NN Gallery will be presenting the
first showing of Walter Lam's recent paintings in Kuala Lumpur.
The artist has participated in several one man shows , selected
group shows as well as studio shows in Osaka , Nagoya, London and
New York . His most recent solo show was at the Arsenal Gallery ,
Central Park , New York in 1992
Walter Lam was born in 1949 in Hong Kong and moved to Malaya in
the same year.
His grandfather came to Malaya in the late nineteenth century to
start the tin mining
trade and it was here that Lam spent most of his childhood .He has
since lived in New
York and London.
He went to an Anglo-Chinese School in Kampar in 1956-62 and later
to Victoria Institution , Kuala Lumpur in 1962-65 . His earliest
influence in art was Patrick Ng, who was one of his art teachers
at Victoria Institution . He continued his secondary education at
Kent College, Canterbury, England and Goldsmith's School of Art,
University of London in 1968.
His recent series of paintings" Satellites and Stars"
addresses his present sensibility as an artist . He engages his
audience into the spirit of free communication . Using shaped
canvasses of both irregular and regular geometric shapes he allows
for the interplay of colours in accord . He shows colours in
varying hues and contrasting planes to indicate depth and tension
. He achieves a tonal variation in subtle textural and expressive
brushstrokes.
|
|
The spirals
within symbolizes the idea of the "mortal coil ", and
acts as a metaphor for life . Beginning at the vector, as the most
forward point of contact, the spirals coil outwards beyond the
canvas . The spiral, which is structured within the framework of
the circle , posseses infinite scale . Hence it's scale and
movement measures all directions . On the onset, the eye perceives
the canvasses as a simple flat surface , but with the combination
of varying and different intensities of colour planes the eye
stretches and extends into a defined fluid movement which in turn
captures the essence of Lam's simple yet complex language of art.
After thirty years abroad Lam has returned to Malaysia to present
his style to a new audience. In his catalogue written by Virginia
Whiles , art historian and curator at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts ,
Rouen , France she quotes Lam as saying "I do not want a
particular historical context . I am aware of the link and cross
influences and I won't hesitate to use them when necessary ... the
present takes care of the context inevitably and I simply consider
myself in a long tradition or culture of painting and I get on
with it . "His progressive and optimistic attitude"
underlines his desire to reconcile the archaic with the actual by
the way of constant transformation, a belief of Taoist
origin"
|
