 2020 Spring Issue

Lam Wong In Conversation
Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art / Charisma Christal Thomas / 2020.4.26

----

Person/ne

Griffin Art Projects
1174 Welch Street, North Vancouver BC
May 11 – September 2, 2019
Opening Reception: May 10, 7–9 PM
Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 12–5PM, and by appointment

Curated by Lisa Baldissera

Sat. May 10, 6-7 PM: Lam Wong Performance, MA No.1 - The Space Between Objects
Sat. June 15, 1-3 PM: Lam Wong Performance, MA No.2 - The Stillness Between Movements
Sat. Aug. 10, 1-4 PM: Lam Wong Performance, MA No.3 - The Silence Between Sounds

Person/ne reveals the agency of taking action through art making. Alternatively meditative, declarative, political and insistent, the artists’ works reveal acts of care, citizenship and personhood, or cognizance of its lack, through a variety of unexpected means.

Works are drawn from Griffin Art Projects Residency Artists and private collections in Vancouver; artists in the exhibition include Sonny Assu, Stephan Balkenhol, Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Leon Coupey, Stan Douglas, Duane Linklater, Yevgeniy Fiks, Sima Khorammi, Shawn Hunt, Emily Jacir, Mahdyar Jamshidi, Zoe Kreye, Ann Newdigate, Ricarda Roggan, Norman Tait, Stephen Waddell, Ai Wei Wei, Janet Werner, Lam Wong and Sislej Xhafa.

More info: Griffin Art Projects

Click here for Installation View

----

Lam Wong: Mind Transition

Canton-sardine
268 Keefer St. Unit-071 Lower-ground, Vancouver BC
Jan 12 to April 2, 2019
Opening Reception: Jan 12 (Sat. 3pm)
Gallery Hours: Tue to Sat 1-6pm, or By Appointment (604.417.4893)

Curated by Steven Dragonn

Artist Talk: Jan 26 (Sat. 3pm)

About the series Transitional 2x4:

A series of diptych paintings, each showing a fixed frame and depicting motion figures paired with a monochromatic colour-field counter part. Behind each piece of artwork is a hidden painting that is permanently mounted. They are created with layers of calligraphy and paint, drawing from a famous concept in the Diamond Sutra: The Buddha’s teaching on the impermanent and empty nature of all phenomena. The hidden paintings are both talismanic and abstract in nature. Below are the original texts that have been used in the hidden paintings:

一切有為法如夢幻泡影
如露亦如電應作如是觀

All conditioned phenomena
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows,
Like dew and like lightning;
One should contemplate them in this way.
(English Translation)

The Transitional 2x4 series was formed with a realization of a single thought - "Everything and every situation happens only once." All experience is unique. It is a quiet contemplation on time and impermanence. The frame of each painting symbolizes Nowness, and the content (the walking figures inside the frame) depict the movement in time – an expression of Impermanence in all forms and colours. Like an ever-flowing river, the walking figures seem to transition into other frames in a mysterious way. I like the idea of my paintings having conversations with each other.

My newer paintings are very often inspired by my older works. The idea of the undercover hidden paintings and the pairing of two paintings on each panel may come from my earlier work, a large diptych called Westcoast (MOA) 2008, which feature two Buddhist monks on the left panel and a same-sex couple on the right. The setting was the Museum of Anthropology at UBC in Vancouver British Columbia. The aesthetics of this new series, upon revisiting them after completion, feels like a subconscious extension of two of my earlier paintings titled 1964 The Poignancy of Music, and 1964 The Poignancy of Poetry, set in Mark Rothko's studio in Soho, NYC which I painted between 2010 to 2012. They are the projected ideal of how painting should be made, and what should be felt.

More info: Canton-Sardine

Click here for Installation View

----

Lam Wong: 21 Elements

Arts Council Gallery
Queen’s Park, New Westminster BC
Sept 2 to 27, 2014
Opening Reception: Sept 7th, 2-4 PM
Gallery Hours: 1 to 5 PM, Closed Mondays.

The exhibition features Lam Wong’s oil paintings from 2006 to 2014. The main theme of this body of work is to explore the relationship between the art objects and their viewers. He invites you into his internal investigations on the mysteries of memory and perception within his paintings, and hopes to delve into the deeper meanings behind the process of creating art.

The Arts Council Gallery is located in scenic Queen’s Park, New Westminster, annexed to the Centennial Lodge. Entrance at 1st Street and 3rd Avenue or McBride Boulevard at 6th Avenue.

Info. www.artscouncilnewwest.org

Download 21 ELEMENTS Show Catalogue PDF

Click here for Installation View