Draw: Recent Work by Hal Lum

Hal Lum's whimsical and often organic compositions in brilliant colors reflect his delight in discovery of new places, people, and experiences. Although Lum's drawings are primarily abstract he is able to create a language of his own which extracts imagery and influence from his surroundings. The combination of organic shapes and drawn lines create a sense of movement. Lum's works focus on the process of drawing and on the use of fluid and spontaneous gesture.

Lum, born in 1944 in Honolulu, studied ceramics at the College of San Mateo, California and in 1967 received his BFA from the University of HawaiÎi at Manoa and his MFA in sculpture from California State University, San Francisco in 1970. He lived and worked in New York for eight years and currently works as a professional photographer and artist.

Lum states, "Art is like a big open arena that takes in the smallest, most intimate details of a person's life and the widest expanse that is the world and universe . . . I like to keep an open mind, to open the senses and take it all in." He enjoys the intuitive exploration of color, line, texture and shape in his works and embraces a childlike freedom of exploration with his materials.

In Lum's earlier drawings from the 1990s such as Haniwa and Buffalo the compositions are drawn with tight, often repeating shapes as if he were articulating the strands of DNA or mapping an area as in a blueprint. He then layers acrylic paint in washes allowing the early marks to show through creating complexity and depth within the works.

Lum's current drawings are influenced by a wide variety of art-from Japanese pottery to minimal sculpture, High and low art, na•ve and ethnic art. Lum uses a combination of acrylic paint and pencil to fashion his own interpretation of life's events into compositions, which are uniquely eccentric and humorous while still retaining a formal balance. A few works evoke the style of Pop Art or Abstract Expressionist action painting, while others maintain the Minimalist format of simple planes-the result being an astonishing display of abstraction's seemingly infinite possibilities.