Michelle Loa Kum Cheung

Michelle Loa Kum Cheung is an Australian born artist who works in mixed media to create impressionistic landscapes on wood. These fictional environments enable her to explore the idea of a displaced heritage. Her current work is a response to her cultural identity as an Australian with Chinese-Mauritian heritage.

Loa Kum Cheung largely utilises the technique of pyrography (hand burning) on wood to exploit and experiment with the natural qualities of the wood. Mixing gold leaf and liquid graphite with her paints gives her pieces a warm, nostalgic tone. The physicality in the application of the materials is an attempt to exert ownership over the elusiveness of memory, time and place – inherently flawed, disjointed and the subject of idealistic escapism.

Loa Kum Cheung practices in East London, and most recently participated in ArtRooms London 2019 and spent three months on an artist residency in Goa, India.