A predominantly conceptual artist, Vancouver-born Kenneth Robert “Ken” Lum played an active role in shaping Canada’s contemporary art scene. Born in 1956, Lum’s innovative approach to art-making enabled him to work in various mediums including photography, sculpture and painting.

Lum graduated with an MFA at the University of British Columbia in 1985, and later became the head of Studio Art there from 2000 to 2006. Throughout his prolific teaching career, Lum won prestigious awards such as the Killam Award for Outstanding Research in 1998, the John Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017.

In his work, Lum explores the issues revolving around identity, language and spatial politics. Particularly influenced by his Chinese-Canadian background, the lasting memory and trauma from World War II is a persistent theme within his works. Notable for his prints that are mimetic of strip-mall collages, his works entitled You Don’t Love Me (1994) and Pamela Gloggins is Candi Sweet (1999) integrate the notion of identity, consumer culture and appropriation. His subjects are often presented in spaces striving for autonomy within an environment that highlights the tension between personal experience and external classification.

Internationally acclaimed, Lum’s work has been featured in an extensive number of art biennales - including Sydney in 1995, Shanghai, Istanbul and most recently, at the 2014 Whitney Museum of American Art biennale. Revisiting his Canadian roots, Lum had a retrospective survey of his works in 2011 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Lum has co-curated international exhibitions such as Shanghai Modern: 1919 – 1945 (2004) and Monument Lab: A Public Art and History Project (2017).

In 2018, Lum’s book Everything is Relevant: Writings on Art and Life 1991 – 2018 was published.