Michael Lau

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Michael Lau (* 1970 in Hong Kong ) is a contemporary artist working in Hong Kong who is best known as a pioneer of the designer toys art direction .

Life

Lau grew up in rural Sheung Shui , in northern Hong Kong, where his parents raised chickens. Between 1989 and 1992 he studied graphic design at the First Institute of Art and Design in Hong Kong. He lives with his wife, with the Italian fashion house Fendi active fashion designer Florence Yip, Hong Kong.

plant

After completing his bachelor's degree in graphic design in 1992, Lau began working in the field of character design , which he initially implemented in his own comic strips and acrylic paintings . He exhibited individual works in local galleries. In 1996, the series Watergarden first attracted a lot of attention, in which he portrayed his developed characters as reflected on the surface of water.

In 1997 Lau was asked by the befriended Hong Kong heavy metal band Anodize to design the cover for their album entitled Action Figures . For this purpose, Lau designed figures that were based on the appearance of the band members and photographed them in corresponding poses for the cover. After this work, Lau increasingly concentrated on the connection of elements of action figures (such as GI Joe or Masters of the Universe ) from everyday culture and sculptures from the domain of the visual arts . In 1999, Lau finally exhibited a collection of 101 handcrafted figures in the Hong Kong Arts Center , known as The Gardener . They are considered to be the first work in the art of designer toys and gave Lau the nickname “The Godfather of Designer Toys”. The individual exhibits in the Gardener figure series are heavily influenced by US and Asian hip-hop, skateboarding and basketball cultures. It is a stylized figure made of vinyl on a scale of 1: 6, wearing hand-made clothing, which is based on actually existing streetwear . The individual characters, each with their own name and personality, are inspired by people from Lau's circle of friends and acquaintances. In retrospect, Lau himself describes his first sculpture as a mixture of classic GI Joe action figures and the fashion dolls from the Barbie series.

Lau had commercial success through various collaborations with the sporting goods manufacturers Nike and Puma , for which he developed exclusive designs for existing shoe models, or with the furniture company IKEA , for which Lau designed a designer toy made of crystal glass in 2018 .

For the tenth anniversary of the Gardener series, Lau revised some of his original figures and exhibited them in Los Angeles, his first solo exhibition in the USA. In 2004 Lau opened his own gallery under the name Michael in Hong Kong. In 2017, Lau, in collaboration with the clothing manufacturer Carhartt , exhibited sculptures under the title "Playwork" at Art Basel Hong Kong , the largest annual art fair in Asia. A curated exhibition of Lau's work was on display in London from October 2018 to April 2019, the first solo exhibition in Europe. Under the title "Oh ... My Toys!" collecting designer toys itself became the theme of the exhibition. In September 2019 50 works from the fields of illustration and designer toys under the title overall Collect Them all in the Christie's office in Shanghai issued and offered for sale. This is the second collaboration between Lau and the auction house Christie's, after an exhibition of Lau's works under the title Collect Them all took place in the Hong Kong branch in 2018 .

For his work, Lau uses different materials such as wood, glass, cardboard, fiberglass or textile as well as different products such as stickers, T-shirts, sneakers or skateboards.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 2019 Collect Them All , Christie's, Shanghai, China
  • 2018 Collect Them All , Christie's, Hong Kong
  • 2018 Oh ... My Toys! , Duddell's, London, England
  • 2017 Playwork , Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • 2016 What? We: Want! , The Living Room Museum, Hong Kong
  • 2009 Gardener 10th Anniversary , De La Barracuda, Los Angeles, USA
  • 1999 The Gardener , Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong
  • 1996 Watergarden , Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong

Awards (selection)

  • Philippe Charriol Art Foundation Award (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997)
  • Hong Kong Designers Association Global Design Award (1996)
  • Designer Toy Award for Lifetime Achievement (2011)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Davena Mok: Cool and Collected , in: Time Magazine Asia, March 18, 2002, accessed August 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ Nick Curtis: A Brief History of Michael Lau and his SoulToy , in: Co Art Magazine, April 22, 2018, accessed August 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ Nicholas Stephens: Michael Lau: Child of the World , in: CoBo Magazine, October 23, 2018, accessed August 25, 2019.
  4. ↑ Nick Curtis: Michael Lau's CARH-ART-T: Work In Exhibition - PlayWork , in: Co Art Magazine, March 28, 2017, accessed on August 25, 2019.
  5. ↑ Action Figures - Anodize , in: Encyclopaedia Metallum, accessed on August 25, 2019.
  6. ↑ Michael Lau Mini Documentary: "FROM STREET TO ART" , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  7. ↑ Nike Dunk SB Low Michael Lau , accessed August 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ Michael Lau x Puma Sample Suede - Release Infos , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  9. ↑ IKEA Art Event 2018 , accessed August 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ Gardener 10th Anniversary Toys by Michael Lau , in: Hypebeast, September 5, 2009, accessed August 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ Keith Estiler: A Look Inside Carhartt WIP & Michael Lau's "PLAYWORK" Exhibition , in: Hypebeast, March 25, 2017, accessed August 25, 2019.
  12. ↑ Oh ... My Toys！ Exhibition by Michael Lau ( PDF ), accessed on August 25, 2019.
  13. ↑ COLLECT THEM ALL！ (SHANGHAI) Exhibition by Michael Lau , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ Keith Estiler: A Look Inside Michael Lau's "COLLECT THEM ALL!" Exhibition , in: Hypebeast, April 10, 2018, accessed August 25, 2019.
  15. ↑ Artist Michael Lau , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  16. ↑ Artist Michael Lau , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  17. ↑ 2011 Designer Toy Awards , accessed August 25, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Lau, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Hong Kong