Alvin Luong (b. Toronto) works with stories of human migration, land, and dialogues from diasporic and working class communities to create artworks that reflect upon historical development and its intimate effects on the lives of people. Drawing, sculpture, and video articulate the artist’s expansive studio process that melds together field research, ethnography, and material experimentation.
Luong has exhibited and screened artworks in institutions including Boers-Li Gallery (Beijing), Gudskul (Jakarta), The Polygon Gallery (Vancouver), and Times Art Museum (Guangzhou). The artist has held research and resident artist appointments at the Inside-Out Art Museum (Beijing), HB Station Contemporary Art Research Center (Guangzhou), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto). Luong has been a recipient of the Long List Sobey Art Award (Canada) and was nominated for the 2021 Hans Nefkens Foundation LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award (Spain). The artist’s works have been acquired by The Rockefeller Foundation (New York City). Luong holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Alvin Luong 梁超洪 (b.Toronto)
alvinluong.com
alvinluongart@gmail.com
Collections
The Rockefeller Foundation, New York City, USA
Education
2025 University of Pennsylvania, Master of Fine Arts
2016 University of Toronto, Honours Bachelors of Arts with High Distinction
Solo Exhibitions and Projects
2025 Calcium Breather, Hunt Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2023 Destiny Is Not A Good Friend, Hunt Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2023 After the Cataclysm, Before the Storm, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada
2021 The Young Comrade, The New Gallery, Calgary, Canada
2021 Turbo, Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, Kingston, Canada
2020 Life Preserver, The Bentway and City of Toronto, Canada
2019 From Troposphere to Exosphere, Queen Specific, Toronto, Canada
2017 Soft and Precious, PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts, Winnipeg, Canada
2016 Multiformat Multiform, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada
Group Exhibitions
2025 Dwelling Under Distant Suns, curated by Simon Yangtong Li, Art Museum at University of Toronto, Canada
2025 Scattered Earth, Sounded Depth: Penn MFA thesis exhibition, Arthur Ross Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
