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Chin Shek Lam was born in 1918 in Guandong in Canton, China. He graduated from the Hung-Yi College of Art and prior to immigrating to Canada in 1970 and enjoyed a distinguished art career that included the founding of the Institute of Oriental Art in China in 1944 and, in 1949, the creation of the Institute of Oriental Art in Hong Kong. He also founded the Han-Nan College of Fine Art in Hong Kong in 1954.
Chin Shek Lam's painting was rooted in the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy but he also incorporated Western techniques and approaches influenced by his contact with Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and many other western artists who he met during a period of travel in Europe in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. His art drew on his knowledge of the ancient techniques of Chinese calligraphy, and evolved to incorporate aspects of Western colour-field painting. In his work, he sought to express a Taoist way of balancing dark and light, warm and cool colour, and contrasting shapes and patterns. Upon moving to Canada, Lam lived in Vancouver and Calgary from 1981 to 1987 and finally settled in Toronto where he resided until his death in 1990. During his lifetime, he had numerous exhibitions in Europe, Asia, Australia, the US and Canada. His work is represented in many public collections, including those of the Canada Council Art Bank, The Provincial Government of British Columbia and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
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