Born and raised in Hong Kong, Annie Lai-kuen Wan received a Higher Certificate in Studio Ceramics from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1991, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in fine arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1996 and 1999 respectively. A. Lai-kuen Wan is a retired associate professor at the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University.

A. Lai-kuen Wan investigates the dichotomous divisions of traditional ceramics and contemporary art by creating objects that combine ancient, avant-garde and moulding techniques to replicate everyday objects. By strategically displaying her work in both art galleries and public spaces, A. Lai-kuen Wan interrogates how different values – cultural, commercial and functional – are ascribed to objects.

In her MFA thesis exhibition, entitled Longing and Rediscovery (1999), A. Lai-kuen Wan displayed casts of her hands that successively shrank in size. Through the process of casting and moulding, she questioned the function and identity of an otherwise easily recognisable object by altering its material and size. A. Lai-kuen Wan continued to explore these themes in her installation In Biliterate and Trilingual for the Asia Triennial Manchester in 2014. This installation featured eighteen porcelain dictionaries cast from moulds of the dictionaries that she and her friends owned when they studied English and Chinese. As porcelain copies, the function of the dictionary is lost, leading the viewer to question what purpose, if any, the object still holds.

Representing Hong Kong at the eleventh Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, A. Lai-kuen Wan constructed a colourful kiosk displaying real food products from supermarkets. Ceramic copies were also displayed alongside real products in several real grocery shops. The work, entitled Everyday a Rainbow (2016), was intentionally displayed in a plaza accessible to the public, including those who had not purchased tickets for the biennale. By arranging the products in a colour-coded rainbow, A. Lai-kuen Wan emphasised the way in which aesthetic beauty is manipulated by the commercial world for the sake of advertising.

A. Lai-kuen Wan continued to explore the aesthetics of artwork and commodification using cast ceramic objects in Zan Baak Fo [Precious Merchandise, 2018]. The work was installed at two different venues in Hong Kong – a grocery shop in Ping Shek Housing Estate and a closed-down art gallery in Sheung Wan. In the grocery shop, A. Lai-kuen Wan showcased celadon copies of supermarket products on store shelves amongst real products, and in Sheung Wan these celadon copies were displayed in a white-walled gallery space like a showroom. The Zan Baak Fo ceramics were for sale, but each item was listed at the same price as the supermarket product from which they were copied, making them highly affordable. These installations demonstrate A. Lai-kuen Wan’s interrogation of the value of artwork in a society of commodification and consumerism.

A. Lai-kuen Wan’s work has been collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center (Denmark), the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum (Taiwan), the University of Salford Art Collection (Manchester, UK) and the Burger Collection (Zurich, Switzerland).