2024 One Way Ashore, A Thousand Channels, curated by Tan Yue, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
2024 Morphing Land, Impalpable Currents, curated by Yantong Li, Jackman Humanities Institute, Toronto, Canada
2023 Shoaling, curated by Lillian O'Brien Davis, Nuit Blanche Etobicoke, Toronto, Canada
2023 Eco Art, curated by Sunny Kerr, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
2023 I heard there is a party, curated Henry Heng Lu, Modern Fuel, Kingston, Canada
2023 On a table, over time, curated by Callum Schuster, The Plumb, Toronto, Canada
2022 Being & Becoming, organized by Emerging Young Artists, Trinity Square Video, Canada
2022 CAR SHOW, Erin Stump Projects, Toronto, Canada
2022 Future of Work: Letters from the Land and Water, Workers Art and Heritage Centre, Hamilton, Canada.
2022 If this is the party I want, you may not be part of it, Hamilton Artists Inc.. Hamilton, Canada.
2022 True Currency, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Canada
2022 I am Land That Speaks, Union Station, ArtworxTO, Toronto, Canada
2021 Liquified Units, Te Magazine and abC Art Book Fair, Shanghai, Shanghai Modern Art Museum, China
2019 There Are Volcanoes Under The Sea, curated by Yang Tiange (杨天歌), Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing, China
2018 OMG, It’s a Party!, curated by Call Again, V Tape, Toronto, Canada
2018 EDAA, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada
2017 SHOW17, Idea Exchange, Cambridge, Canada
2015 Proof 22, Gallery 44, Toronto, Canada
Screenings
2021 The Young Comrade, in A Lingering Shadow, co-presented by Centre A and The Polygon Gallery, curated
by Henry Heng Lu, Helga Pakasaar and Justin Ramsey, The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2020 Hole Story (Work-In-Progress), in Curator’s Panel: The Global And The Local, China Millennium
Monument World Art Museum (中华世纪坛艺术馆), Beijing, China
2019 The Young Comrade, Gudskul, Jakarta, Indonesia
2019 Turbo, Alice Yard, City of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
2019 Turbo, CACHE Space (缓存空间), Beijing, China
2019 Taking is too easy, but that’s the way it is, Art Gallery of Hamilton Film Festival, Hamilton, Canada
2018 Utopia Social Club, Double Double Land, Toronto, Canada
2017 Reel Asian Film Festival 2017, TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto, Canada
2017 Bidding War, Sluice Art Fair 2017, London, United Kingdom
2016 Sculpture in Reverse, Running with Concepts: The Choreographic Edition, Blackwood Gallery, Toronto,
Canada
Published Books
2021 Two Pictures of Dying (關於死去的兩張畫像), by Alvin Luong and Yang Tiange, edited by Alvin Luong,
designed by Alvin Luong, translated by Yijia Zhang, The New Gallery Press, Calgary, ISBN: 978-1-895284-31-7
Published Writing
2021 Cooking and Longing: Bánh Củ Cải, Bún Mì Vàng Phúc Kiến and Chợ Lớn, Te Megazine, Beijing, China.
2020 Dispatch from Toronto (多伦多来信), Inside-Out Art Museum (中间美术馆), Beijing, China
Bibliography
2024 The Mystery of the Twisted Fantasy — Alvin Luong, by Renée van der Avoird, C Magazine, Spring 2024,
Canada
2023 This Nuit Blanche, Alvin Luong solves an art mystery that has haunted students for decades, by Chris Dart,
September 2023, Canada
2023 Bullets and Gush: After Cataclysm, Before the Storm, by Yangtong Li, Peripheral Review, August 2023,
Canada
2023 Review of “On a Table, Over Time”, by Edday Wang and Ami Xherro, C Magazine, Autumn 2023, Canad
2023 Day for Night, by Do Tuong Linh, Gallery TPW, 2023, Canada
2023 CAR SHOW exhibition review, by Jayne Wilkinson, Espace art actuel #133, February 2023, Canada
2022 This futuristic food cart warns of a world soon to be underwater, by Chris Hampton, CBC Arts, July 20,
2022, Canada
2022 Subjectivity of an Artist’s Object: A Participant’s View of Alvin Luong’s “Workers Dance”, by Sanchari Sur,
Border Crossings Issue 159, May 2022, Canada
2022 Alvin Luong × Tak Pham by Tak Pham, Le Sigh, Issue No.1, April 2022, Toronto, Canada
2020 Travel Diary in Vietnam No.1 Art Review (越南行游散记 (一) 艺术汇 展评) by Yang Tiange (杨天歌), 798
ArtZone, Beijing, China
2019 There are volcanoes under the sea by Yang Tiange, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing, China
2018 Disobedience: in conversation with Alvin Luong, with Lauren Lavery, Public Parking Publication, Canada
2017 Escape room game makes puzzle of city’s housing crisis by Chris Hampton, The Toronto Star, Canada
2017 TO REINVENT THE REAL AS FICTION by Marina Fathalla, Y+ Contemporary, Canada
2017 Quiet and Unsettling by Henry Heng Lu, PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Media Arts, Winnipeg,
Canada
2016 Running with Concepts: The Choreographic Edition, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto, Canada
2015 The Cure By Image by Ricky Varghese, Proof 22 exhibition, Gallery 44, Canada
