Ken Lum

Kenneth Robert Lum, OC DFA (born 1956) is a dual citizen Canadian and American academic, curator, editor, painter, photographer, sculptor, and writer.

Working in several media including painting, sculpture and photography, his art ranges from conceptual to representational and is generally concerned with issues of identity about the categories of language, portraiture and spatial politics.

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.

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.

Lum received a MFA from University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1985.

Lum participated in the Carnegie International 1991, Sydney Biennale in 1995, the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1997, and the Shanghai Biennale in 2000 where he also helped edit the exhibition catalog, and at Documenta XI in 2002.

He was on the board of directors for the Or Gallery 1992 - 1994, Arts Initiative Tokyo in 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.

He taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1995 to 1997 while taking leave from UBC.

Lum has also guest taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste or Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China, the l'Ecole d'Arts Plastique in Fort de France, Martinique, De Ateliers and the Rijksakademie, both of Amsterdam, the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, California College of the Arts in San Francisco and the Banff Centre.

Other exhibitions include Johannesburg Biennale 1997, Liverpool Biennial 2006, Tang Contemporary Art (Beijing), Istanbul Biennial 2007 and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, South Korea) and Arrow Factory Beijing in 2010.

While at the University of British Columbia, he was awarded the Killam Award for Outstanding Research in 1998 and garnered a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999.

From 2000 to 2006, Lum was Head of the Graduate Program in Studio Art at the University of British Columbia, where he had taught since 1990, resigning in 2006.

In 2003, Lum won the Distinguished University Professor Award and the Dorothy Somerset Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative and Performing Art.

Lum served on the Vancouver Art Gallery's Master Planning Committee from 2003 to 2004.

Lum joined the faculty of Bard College's Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts in 2005 and worked at Bard until 2007.

Artwas awarded a Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award in 2007.

In 2010, he sat on the Canada Council advisory 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 in Xi'an, China.

Lum was presented with an ArtMoves Special Award from the City of Torun, Poland in 2011.

A retrospective survey of Lum's work opened in February 2011 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Lum participated and gave a presentation at the Moscow Biennale 2011.

In 2011, Lum served as a juror for the Brink Award (Seattle) for emerging North West artists (British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon).

From 2011 to 2017, Lum served on the board of the Canada Post Stamp Advisory Committee in Ottawa, Ontario.

From 2011 to 2012, Lum served as a board member of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto).

In 2012, Lum joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design in Philadelphia.

In 2013, he was appointed a Fellow of the Penn Institute for Urban Research.

In 2013, Lum won a Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award in the field of public artArtef> In 2015, Lum was awarded an Honoris Causa Doctorate degree from Simon Fraser University.

In 2014, he exhibited at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of the University of the Arts (Philadelphia).

The Whitney Museum of American Art invited Lum to exhibit as part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial.

In 2017, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

In 2018, Lum was awarded a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.

In 2018, he exhibited in a survey exhibition at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco.

In 2022, due to Lum's being a recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2019), the exhibition Ken Lum: Death and Furniture was held at the Art Gallery of Ontario curated by Xiaoyu Weng and co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Remai Modern.

In 2019, he was appointed a University of Pennsylvania Presidential Professor with title Marilyn Jordan Taylor Presidential Professor of Fine Arts.

Lum is the 2023 artist honoree of the Institute of Contemporary Art of Philadelphia's annual benefit event.

In 2019, Lum was awarded the Gershon Iskowitz Award and in 2020 a Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Lum won the Scotiabank Photography Award in 2023.