Ken Lum

Ken Lum
Born	September 26, 1956 Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada
Alma mater	University of British Columbia(MFA, 1985)
Occupation(s)	Academic, painter, photographer, sculptor, writer
Known for	Contemporary artist

Four Boats Stranded: Red and Yellow, Black and Whitewas installed upon the roof of theVancouver Art Galleryin 2001

Kenneth Robert Lum,OCDFA (Chinese:Lâm ấm đình;Chinese:Lâm ấm đình;Jyutping:lam4 jam3 ting4;born 1956)is a dual citizen Canadian and American academic, curator, editor, painter, photographer, sculptor, and writer. Working in severalmediaincluding painting,sculptureandphotography,his art ranges from conceptual to representational and is generally concerned with issues of identity about the categories of language,portraitureandspatial politics.Since 2012, Lum has taught as a Professor of Fine Art in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Early life

Lum was born inVancouver, British Columbiain 1956 and grew up inStrathcona, VancouverandKensington-Cedar CottageinEast Vancouver.He attended Admiral Seymour Elementary, Lord Selkirk Elementary and Gladstone Secondary schools.

Rotterdam kunstwerk Melly Shum hates her job

Career

Lum received a MFA fromUniversity of British Columbia (UBC)in 1985.One of his earliest major projects was his Portrait-Logo series from the mid-1980s, in which he paired portraits with logos, names, or descriptive text.The works borrow from the aesthetics of family photography and advertising, sometimes also commenting on stereotypes of gender and ethnicity.By creating a tension between image and text, Lum destabilizes meaning and makes the viewer conscious of their role in constructing meaning.

His artwork is represented by the New York City gallery Magenta Plains,Galerie Nagel-Draxler (Berlin and Cologne), Royale Projects (Los Angeles), and Misa Shin Gallery (Tokyo).

Teaching

From 2000 to 2006, Lum was Head of the Graduate Program inStudio Artat theUniversity of British Columbia,where he had taught since 1990, resigning in 2006.Lum joined the faculty ofBard College'sMilton Avery Graduate School of the Artsin 2005 and worked at Bard until 2007. He taught at theÉcole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-ArtsinParisfrom 1995 to 1997 while taking leave from UBC.

Lum has also guest taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste orAcademy of Fine Arts, Munich,theChina Academy of ArtinHangzhou,China, the l'Ecole d'Arts Plastique inFort de France,Martinique,De Ateliersand theRijksakademie,both ofAmsterdam,theMaine College of ArtinPortland, Maine,California College of the ArtsinSan Franciscoand theBanff Centre.In 2012, Lum joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of DesigninPhiladelphia.In 2013, he was appointed aFellowof thePenn Institute for Urban Research.In 2019, he was appointed aUniversity of PennsylvaniaPresidential Professor with titleMarilyn Jordan TaylorPresidential Professor of Fine Arts. Lum is the 2023 artist honoree of the Institute of Contemporary Art of Philadelphia's annual benefit event.

Awards

Ken Lum:Pi

Ken Lum:Verliebte in Wien

While at the University of British Columbia, he was awarded the Killam Award for Outstanding Research in 1998 and garnered a John SimonGuggenheim Fellowshipin 1999. In 2003, Lum won the Distinguished University Professor Award and the Dorothy Somerset Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative and Performing Art. Lum received aHnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awardin 2007. Lum was presented with an ArtMoves Special Award from the City ofTorun,Polandin 2011.In 2013, Lum won a Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award in the field ofpublic artArtef>"2013 Mayor's Arts Awards recipients announced | City of Vancouver".Archived fromthe originalon December 16, 2013.</ref> In 2015, Lum was awarded anHonoris CausaDoctorate degree from Simon Fraser University. In 2017, he was made anOfficer of the Order of Canada.In 2018, Lum was awarded a Pew Fellowship from thePew Center for Arts and Heritage.In 2019, Lum was awarded theGershon IskowitzAwardand in 2020 aGovernor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.Lum won the Scotiabank Photography Award in 2023. Lum was awarded the Monument Lab Changemaker Award during a ceremony at the Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia. In 2024, Lum was conferred aKing Charles III Coronation MedalbyDavid Eby,the premier of British Columbia, Canada.