Awards and Grants
2025 Canada Council for the Arts, Concept to Realization
2025 Creative Production Grant, The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, University of Pennsylvania
2024 President Gutmann Leadership Award, GAPSA, University of Pennsylvania
2024 The Susan Cromwell Coslett Traveling Fellowship, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
2024 Multimodal Research Grant, Center for Experimental Ethnography, University of Pennsylvania
2023 Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts, Finalist Award
2023 National Gallery of Canada, Sobey Art Award, Long List Award
2022 National Gallery of Canada, New Generation Photography Award, Long List
2021 Canada Council for the Arts, Concept to Realization, for After the Cataclysm, Before the Storm
2021 Ontario Arts Council, Artist-Presenter Collaboration Projects, with Gallery TPW
2021 Hans Nefkens Foundation, LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Award, Nomination
2021 National Gallery of Canada, Sobey Art Award, Nomination
2020 Ontario Arts Council, Media Arts Creation Grant
2020 Toronto Arts Council, Visual Art Projects Creation Grant
2020 Canada Council for the Arts, Travel Grant
2020 Art Gallery of Ontario, Artist Support Initiative
2020 Gallery TPW, Artist Support Initiative
2019 Canada Council for the Arts, Travel Grant
2019 Ontario Arts Council, Skills and Career Development Grant
2018 Canada Council for the Arts, Residency Grant
2018 Emerging Digital Artist Award, Finalist, EQ Bank, Canada
2017 OCAD University Off Screen Award, for Bidding War with Ivana Dizdar, Images Festival
2015 Shelley Peterson Student Exhibition - first prize, University of Toronto
2015 Bachelour's Commission Award, Trinity Square Video
2015 Video Fever - third prize, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada
2014 John Wolfe McColl Memorial Award in Fine Art, University of Toronto
2013 John Wolfe McColl Memorial Award in Fine Art, University of Toronto
Artist Talks and Panels
2024 Visiting Artist Talk, February 2024, University of Toronto, Canada
2022 Visiting Artist Talk Winter 2022, Labour as Culture and as Material, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, USA
2022 Artist Talk, After School: Emerging Artists and DIY Projects, University of Toronto, Visual Studies VIS326, Canada
2022 Artist Talk, University of Toronto, Visual Studies JAV130, Canada
2021 Guest Speaker, Thinking Canada Through Art: Reconsidering Canadian Cultural Symbols, University of Toronto, Canada
2020 PROFIT and LOSS: Artists, Writers, and Curators Consider Vietnam the War and its Effects -symposium moderator, University of
Toronto, Canada
2019 Artist and Social Practice Talk, Gudskul, Jakarta, Indonesia
2019 Artist and Social Practice Talk, YiZhong Art Space (一種合作社), Shunde, China
2019 Artist and Social Practice Talk, HB Station Contemporary Art Research Center (黃邊站當代藝術研究中心),
Guangzhou, China
2019 Collisions and Conspiracy, University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design,
Canada
2018 The After Party - Panel Host, VTape, Toronto, Canada
2018 Collisions and Conspiracy, Institute for Provocation (激发研究所), Beijing, China
2018 Panel Discussion: Multi-source funding to support a lifelong career, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
2018 What is a minute in 2018?, University of Toronto, Canada
2018 On Architecture: By An Architecture School Reject, University of Toronto, Canada
2018 Amazing Happens When All Things Align, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada
2017 Backyard Furnace, PLATFORM Centre for photographic + digital arts, Winnipeg, Canada
2017 What is a minute?, University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, Canada
2016 Your civilization suffers a complete collapse, with Patrick Cruz, co-presented by SAVAC & 8eleven Gallery,
Toronto, Canada
2016 Panel, Running with Concepts: The Choreographic Edition, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto
Mississauga, Canada
Residencies and Institutional Commissions
2024 Seawitch, Artist-In-Residence, Hong Kong SAR
2023 Nuit Blanche and The City of Toronto, Canada
2021-23 Gallery TPW - Artist-In-Residence, Toronto, Canada
2022 ArtworxTO and the City of Toronto, commissioned artwork, Toronto, Canada
2021 Art Gallery of Ontario - Artist-In-Residence, Toronto, Canada
2020 The Bentway Conservancy and the City of Toronto, commissioned artwork, Toronto, Canada
2019 HB Station Contemporary Art Research Center (黃邊站當代藝術研究中心) - Invited Researcher,
Guangzhou, China
2018 Inside-Out Art Museum (中间美术馆) - Artist-In-Residence, Beijing, China
2017 What Now?, Images Festival - artist mentorship, Toronto, Canada
2015 Trinity Square Video, Summer Residency Program - artist-in-residence, Toronto, Canada