Ken Lum
Ken Lum
1956 -
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.
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Untitled (Ed) by Ken Lum sold for $6,250
Ken Lum
Untitled (Ed)
40 x 76 1/4 in, 101.6 x 193.7 cm
c-print on board mounted on acrylic sheet
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $6,250 CDN (premium included)
Summer Select on Thursday, July 29, 2021
Pamela Gloggins is Candi Sweet by Ken Lum sold for $1,404
Ken Lum
Pamela Gloggins is Candi Sweet
5 x 9 in, 12.7 x 22.9 cm
photograph on photo paper - fibre base
Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000 CDN
Sold for: $1,404 CDN (premium included)
September 2009 - 1st Session on Thursday, September 24, 2009
I can't believe I'm in Paris by Ken Lum sold for $750
Ken Lum
I can't believe I'm in Paris
18 x 24 in, 45.7 x 61 cm
2011
archival inkjet print
Estimate: $800 - $1,200 CDN
Sold for: $750 CDN (premium included)
Contemporary Canadian: Property from an Important Vancouver Collector on Thursday, March 25, 2021
I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry by Ken Lum sold for $625
Ken Lum
I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry
20 x 7 3/4 in, 50.8 x 19.7 cm
2003
inkjet print
Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500 CDN
Sold for: $625 CDN (premium included)
Prints & Multiples on Thursday, September 27, 2018