Jenny [on the] Lam

Artist. Artist agent. Independent curator. Writer. Troublemaker. Columbia University alumnus. Chicago-born Chinese American daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong. Globetrotting polyglot. People connector. Culture cultivator. Kyriarchy smasher. Graphic T-shirt addict. Former precocious child. Current child at heart. Leo. INTJ. Nerd. 1st Prize Winner of the National Park Service & National Park Foundation's Centennial Project. Two-time recipient of the Individual Artists Program grant from the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, including for my ongoing-since-2008 large-scale interactive public art and mapping project, Dreams of a City. My site, Artists on the Lam, was named "Best Local Visual Arts Blog" in the Chicago Reader's Best of Chicago issue. My show, I CAN DO THAT, was named the audience choice for "Best Art Exhibit" in NewCity's Best of Chicago issue in 2012.

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Reunited with my former-mentor-turned-dear-friend Robin Rios! 💜 We hadn't seen each other since the Before Times! We hung out in Chinatown starting with dim sum at Cai (which my parents and I also hadn't been to since March 1, 2020! which is nuts since we used to go every week (and of course they immediately recognized/remembered us even though it's been over 6 years 😅 and later when we went into Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe, which I used to go to all the time when I was a kid before/after attending Chinese school, the same exact thing happened 😁)). Anyway, my heart is full 🥰 (as is my stomach). // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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I made these! Just a few of my creations from the Spring session of my Wheelthrowing class. This was my second time taking the Advanced Beginning level after a year in Beginning. 😊 Pictured here are:

1 - My first time trying Tea Dust!

2 - Another glaze experiment :)

3 - First time trying sgraffito

4 - My second porcelain jar! (All of these are porcelain btw. ^^)

5 - My 2nd ever teapot! I wasn't too keen on how the glaze turned out so here it is as bisqueware, along with a bonus photo in its leather hard greenware stage

6 - My 1st successful plate (I say successful because the first time I made one during the Winter session I accidentally cut through it 😆)!

📍: Lillstreet Art Center <3

// (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Inside Nabala Cafe, a Palestinian-owned coffeeshop in Uptown. 🇵🇸 I had an egg sandwich and a pomegranate sage hibiscus tea. 🌺 // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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If You Only Knew by artist Steven Teller. 🌼 An emblem of hope, resilience, and strength, this 32 ft. tall mural is outside Cornerstone Community Outreach's Hannah House, a shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness, and is part of Clifton Avenue Street Art Gallery, an outdoor gallery of murals in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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🎤 Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me. 🎤 All the Feelings Tour: Metric + Broken Social Scene + Stars at Aragon Ballroom last night in Chicago! I, too, was surprised I made barricade for this concert of Canadian indie rock royalty (and yes the stage at the Aragon is notoriously ludicrously high). Here’s BSS’ “Anthems for a Seventeen Year‐Old Girl,” joined by Emily Haines from Metric and Amy Millan from Stars. I can’t believe I’ve loved this song and this band for over 20 years. 🩷 I also love how they’re all childhood friends; they all showed up for each others’ sets and the whole show was like a party. // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Just got tix to see Tinashe at the Salt Shed in Chicago! ★

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I've just been announced as a Semifinalist for the Urban Photo Awards 2026! And the competition received submissions by 5,000 photographers from around the world! My two photos that have been selected for the Semifinal stage:

- Scale[s], of the Xiqu Centre in Hong Kong, shot on my iPhone 12 Pro this past March: http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=345579%2Fjenny-lam%2Fscales

- One Step at a Time, in the Art Institute of Chicago, shot on my iPhone 5s in 2015: http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=345587%2Fjenny-lam%2Fone-step-at-a-time

Thank you to the Jury, and congratulations to all the other Semifinalists!

