AKA Gallery presents:
KAREN TAM ON ROCK GARDEN
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 12, 7:00 pm
ARTIST TALK: Saturday, September 13, 2:00 pm
WHERE: 424 20th Street West
Main Space Exhibition:
To inaugurate its newly enhanced space, AKA Gallery will present On Rock Garden, a simulated Chinese Restaurant created by Montreal-based installation artist Karen Tam. The gallery space and building, once owned by Toon’s Kitchen, will fittingly play host to Tam’s fifth-anniversary of the Gold Mountain Restaurant franchise across Canada. Aside from Tam’s humorous use of mimicry, her project also serves as a cultural critique. Tam grew up in a restaurant-owning family and views the Chinese restaurant as “a metaphor for an imaginary China, imagined by the West as a place recreated by the Chinese in the West.” Tam’s work looks at cultural identify and authenticity, and has dealt with the history of the Chinese diaspora, especially its close connection to the emergence of Chinese restaurants and cuisine in North America.
Since receiving a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Karen Tam has exhibited her work in Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. She has participated in residencies across Canada, as well as the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.
In 2006, Tam was awarded the Joseph Stauffer Prize from Canada Council for the Arts for most outstanding visual artist. She has also received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec, and Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs eet L'Aide a la Recherche, Quebec.
Recent activities include solo and group exhibitions: LAB7.3:Pagoda Pads (2007) at Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; REDRESS Express at Centre A, Vancouver; Orientally Yours (2007) at The Souther Alberta Art Gallery; Portraits d'artistes, a Conseil des arts de Montreal initiative; and Karen Tam at CUE Art Foundation in New York.
