PIA is proud to support the practice of Morris Lum and his upcoming project at the Toronto Biennial of Art (Toronto, ON). This project will be comprised of freestanding large scale photographic light boxes that will be exhibited in the Oak Room at Union Station. 

Central to Lum’s work is the evolution of Chinese heritage within North American communities. As a photographer, he maps immigration patterns of first and second generation Chinese Canadians and Americans and documents the way cultural identity is expressed in architecture, which in turn reveals a sense of place for the Chinese community. Utilizing a large format camera, the artist has documented the Chinatowns in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, New York, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Lum has often travelled back and forth to these Chinatowns to record the rapid architectural and economic changes these communities have faced. These images are visual records of the cityscapes in which Lum highlights historical and contemporary cultural fixtures such as small “mom-and-popshops”, Chinese restaurants, and community organizations. 

Morris Lum, (b. 1983, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Toronto-based photographer and artist whose work explores the hybrid identities of the Chinese Canadian community and the transformation of Chinatowns across the North America through photography, documentary practices and archival materials. Lum’s work has been exhibited and screened across Canada, and the United States and has received numerous accolades including CONTACT Photography Festival Burtynsky Grant (2023) and the A&E Short Filmmakers Award (2010). Lum hold a Masters of Fina Arts in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) and is an Assistant Professor in the Visual Studies department in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.