Image of Amy Ching-Yan Lam
Photo credit: Marvin Luvualu António

Amy Ching-Yan Lam is an artist and writer. Her practice looks at how dominant social and political orders are naturalized, where they reside, and how they can be understood through intuition and feeling.

She frequently works in collaboration with other artists, designers, and writers, including Emerson Maxwell, HaeAhn Woo Kwon, monica maria moraru, Oliver Husain, Park McArthur, and Rupali Morzaria.

Amy was born in Hong Kong. She lives in Tkaronto / Toronto and Lenapehoking / Brooklyn.

Exhibitions, performances, and screenings have been presented at Seoul MediaCity Biennale, South Korea (2021); Eastside Projects, UK (2022); Richmond Art Gallery (2023), SFU Galleries (2021), Centre Clark (2019), Truck Gallery (2018), aka artist-run (2018), the Western Front (2015), Art Gallery of Ontario (2013), and many others in so-called Canada.

She is the author of Baby Book (2023), a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards in Poetry; Looty Goes to Heaven (2022); and Property Journal (2024).

Amy has been artist-in-residence at Delfina Foundation, Macdowell, International Studio & Curatorial Program, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Biennial of Art, Banff Centre for the Arts, Hotel MariaKapel, and the Department of Safety, amongst others.

From 2006–2020, she was part of the performance art duo Life of a Craphead, with Jon Pham McCurley. Their projects include King Edward VII Equestrian Statue Floating Down the Don (2017), a performance where a lifesize replica of a colonial statue was dumped into a local river in Toronto every weekend for a month, and Entertaining Every Second (2018-9), an exhibition that looked at experiences and legacies of the American War in Vietnam. Life of a Craphead were involved with numerous DIY projects in Toronto, including the performance and music venue Double Double Land, and they organized the performance art show and livestream Doored from 2012 to 2017.

With thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, and Ontario Arts Council.

Amy Ching-Yan Lam is an artist and writer. She works between ➀ what capitalism requires of life and ➁ what it feels like to be alive.

Here are and

Reading

Wednesday, March 12

Organism for Poetic Research

Reading and conversation

Event Space, 244 Greene St., NYU, New York ― 6pm

Reading

Tuesday, March 4

Canadian Writers in Person Lecture Series

VIRTUAL

York University, Toronto ― 7 to 9pm

Book Launch

Sunday, February 9

Property Journal, Toronto

With Trynne Delaney and Amani Bin Shikhan.

Art Metropole, 896 College St. Toronto ― 3 to 5pm

(2024)

Book Launch

Friday, December 6

Property Journal, Birmingham

Eastside Projects, Birmingham ― 6pm

Book Launch

Wednesday, December 4

Property Journal, Glasgow

With Oisín Roberts.

Good Press, Glasgow ― 6:30pm

Book Launch

Thursday, November 30

Property Journal, London

With Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Luke Roberts, and Eva Esfandiari-Denny.

Reference Point, London ― 7pm

Book Launch

Sunday, October 27

Property Journal, New York

With designer Rosen Eveleigh.

Printed Matter, New York ― 6 to 8pm

Essay

Thursday, October 24

Heard everywhere but here

An essay about Jordan Lord’s most recent exhibition of documentary film, The Voice of Democracy.

Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo NY

Exhibition

Saturday, August 14

to carve without cutting

A collaboration with Robin Simpson titled The Pond for a group exhibition about/made by romantic love, curated by Asia Jong.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden & Public Park, Vancouver

(2023)

Book Launch

Friday, November 10

Baby Book, Berlin

Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin DE

Book Launch

Tuesday, November 7

Baby Book, London

With Aurelia Guo & Samra Mayanja.

Burley Fisher, London UK ― 6:30 to 8pm

Reading

Friday, November 3

DANK_Th0ughts – an evening with HONEY, BF, Amy and Gary

For Sahjan Kooner and Sophie Chapman’s HONEY performance night.

Eastside Projects, Birmingham UK ― 6 to 8pm

Book Launch

Wednesday, November 1

Baby Book, Glasgow

With Samra Mayanja & Sara O’Brien.

Good Press, Glasgow UK ― 6:30 to 8pm

Select press pdf

(2025)

Tank Magazine

Where We Live

Conversation with Aurelia Guo about Property Journal and Aurelia’s book World of Interiors

(2024)

Office Magazine

Means of Production

Review of the group exhibition Means of Production (Queen, NY) with mention of my work Top 20 Reasons…

(2023)