viven

Who is Viven CHIU ?

Viven Chiu was born in Hong Kong and came to Vancouver, Canada in the 90's. She has a great respect for the work of her father, a painter, and she also finds inspiration from it. After graduating in Communication Arts from Bishop Bianchi College, she went to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to study Commercial Art. After graduation Viven was hired as a graphic artist to an Art Director. There she had the chance to do work in photography along with the commissioned work linked to her design skills.

This work included the creation of animation characters for movies and designs for brochures and magazines. After her move around to Toronto in the 2000's, she had the opportunity to develop a relationship with sculpture. At the City Sculpture studio in Toronto she met many great sculptors from the Globe. This experience exposed her to the culture of a variety of countries including that of Israel, Brazil and France. This is where she developed a love of bronze and winterstone. The simple nobility of Bronze and the diversity and warmth of Winterstone are the most appropriate supports to enhance the form of her sculptural works.

Viven has traveled extensively in Europe. Places like Spain, Paris, Florence and Rome, inspired her art the most. Also influential to her work are the cultures of Greece and the Middle East especially those of Turkey and Aswan in Egypt. She goes to China almost every year and has been as far as Tibet in the west and Mongolia in the north. Viven has also visited Southeast Asia as well as several Asian Pacific countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and Australia. For Viven, visiting a country is like reading a book in 3D form. Besides storing images from these experiences, she also stores her emotional responses to them. Viven has taken over 10 thousands slides. All the diverse cultures and peoples she has experienced are a great inspirational source for her Art.