Tung-pang Lam
Toni Heath Gallery presents a unique opportunity to view the idiosyncratic, conceptual works of Tung-pang Lam. "Mind The Gap" promises to be one of the most exciting gallery shows in London this summer.
Tung-pang Lam is rapidly becoming a name to watch in international contemporary art. Using both traditional (oil, acrylic, charcoal, ink, paper) and non-traditional (nails, sand, wax, plywood) materials, he produces beautiful, thought-provoking pieces, which resonate with the viewer long after their first encounter.
This new body of work sees Tung-pang Lam exploring what happens in the spaces between things.
"The space between things, where meaning or thought are being created, always plays a very important part in my work." Tung-pang Lam 2006
Tung-pang Lam’s starting point is the gap between the viewer of the works and the works themselves, but Lam takes this further and examines the physical relationships of deliberate gaps in the materials he uses, utilising both positive and negative space.
He is also looking at the contradictions between content and image and using his own heritage to further address cultural gaps. In contrast to many contemporary Chinese artists, exotic visual elements, such as national icons (Mao, traditional Chinese faces, etc) and colours, especially red, are rarely present in Lam’s work. As he moves between cultures, he finds that the links between nationality and national icons are becoming weaker. He believes that new art should be created from a fusion of different, but shared, experiences of contemporary life and society, with artists providing light to avoid the endless openness of interpretation.
"Meaning is not only in the mind of the beholder." Tung-pang Lam 2006
Hong Kong born, Tung-pang Lam was one of the founders of the Fo Tan movement, commandeering disused industrial buildings in the Fo Tan area of Hong Kong to create exhibition and work spaces for contemporary artists.
In 2003, the Hong Kong Museum of Art purchased a major piece by Lam, "Fotan", which now forms part of the permanent collection. In 2005 Tung-pang Lam was awarded the prestigious Hunting Art Prizes "Young Artist of the Year" and in 2006 won the Schoeni Prize at the Sovereign Asian Art Prizes.
Tung-pang Lam has exhibited extensively world-wide, has won several major international awards, and has work in many public, corporate & private collections in Europe, the USA & Hong Kong.
Biography
1978 Born in Hong Kong
Solo Exhibitions
2006 Mind The Gap, Toni Heath Gallery, London
2006 Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester
2005 Resonate II, Wah Luen Industrial Centre, Fo Tan, Hong Kong
2005 Resonate I, Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong
2005 Breath, Toni Heath Gallery, London
2005 Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong
Group Exhibitions
2006 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Lane Crawford International Finance Centre, Hong Kong
2006 Art On Paper, Royal College of Art London
2006 London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
2005 Small is Beautiful XXIIl, Flowers Central, London
2005 Hunting Art Prize, Royal College of Art, London. (Winner "Young Artist of the Year")
2005 Window Gallery, London
2005 Atkinson Gallery, London
2004 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Central, London
2004 Chichester Open Art Exhibition, Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre
2004 The Inscriptive Ferret, Space 44, London
2003 Post-Postal, Euroart Gallery, London
2003 Fotanian, Wah Luen Industrial Centre, Fo Tan, Hong Kong
2003 Hong Kong Art Biennial, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2003 Ka Folk Restaurant, The Shangai Street Artspace, Hong Kong
2003 A Time Like This … SARS exhibition, Hong Kong Arts Centre Pao Galleries, Hong Kong
2003 Landscape of Mind: Paintings by Chan Sau-nam & Lam Tung-pang, Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong
2002 Triple Play, 1aspace, Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong
2002 Travel in Xian, Hui's Gallery, New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2002 Small, Hands, Made, Sculpture Exhibition. Hui's Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2001 318 Opening Show, Wah Luen Industrial Centre, Hong Kong
2001 Playground of Your Imagination, Nokia Arts Awards - Asia Pacific 2000, Seoul, South Korea
Awards
2006 The Schoeni Prize, Sovereign Asian Art Prizes
2005 Young Artist of the Year, Hunting Art Prize, UK
2004 Young Artist Prize, Chichester Open Art, UK
2003 Arts Scholarships, Hong Kong Arts Development Council
2002 Raymond Wood Creative Prize, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2001 Cheung's Fine Arts Awards, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2000 Nokia Art Awards - Asia Pacific 2000 Hong Kong Finalist & Outstanding Artistic Expression
Collections
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
University of the Arts, London
Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong
Allen & Overy, Hong Kong
Private collections in UK, USA & Hong Kong
Education
MA (Fine Arts) Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design, London
BA (Fine Arts) The Chinese University of Hong Kong