Lam Tung-pang 林東鵬

Academic

Lam Tung Pang was born in 1978, and graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002. He was later awarded a scholarship from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. He graduated in 2004 with a Master of Arts degree.

Artistic Themes

Lam Tung Pang emerged from his time in England as an artist with a new perspective on the social fabric in Hong Kong. In 2012, he led a project, in concert with the Art Promotion Office and St James’ Settlement, where he co-produced a painting with 20 children from the Tin Shui Wai district. This was the culmination of a period of exploring, studying and revisiting Hong Kong’s alleys and neighbourhoods to re-immerse himself in Hong Kong. Lam Tung Pang sees the artist as playing a crucial role in leading his audience to effective introspection and an engaged interaction with the world around them.

One of his recurrent motifs is the polar bear, whose mixture of strength and power collides with a fragile world and habitat under threat by invisible or man-made external factors.

Lam Tung Pang’s social engagement and interest in the development of nurturing, creative ecosystems, led to him co-founding the artist’s community of Fotanian, which transformed dormant, previously thriving industrial units into a new arts hub for enthusiasts and artists.

The artist’s engagement doesn’t stop in the present tense. Lam Tung Pang has an emphasis on shared, collective memory. His strong sense of history  combines with the present in surprising ways. His 2012 work on plywood: “The Youngest and Oldest,” linked classical landscapes of China’s past with Hong Kong’s recent manufacturing history, and the skyscape of the post industrial city of today.

Lam Tung-Pang’s harnessing of found objects revivifies the past and underlines a philosophy that is opposes to the careless disposal of our communal ephemera.

This sensitivity to the all-presence of past and future made Lam Tung Pang’s 2017 project a logical step.

Lam Tung Pang in 2017

Lam Tung Pang was one of four local artists invited to play a pivotal role in re-invigorating treasured, possibly overlooked Hong Kong historical monuments. The Old House at Wong Uk Village is the site of the artist’s installations which place his artworks in conversation with architectural and historical features of the building. The Hi! Houses project is now live, presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, organized by the Art Promotion Office, supported by the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Hong Kong Museum of History and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office.

Exhibitions  

Lam Tung Pang’s recent shows include “Toys Stop” atr the K11 Chi Aert Space, “Planting Time” at Tang Contemporary Art and “Play” at the Espace Louis Vuitton Hong Kong. He has also exhibited at the Chinese Cultural Center in San Francisco, and in Manchester, England.

His work is in many private and public collections, including Deutsche Bank, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Legislative Council 

Awards

In 2005, Lam Tung Pang won the ‘Hunting Art Prize: Young Artist of the Year’ award in the UK – he is the only Chinese artist to have achieved this award in the prize’s 25-year history.

His position among the vanguard of Hong Kong artists has been recognized repeatedly. In 2009, he won the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Award. He was granted an Arts Scholarship from Hong Kong Arts Development Council (2003) and Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (2012) . In 2012, he was awarded the outstanding contributions to the development of culture and arts by The Secretary for Home Affairs, Hong Kong.