// (c) Jenny Lam

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Happy National Ice Cream Day! 🍦 Throwback to March when I was on my annual Hong Kong trip and got a snack at Heartwarming 暖心芝作, a shop in Prince Edward that's famous for all things black sesame, including black sesame ice cream! 🖤 With black sesame seeds being ground non-stop by two stone mills at the door, Heartwarming is Michelin recommended street food. // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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ChicaGOAT. 🐐 Today was my parents' anniversary of when they met! To celebrate, we went to Girl & the Goat for our first time. And... it lived up to its reputation; SO good omg, especially the dishes I wouldn't normally think to order. 🍖🍳 We shared five savory plates and four desserts (one of them was on the house). And then when we left, there was the most spectacular sunset. 🧡 // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Scale[s]. Xiqu Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, back in March. // I'm delighted to announce that I'm one of the Selected Photographers for the Urban Photo Awards 2026 in Trieste, Italy! And the competition received a staggering 20,000 submissions! Five of my works have been published in their gallery:

- Place in the Sun (2025) in Luohan Temple, Chongqing, China: http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=314986%2Fjenny-lam%2Fplace-in-the-sun,

- Scale[s] (2026) (pictured here): http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=345579%2Fjenny-lam%2Fscales,

- Big Baby (2025) at the No Kings Rally and March in Chicago: http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=345583%2Fjenny-lam%2Fbig-baby,

- Mountain City (2025) at Xiahaoli / Longmenhao Old Street, Chongqing: http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=345581%2Fjenny-lam%2Fmountain-city, and

- One Step at a Time (2015) in the Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.urbanphotoawards.com/en/photonew/?id=345587%2Fjenny-lam%2Fone-step-at-a-time.

The first four photos were shot on my iPhone 12 Pro, and the last one was shot on my iPhone 5s.

Thank you to all the jurors!

// (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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It was so foggy tonight, this is what my local fireworks looked like lmao. (I didn’t use night mode or edit this photo whatsoever; this is really what it looked like.) Well, it sounded like a good show?

Happy 4th of July / Happy 250th birthday, America ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

// (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Stay cool, Chicago! ☀️ Throwback to last week: Inside The Understudy Coffee and Books, a queer-owned theatre-themed hybrid bookstore and coffee shop in Andersonville. 📚☕ Stopped by before my ceramics class, and, like Lillstreet Art Center, they also have fresh pastries from Defloured gluten-free bakery. 🥐 Such a pretty café!

[Edit: Thank you Siren Betty Design and Defloured for accepting my invite to be collaborators on my Instagram post!]

// (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Today was the Grand Opening Celebration of Hello Kitty Cafe Chicago, the world's largest Hello Kitty Cafe! And I was among the first to have Afternoon Tea in the Bow Room! 🫖

The tea room is in the basement of the café and it was like a speakeasy (very appropriate for Chicago); when the staff pressed the button to open the secret door we all gasped. 😄 Most of the staff were young and all were super nice, and you could feel their first day excitement! (I was excited too.) Shout-out to our server Mingma (her folks are from Nepal and her dad was a Sherpa!).

Love that we get this in Chicago 🩷

// (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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My friend Julia was in town today so we randomly went to a neighborhood bar called Loafers (Lincoln Square’s oldest dive!), and it just so happened to be bingo night! Our first time playing bar bingo and we got really into it haha. My friend’s partner won twice! The second time, he tied with another dude and the bartender had them battle it out with a round of golf! ⛳️ // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Found the Andersonville Pride House today. 🖌️🌈 Happy Pride Month! // (c) Jenny Lam 2026

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Happy Father's Day! Throwback to 2009: Me & the old man at Richardson Farm, home to the largest corn maze in the world. 🌽

(Bonus: A few photos I took at the farm)

// (c) Jenny Lam 2009

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端午節快樂! Happy Dragon Boat Festival! About to eat zongzi for lunch. 😋 My Chinese history lesson I wrote in 2022 (hence the Mars mission mention at the end) behind why we do (also on Instagram). // (c) Jenny Lam