Exhibitions

Work by Ken Lum for the Whitney Biennial 2014

Lum participated in theCarnegie International1991,Sydney Biennalein 1995, theSão Paulo Art Biennialin 1997, and theShanghai Biennalein 2000 where he also helped edit the exhibition catalog, and atDocumenta XIin 2002. Other exhibitions include Johannesburg Biennale 1997,Liverpool Biennial2006, Tang Contemporary Art(Beijing),Istanbul Biennial2007and the 2008Gwangju Biennale(Gwangju,South Korea) and Arrow Factory Beijing in 2010. Aretrospectivesurvey of Lum's work opened in February 2011 at theVancouver Art Gallery.Lum participated and gave a presentation at theMoscow Biennale2011. In 2014, he exhibited at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of theUniversity of the Arts (Philadelphia).TheWhitney Museum of American Artinvited Lum to exhibit as part of the 2014Whitney Biennial.In 2018, he exhibited in a survey exhibition at theWattis Institute for Contemporary ArtsinSan Francisco.In 2022, due to Lum's being a recipient of theGershon IskowitzPrize (2019), the exhibitionKen Lum: Death and Furniturewas held at the Art Gallery of Ontario curated byXiaoyu Wengand co-organized by theArt Gallery of Ontarioand theRemai Modern.As the Scotiabank Photographer Award winner for 2023, Lum was conferred a solo exhibition at The Image Centre in Toronto in 2024.

Peace Through Valour (Battle of Ortona)

Cultural service activities

Lum has served on numerous public committees, including directorship of the then non-funded Or Gallery (Vancouver) from 1982 to 1984 and the City of Vancouver's Public Art Committee from 1994 to 1996. He was on the board of directors for the Or Gallery 1992 - 1994,Arts Initiative Tokyoin Japan from 2001 to 2008, the Annie Wong Art Foundation(Hong Kong) from 1998 to 2002 and Centre A: Center for Asian Art (Vancouver) 2002 to 2007. Lum served on the Vancouver Art Gallery's Master Planning Committee from 2003 to 2004. In 2010, he sat on theCanada Counciladvisory committee dedicated to international engagement and served as a juror for the City of Vancouver awards for exhibitions assistance. From 2010 to 2012, he served as a juror for the Mayor's Art Awards (Vancouver). The same year, he was a presenter at the inaugural Yishu Art Awards held inXi'an,China.In 2011, Lum served as a juror for theBrink Award(Seattle) for emerging North West artists (British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon). From 2011 to 2017, Lum served on the board of theCanada PostStamp Advisory Committee inOttawa,Ontario.From 2011 to 2012, Lum served as a board member ofThe Power PlantContemporary Art Gallery (Toronto).

In 2003, Lum was a juror for thePrix de Romeprize for theNetherlandsin the category of Art in Public Space for theRijksakademieofAmsterdam,writing the Prix de Rome essay for the catalog accompanying the prize. From 2007 - 2012, he served on the advisory board ofFillip,a critical art and cultural journal based in Vancouver. In 2008, Lum was a juror for the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in Beijing to which he also wrote an essay on the winning artistLiu Weiand juror for theNew ContemporariesExhibitioninLondon,UK. Lum was a juror of the inaugural Lola Award forContemporary Dance(Vancouver) in 2012. From 2013 to 2015, Lum was a board member of CACHET (Canadian Art Commons for History of Art Education and Training), a three-year project of theUniversity of Toronto'sUniversity CollegeCanadian Studiesprogram.In 2015, Lum was a juror for the Jerome Emerging Artists Fellowship in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2017, he was a juror of the AIMIA/AGO photography prize. In 2019, Lum served as a juror for the 9.4 billion USDKing SalmanPark project inRiyadh,Saudi Arabia.Lum served as a Toronto Biennial of Art board member from 2020 to 2023.

Keynote addresses

Lum has given several keynote addresses. He was keynote speaker for the 1997 Universities Art Association of Canada annual conference.In 2006, Lum was keynote speaker of the third and final symposium of the 15thBiennale of Sydneyin Sydney, Australia. In 2010, he was keynote speaker for the annual CIMAMWorld Museums conference held at theShanghai Art MuseuminShanghai,China. In early 2020, Lum gave the keynote address for the inauguration of the Melly multi-purpose venue in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Also late in 2020, he gave the keynote address for theBecoming Public Artconference in Markham, Ontario. Due to the pandemic, the keynote was delivered virtually. In 2022, he was the keynote speaker at the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics conference at the invitation of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, held at the Harrison Auditorium of the Penn Museum. Lum was the 2023 Canadian Arts Conference Keynote at Koerner Hall, the University of Toronto. Lum was the 2024 keynote for the Annual Duldig Lecture on Sculpture, Melbourne, Australia.

