"Working from a photo taken by my late father, I paint a moment from an epic banquet dinner we had together with his old friends, their wives, and their daughters. Through painting, through his eyes, I process grief and face the memory of a difficult and regretful time. I spend time with him again in a sideways way.

The act of mining nostalgia and personal history is a destructive one. Missing pieces come into frustrating focus, inaccuracies congeal, and old feelings take new shapes. One can find illumination and healing through contemplation, but by re-experiencing the past, its original colour is altered forever." - James Lee Chiahan

James Lee Chiahan was born in Tainan, Taiwan and is currently working as a visual artist in Montréal, Canada. Interested in capturing moments representative of everyday life that explore the relationship between memory and experience, closeness and distance, James works to create images that are emotionally affecting but difficult to place into words. Some of his clients include Apple, The New York Times, and The Walrus. Working with Bryan Beyung, James just unveiled a large mural (60 x 20 feet) celebrating Chinese-Canadian culture on the wall of Poincaré in Montreal's Chinatown.