The Quintessentially Vancouver Artwork of Lam Wong

Story: Kevin Chong

A little over a decade ago, Vancouver visual artist Lam Wong visited the Louvre to see Johannes Vermeer’s “The Lacemaker,” a painting that Pierre-Auguste Renoir considered the most beautiful in the world. “I kind of agree,” Wong says.

On the day Wong and his wife, Mei, visited the famous art museum, its Dutch room was closed for a special event. Disappointed, they took a seat in the museum’s cafe. “Mei was looking at the menu this time, and then her gesture, her pose reminded me of the painting,” Wong says. In 2011, he turned the moment into a painting of his own.