Writings

From 1999 to 2001, Lum wrote anonline journalfor LondonArt,which chronicled both his passion for and misgivings about art. Lum co-foundedYishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Artin 2000, along with Zheng Shengtian, and was Editor-in-Chief until 2004. With Zheng Shengtian, he co-organized the first large-scale international curators' tour of China in 2000, which included curators forDocumenta,Dia Art Foundation,Renaissance Society,Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,Gate Foundation and theArt Gallery of Ontario.

He has written numerous essays with themes ranging from the relationship of art toethnologyfor theNational Museum of Ethnology,Leiden,Netherlands,to the art ofChen Zhenfor theKunsthalle Wien(Vienna Kunsthalle). Other essays include a historical analysis of Canadian Cultural Policy,One paper presented to the Department of Caribbean Studies atYale Universityconcerned multiple identities as depicted in Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa. In 2008, Lum completed an art book project with French philosopherHubert Damisch.TitledUltimo Bagaglio,it was created by Three Star Booksof Paris. In 2009, Lum contributed an essay regarding the problems confronting art education today forArt School: (Propositions for the 21st Century)published byMIT Press.In 2012, coinciding with his move toPhiladelphia,Lum began writing a quarterly art column for Artazine, a Canadian Art magazine. In 2013, he presented a paper for publication on contemporary art versus visual culture for the M+ Museum of Visual Culture of theWest Kowloon Cultural DistrictofHong Kong.He also presented a paper on the work of conceptual artist Ian Wilson at the Dia Art Foundation in New York.In 2016, Lum contributed a catalog essay for theMuseum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.The book and catalog for the exhibition and project "Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia" was issued in the fall of 2019 byTemple University Press.A book of writings titled "Everything is Relevant: Writings on Art and Life, 1991 - 2018" was released by Concordia University Press in early 2020.

Screenplays

In 2020, he completed a screenplay about comparative racism after theAmerican Civil War.In 2022, Lum wrote a second screenplay centered on the 1885 Chinese expulsion from Tacoma, Washington Territory.The synopsis for The Cook is: In 1865, three years after the end of the Civil War, the Union of the Nation was preserved, and the institution of slavery was formally abolished. In the wake of these changes, railway and mining companies have turned to importing indentured Chinese laborers, often referred to as "coolies," to the United States as a replacement for the newly freed African American slaves. At the center of this evolving landscape is Joel Scott, who leads a hauling company unit tasked with transporting mining equipment and freshly arrived Chinese laborers from Astoria, Oregon, to the gold fields of Idaho via the nascent Oregon Trail. The story revolves around nine crucial days in the life of Chung, a teenage boy from southern China, who is hired to cook for Joel's unit. Chung quickly gains a reputation for his culinary skills, but his newfound success attracts the attention of a rival hauling company, leading to his kidnapping.

The synopsis for The Expulsion is: The Expulsion explores the Chinese immigrant experience in America during the post-slavery era, particularly focusing on their struggles with indentured labor. The screenplay is set in 1885 in Tacoma, Washington Territory. It is based on actual events that unfolded during a time marked by intense anti-Chinese sentiments, especially among white unionized workers. These workers attributed the availability of low-cost Chinese labor to the decline in their wages and the threat to their jobs rather than recognizing the Chinese community as potential allies in their fight against large, exploitative companies. The screenplay vividly depicts the unique setting of the waterfront Chinatown of Tacoma, which was ingeniously built on stilts over littoral zones beyond the authority of Tacoma. It follows the community's journey as they face the looming expulsion date set by the Mayor of Tacoma, which demanded the removal of all Chinese residents.

Curatorial

Lum's activities include several curatorial projects. He was Director of the non-profit and then non-funded Or Gallery in Vancouver from 1982 to 1984. While Or Gallery Director, he curatedPoCo Rococo,an exhibition held inCoquitlam Centre,a large suburban shopping mall inCoquitlam.The exhibition included high school art students of Coquitlam andPort Coquitlamwith established city artists. In 2001, Lum was part of a team that founded a Humanities 101 educational lectures program for low-income people in Vancouver'sDowntown Eastside.Lum was an advisor forThe Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 to 1994,a 2001 exhibition conceived and curated byOkwui Enwezor.Lum was curator of the 2004 NorthWest Annual for the Center of Contemporary Art inSeattle.In 2005, Lumco-curatedShanghai Modern 1919-1945,an exhibition about the city's art and culture during therepublican era.He contributed an essay for the exhibition on Aesthetic Education in China. The same year, he also co-curated and contributed an essay for the 7thSharjah BiennialinThe Emirate of Sharjah,United Arab Emirates,the largest internationalcontemporary artbiennalein theMiddle East.In 2015, along with Paul Farber and A. Will Brown, Lum co-conceived and co-curatedMonument Lab:Creative Speculations for Philadelphia,a public art and urban research project sited in the courtyard ofPhiladelphia City Hall.The project consisted of a specially designed research pavilion, a prototype monument by artistTerry Adkins,and free dialogues led by Philadelphia artists and critical thinkers usingWilliam Penn's iconic plan for the city's five public squares as inspiration.

