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Mr. David Lam Chun-fai (1932–2013)

The University Museum and Art Gallery is deeply saddened to inform that David Lam Chun-fai passed away peacefully in Vancouver, BC, Canada on February 21, 2013.

The Museum’s retrospective of David Lam’s artistic career spans the period from the late 1950s to his most recent works, and will continue to be on view until March 10, 2013.

David Lam was born in Hong Kong in 1932, and was, like many of the emerging artists at the time, gripped by a modernising impulse.  In the 1950s David studied with the influential artist Lee Byng (1903–1994), who had trained in Canada. David began to gain recognition for his art in the 1960s and won first prize in the First Hong Kong Open Art Competition. As a founding member of the Circle Art Group, he counted Hon Chi-fun, Wucius Wong, Cheung Yee and Van Lau among his contemporaries. He left Hong Kong for Canada in 1965 but continued to take part in the Group’s exhibition activities by sending works back to Hong Kong by post. His painting developed in new directions in Canada, and he was finally able to become a full-time artist in 1975. David is survived by his wife Rose and their children Ernie and Eugenie.