Geoffrey Lok-Fay Cheung

Geoffrey is an artist examining the way bodies hold and transform memories, from its compaction against familial narrative legacies, to its dilation through ritual and ceremony. Cheung’s practice explores the complexities of identity, cultural inheritance, and memory. Through his work, he navigates the intersection of personal experience, familial narratives, and the broader context of diaspora and displacement. He is a queer second-generation Canadian settler of Chinese descent working and living on the traditional First Nation territories of Tkaronto, also known as Toronto, as well as the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, also known as Vancouver. He obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree in 2024 from Emily Carr University. He continues to hold a fascination for metaphysics and natural phenomena having previously obtained a Master of Science from the University of Toronto. 

Central to his art-making is the transformation of photographic images—both personal and archival—through meditative, laborious, and repetitive processes. In recent works, he accumulates wax, organic matter, and digital alterations over images to mirror the erosion and reconstruction of memories. This approach reflects the tension between preserving cultural roots and embracing new identities, particularly within the context of his lived experience.

His installations and photo-objects are sites of mourning and ceremony that utilize the detritus of cultural rituals and forgotten histories. By engaging with neglected remnants and employing digital technologies, Cheung creates space for reimagined narratives and alternate realities. Such processes allow for the emergence of new voices, including his own, in resistance to more dominant heteronormative familial-cultural legacies.

Through his work, Cheung invites viewers to consider the malleability of memory, the impact of intergenerational displacement, and the potential for renewal through ritual. By situating his practice within the oscillating tensions between self, family, and the world at large, a meditative exploration of how we collectively shape our shared histories and futures is created.

Geoffrey’s CV