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張淑芳
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Josephine Shuk-Fong Cheung was born in Hong Kong in 1954.
She was first introduced to the practice of art when she moved to Canada to attend St. Lawrence College. In 1975, she transferred to the Ontario College of Art, where she studied drawing, painting, and lithography and was influenced by abstract expressionism. Her talent was recognized; she received the Loomis and Toles Scholarship in her second year, followed by the New York Scholarship in 1979 which brought her to New York City. There, she was inspired by the city’s street art, and exposure to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf led her to move away from abstraction.
In 1983, Cheung worked as a social worker in Toronto for refugees from Indochina and assisted families rebuilding their lives in Canada. During this time, she created her figurative series Faces of Enigma, exhibiting at venues such as the Hong Kong Art Centre and the Barbara Gladstone Gallery. By 1986, she was represented by T.R. Gallery in Los Angeles and travelled extensively across Asia.
Cheung was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1989 and died shortly after, at the age of 35. Her paintings were left scattered between Toronto and Québec and under the care of her husband. They would not be seen until 2021, after his death.
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Created by Alston So, March 2026.