M (Michael Chow) 周英華

Michael Chow (b.1939, Shanghai, China), also known by his signature name ‘M’, is an abstract painter who creates bold mixed-media canvas collages. M’s practice is rooted in his personal, yet complex relationship with China and underpinned by a cross-cultural dialogue between East and West. In particular, he is influenced by traditional Chinese landscape painting as well as American and European approaches to abstraction. Uprooted from Shanghai to London aged 13, M lost his sense of identity and connection to Chinese culture; he notes that since then, ‘Everything I have done or accomplished has been an attempt to reconnect with my culture.’ (Louise Lui for Glass Magazine, 2014). Following his studies at London’s Saint Martin’s School of Art (1956) and the Hammersmith School Building and Architecture (1957), M had a number of successful exhibitions in London between 1957–1965. He subsequently dedicated his professional life to celebrating Chinese culture, notably through his world-renowned restaurant chain, MR CHOW, which first opened in London on Valentine's Day 1968.

After a 50-year hiatus and under the encouragement of friends Jeffrey Deitch and Julian Schnabel, M returned to painting. In his creative process of deep, personal exploration, M explains that his use of collage serves to ‘put things together that shouldn’t be together, as that’s my life’. The physicality of M’s creative process lends his work both sculptural and performative qualities. Hammering paint across paper, burning plastic and smashing eggs onto canvas, supplementing them with gold and silver leaf his paintings become grand gestures and moments of theatre. Drama and spontaneity are key elements of M’s work, something he owes to his father, the grandmaster of Beijing Opera and Chinese icon, Zhou Xinfang.