Lampo Leong is an internationally acclaimed painter, calligrapher, and multimedia artist who received his BFA in brush painting from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China, his MFA in painting with High Distinction from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and his Ph.D. in Art Theory and Practice at the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Leong is currently a Professor of Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia and a former Art Department Chair. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and South China Normal University, as well as an Honorary Master Artist at the Guangzhou Painting Academy. He has also influenced thousands of students through more than 125 lectures across the United States, China, and Taiwan at institutions such as the University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Davis, Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, the National Taiwan Normal University, and Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan.
Leong has served as juror for 29 art competitions, including public art projects, grants, and exhibitions for the San Francisco Art Commission, the Missouri Arts Council, the Art Saint Louis juried exhibition, the Figuratively Speaking juried exhibition, the Best of America national juried exhibition, and the 47th Annual International Juried Exhibition by the Sumi-e Society of America. Professor Leong’s own work has been featured in museums and galleries worldwide through 61 solo and more than 325 juried/curated group exhibitions, and has received 47 awards and extensive international recognition, including a Gold Medal at the Creative Quarterly international fine arts competition in New York, a Gold Medal at the XV Exposicao Coltctiva dos Artistas de Macau, Ten Best Entries at the Exposicao Annual de Artes Visuais de Macau, Best of Show at the 42nd Sumi-e Society of America International Juried Exhibition, Diploma of Excellence in Medial 1.Art Biennial at the Art Addiction Medial Museum in London, and the Front Cover Award in New Art International published in New York. Additionally, he has published 48 essays on the topics of formalism and art education, and is currently writing a book entitled The Visual Forces of Omega Curve.
Included in over 85 biographical references, Professor Leong is cited in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, the UK’s One Thousand Great Intellectuals, The International Who’s Who, India’s Asian/American Who’s Who, Malaysia’s Asia – Men & Women of Achievement, China’s Lexicon of Notable Chinese, The World Famous Chinese Artists Almanac, International Contemporary Masters, and Creative Genius: 100 Contemporary Artists (UK). His art and teaching achievements have been featured in more than 900 reviews and publications in newspapers, magazines, art books, websites, and on television internationally, including a PBS documentary. Leong has been recognized in the US Congressional Record, and, in 1999, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed November 19th to be Lampo Leong Day. Most recently, in 2007, Professor Leong was a recipient of the 40th Annual Faculty-Alumni Award by the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Sought after by collectors internationally, Leong’s painting and calligraphy are found among fifteen museums and hundreds corporate and private collections, including The Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, Macao Museum of Art in Macao, Guangdong Museum of Art in China, Walt Disney World in Florida, Cathay Bank in Los Angeles, The Westin Surabaya in Indonesia, The Tokyo Westin in Japan, and the City Hall in Columbia. Commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission, Leong’s public art project, 26-foot-diameter granite inset calligraphic medallion, is also permanently installed in a San Francisco city park. Additionally, Leong has collaborated with dancers, musicians, and composers, such as Lily Cai, Gang Situ, Yi Chen, and Thomas McKenney, on multimedia performances and digital film, which have premiered in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the St. Louis International Film Festival.