Born in Guangzhou, China in 1949, Szeto Lap took up residence in Hong Kong at the age of 23, a prelude to a move to France three years later in 1975. A young, budding Chinese artist in Europe, Szeto won recognition by staging his first solo exhibition at the Galerie l’Oeil Sévigné in Paris. He has since embarked on various educational projects, acting as Guest Professor to renowned art institutions in China, and was also Lecturer of the PhD programme at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 2001.

Szeto Lap is an artist who revels in simplicity, providing a sense of calm and introspection through his oil paintings, conferring sensibility to a society that is warped by a multitude of complexities. Never ceasing in his pursuit and perusal of beauty, he charts details meticulously. The objects in his paintings espouse a mysterious quality and are thought-provoking owing to the premeditated play of shadows. Szeto’s philosophical approach to life attests to the quietude and composure in his paintings, advocating the precepts of truth and knowledge, with elements metamorphosed as filters of light in his creations.

Forsaking the common desire to climb the social ladder, the artist, relishing this nonconformist adoption, has gained rare insights to the callous materialistic attributes plaguing city life, deviating entirely from such heady, disillusioned affairs, thus achieving artistic enlightenment through his paintings with a psychological eminence that induces admiration.

Selected Exhibitions

• 1979 – 2003, Exhibitions at Galerie l’Oeil Sévigné (Paris, France), Galeria Claude Bernard (Paris, France), Galerie Jacques Elbaz (Paris, France), Barentin Museum (Taipei, Taiwan), Galerie Elegance (Taipei, Taiwan), 亚洲艺术中心 (Taipei, Taiwan), Marlborough Fine Art Gallery (London, UK), Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery (Hong Kong, China), Galerie Sepia (Paris, France), etc.
• 1980, Grand Palais Water Color Exhibition (Paris, France)
• 1981, Lubiam Prize (Lubiam, Italy)
• 1982, “IN SITU” exhibition, National Museum of Modern Art, Georges Pompidou Centre (Paris, France)
• 1983, “Drawings of Figurative Expressionists” Exhibition, National Museum of Modern Art, Georges Pompidou Centre (Paris, France)
• 1986, Individual Exhibition at the Hong Kong Institute of Promotion of Chinese Culture (Hong Kong)
• 1987, Group Exhibition, Cultural Centre, Boulogne (France)
• 1988, Individual Exhibition, Barentin Museum (Barentin, France)
• 1989, “Sur le Vif” group exhibition, Beaucaire Museum (Beaucaire, France)
• 1992, Seminar of “Drawings of Figurative Expressionists” at China Academy of Art (Hangzhou, China)
• 1993, First Proposal on the Basic Theory of the “Drawings of Figurative Expressionists” in China
• Participate at the amendment of the course of study on the Faculty of Oil Paintings of China Academy of Art (Hangzhou, China)
• 1996, Editorial Executive Member of the “Twenty-First Century” Bimonthly Magazine of the Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
• 2000, Workshop on the “Research of Szeto Lap’s Oil Paintings” at Xian Academy of Fine Arts (Xian, China)
• “Breeze of Stillness” for the “Le French May”, joint co-organized with the Consulate General of French, was held in the University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong University (Hong Kong, China)
• 2003 – 2004 , Touring Exhibitions were held in 5 National Museums in China, including the National Art Museum of China, Shanghai Art Museum, the China Academy of Art Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, and the University Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Hong Kong.
• 2012, Expressionist Paintings, Shanghai Art Museum, China

Awards

• 1981, Prix Lubiam, Italy
• 1982, Feneon Prize, Paris Academy, France
• 2000, Grand Prize on Painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Institute of France, France
• 2002, Cooperate with Xu Jing & other professors on the “Method of Teaching on the Basic of Drawings of Figurative Expressionists”
• Educational Achievement Prize, China Academy of Art (Hangzhou, China)
• Educational Achievement Prize, Hangzhou, China
• 2004, Awarded the Chevalier de L’Ordres des Art et Lettres