{"id":10855,"date":"2017-03-20T17:55:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T09:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?page_id=10855"},"modified":"2025-06-04T13:53:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T05:53:21","slug":"ivan-lam-biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/artists\/ivan-lam-biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Lam &#8211; Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-3fhjo4n-ee9d2d44f9dd89d7c09052d5ce12530e\">\n.avia-section.av-3fhjo4n-ee9d2d44f9dd89d7c09052d5ce12530e{\nbackground-color:#f2f2f2;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div id='av_section_1'  class='avia-section av-3fhjo4n-ee9d2d44f9dd89d7c09052d5ce12530e main_color avia-section-small avia-no-border-styling  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_section  avia-builder-el-first  avia-bg-style-scroll  container_wrap fullsize'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><main  role=\"main\" itemprop=\"mainContentOfPage\"  class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-10855'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><h1 style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 30px; font-family: Open sans;\">Ivan Lam<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/main><!-- close content main element --><\/div><\/div><div id='artists-title'  class='avia-section av-2jl6siv-9f4c24b5471e5784735e5fdc26b57955 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-border-styling  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_section  avia-builder-el-last  avia-bg-style-scroll  container_wrap fullsize'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-10855'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div class='flex_column av-r7qpz-24f6d9d2d4e5687c550034807b801322 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-3  el_before_av_hr  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div '   ><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><h3 class=\"p1\" style=\"font-family: 'eb garamond'; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: left;\"><a title=\"Ivan Lam \u2013 Overview\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/artists\/ivan-lam-overview-2\/\">overview<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ivan-Lam-CV.pdf\">biography&nbsp;(CV)<\/a> |&nbsp;<a title=\"Ivan Lam \u2013 Exhibitions\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/artists\/ivan-lam-exhibitions\/\">exhibitions<\/a>&nbsp;| <a title=\"Ivan Lam \u2013 Publications\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/artists\/ivan-lam-publications-2\/\">Publications<\/a> | <a title=\"Ivan Lam \u2013 Press and News\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/artists\/ivan-lam-press-and-news-2\/\">press and news<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1aezesn-a678ec12f27ff21ec704d26459fae5bd\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1aezesn-a678ec12f27ff21ec704d26459fae5bd{\nheight:30px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1aezesn-a678ec12f27ff21ec704d26459fae5bd hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-5  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_textblock  '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Ivan Lam (B.1975)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">B. 1975, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia<br \/>\nLives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ivan Lam (B. 1975) has earned a reputation as one of Malaysia&#8217;s leading contemporary artists for his continuous ability to push the boundaries of his art practice. Unafraid to take risks and never content to lean on the familiar, he is constantly posing himself new challenges through experimentation with techniques and mediums, taking his art practice to the next level. In so doing he has evolved into an artist of critical acclaim who is answerable only to himself, consistently striving towards conceiving and actualizing new concepts and ideas.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Over the last 23 years he has charted new territory on the contemporary Malaysian art scene with his mastery of printmaking, his conquering of contemporary painting, through his trademark use of resin both imbuing his paintings with a technical ingenuity and transforms the narrative tone of the work \u2013 adding hyper-reality to the natural, distance to the familiar, pragmatism to pathos. Other dualities and dichotomies abound within his paintings and conceptual works, both harmoniously and in tension, underpinning his enquiries on popular culture, current affairs, art history and autobiography. His practice has recently taken on a more conceptual bias, raising questions around authorship, the role of the artist and the very nature of art itself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He has exhibited widely in the local and international arena and has also garnered multiple awards in a career laden with solo and group exhibitions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ivan Lam has been recognized for his achievements and has been collected by reputed institutions in Malaysia, Europe and the USA. He was the first and only Malaysian artist selected to present a one-man project at the inaugural Art Basel Hong Kong in 2013, and was the first Malaysian artist commissioned by Louis Vuitton for their collection in 2014.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2017, he presented a performance work entitled \u2018Curating Human Experiences: Human Experience 66:06:06\u2019 in Kuala Lumpur, and was the only artist from Malaysia invited to create a project for the Karachi Biennale in the same year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ivan Lam was one of four Malaysian artists to represent Malaysia at the country\u2019s first ever National Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition &#8211; La Biennale di Venezia in 2019. The work presented, One Inch (2019) explores dualities and dichotomies which sit both harmoniously and in tension in Lam\u2019s work, beguiling the viewer to discover the multiple meanings within.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2020, he launched \u2018The Ivan Lam Giveaway\u2019 an online platform where art is used as a tool to promote action. In 2022, he presents \u2018catharsis\u2019 &#8211; his most personal and important series to date. Consisting of five large-panelled paintings, &#8216;catharsis&#8217; encapsulates Lam\u2019s years of experiencing, understanding and accepting the depths of excruciating physical pain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lam\u2019s solo exhibition in 2023, titled \u2018Blind Side\u2019, touched upon the often-neglected demographic in the art scene: the visually impaired. Inspired by his conversations with the Malaysian Association of the Blind (MAB), Lam delved into the concept of blindness, seeking to understand their perspective and the challenges they faced in society. Lam also utilised a spectrum of vibrant colours in addition to incorporating Braille, in the form of vinyl dots, into his artwork. His piece \u201cBlindsight (2022)\u201d in this series stood out for its ironic use of Braille that was not raised, rendering it illegible to both the blind and the sighted. Lam states, \u201cPeople who can read Braille cannot see the message. Those who can see Braille also cannot read the message\u201d. By imbuing a new essence and significance alongside his unique signature style in this series, he offered an opportunity for the visually impaired to engage and experience the artworks through braille inscriptions. Thus, he created an all-encompassing environment that accommodated everyone, irrespective of one\u2019s visual abilities.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivan Lam overview&nbsp;|&nbsp;biography&nbsp;(CV) |&nbsp;exhibitions&nbsp;| Publications | press and news Ivan Lam (B.1975) B. 1975, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Ivan Lam (B. 1975) has earned a reputation as one of Malaysia's leading contemporary artists for his continuous ability to push the boundaries of his art practice. Unafraid to take risks [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10855","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10855"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25212,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10855\/revisions\/25212"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}