Public art

Lum has worked on several public art projects. In Vienna in 2000, Lum realized a 540 square meter work on the side of the centrally locatedKunsthalle Wienfor the non-profit art initiativemuseum in progress.The work,There is no place like home,generated controversy as Lum saw the work as a response to the growth of the extreme right in Europe. Lum'sFour Boats Stranded: Red and Yellow, Black and Whitewas installed upon theVancouver Art Galleryroof in 2001.The work, which can be viewed as a comment onimmigrationandacculturation,features fourmodel boats:aFirst Nationslongboat,acargo ship,thesteam linerKomagata Maru,andGeorge Vancouver'sshipHMSDiscovery.Each vessel has been placed at one of the building's compass points—north, south, east, and west—and painted in a color intended to reflect the stereotypedracialvision presented in the hymn "Jesus Loves the Little Children."

Lum realized a second permanentpublic artcommission outsideSt. Moritz,Switzerlandin 2003 that dealt with the declining Romansch way of life in the remote Engadine region of Switzerland. The work titledIl Buolf Mus-chin Museumwas a commission of the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation of Zurich and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.

In 2005, Lum completedA Tale of Two Children: A Work for Strathcona,a permanent work commissioned by the City of Vancouver's Public Works Yard. Another major public art commission by Lum, sponsored by the city ofVienna,Austria,andWiener Linien(Vienna Public Transit), opened in downtown Vienna in January 2007. TitledPi,the work is over 130 meter long and situated in a prominent pedestrian passageway by Vienna'sKarlsplatzsubway interchange. In 2011, Lum realized a permanent public art commission for the city ofUtrecht,Netherlands.The work is located in the Nieuw Welgelegen district,a troubled but dynamic multi-ethnic area of Utrecht that is undergoing redevelopment. The work titledJanuary 1, 1960consists of a monumentally scaled topographical and political globe of the world as it looked at the start of 1960.

In early 2010, Lum completed Monument for East Vancouver, colloquially known as theEast Van Cross,an outdoor artwork located in the traditionally working-class side of Vancouver. In Vancouver, he also realizedFrom Shangri-la to Shangri-la,a temporary installation based on huts that were erected on the Maplewood mudflats inNorth Vancouverduring the second half of the twentieth century. Scale models of these structures appear to float over the surface of a corporate reflecting pond, creating a marked juxtaposition between their makeshift construction and the surrounding architecture while evoking the utopian character of themudflatcommunity in the seemingly inexorable advance of urban development.In mid-2010, Lum won a public art commission forAcross Time and Space, Two Children of Toronto MeetinToronto,Ontariocompleted in 2013. Late in 2010, Lum was selected as the lead artist on the design team for the newWalterdale Bridgereplacement scheduled for construction from 2013 to 2017 inEdmonton, Alberta.Lum completed in 2013 public art commissions premised on the tragic-historical figures ofHomer PlessyandDred Scottas a connecting narrative between theLaumeier Sculpture ParkinSt Louis, MissouriandLongue Vue House and GardensinNew Orleans,Louisiana.In 2016, Lum completed a memorial to the Canadian war effort in Italy during World War IILum's memorial centered on theBattle of Ortonawhere Canadian troops were victorious but suffered heavy losses.The memorial is sited inNathan Phillips SquarebyToronto City Hall.Lum won a commission in 2016 to design a memorial to the 1986Lake Nyosdisaster inCameroon.The memorial project was canceled due to secessionist unrest in the area. A large public art project for the block 13 development inNorth York,Toronto, was completed in the spring of 2019. In 2024, he completed a public art project for the Century City development in Surrey, B.C., and was awarded a public art commission for another private development near Central Park in Burnaby, B.C.

External links

• Ken Lum -
• Ken Lum at Royale Projects - Los Angeles
• Ken Lum at L.A.Galerie - Frankfurt
• Ken Lum at Misa Shin
• Ken Lum at Nagel-Draxler - Berlin
• "Ken Lum" inPhotography in Canada, 1839-1989: An Illustrated Historyby Sarah Parsons and Sarah Bassnett, published by the Art Canada Institute
• "East Van. No Rules."by Mike Klassen in City Focus