Bernice Lum
FOCUS | GLR60
January 2024
Bernice Lum, “Betty Boop”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Fridaa”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Madeline”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Kewpie”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Milou”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Mighty Mouse”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Woody Woodpecker”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
16" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Gazoo”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 6" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Tweety”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
20" x 8" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Dick Dastardly & Muttley”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 8.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman”
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
15" x 4.75" x 4.75"
Bernice Lum, “Atom Ant” VENDU
Mixed media on vintage wood bowling pin
10" x 4" x 4"
Bernice Lum is a visual artist based, born and raised in Toronto. Her body of work are iconic characters that she has grown up with that deal with mass media, mass culture, celebrity, bowling, ice cream, and everything sugar and nice.
Bernice was born in 1963 when television, fast food, TV dinners, the Beatles, and Saturday morning cartoons were front row and center. It was also a time when artists began combining pop culture with forms of imagery from advertising, movies and even comics into the realm of high art. Bowling was also a huge part of popular culture in the 20th century and in her family life, and continues in its popularity with a new resurgence.
Bernice’s work immediately evokes a tone of nostalgia, familiarity, kitsch, sentimentality, and at the same time, a sense of humor, wit, and mischievousness.
Princess Leia. Astrogirl. Rosie the Robot maid, who rolled into The Jetson’s first cartoon episode in 1962. These are all icons of pop culture, but can easily be forgotten in today’s Instagram-filled, Kardashian era. But they’re not forgotten to Bernice Lum, a Chinese Canadian who acquired over 100 old bowling pins from a local bowling alley and turned them into artworks that show hilarious caricatures of Mickey Mouse, Disney’s Bambi and Astroboy.
From her studio in Toronto, she spoke to us about the nostalgia for bowling, her favorite kind of ice cream and why her hero is Bruce Lee.