Michael Lau
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Michael Lau, is an award winning artist from Hong Kong. He is famous for his artwork and vinyl toy figurines. Lau has had a large impact on toy manufacturers, street culture and musicians all over the world. His is work heavily influenced by American and Asian street culture, the hip-hop and skateboarding culture.
Lau began his career after ending his tertiary study in 1992, graduating from Design First Institute in Hong Kong. Having some of his artwork hung in small time galleries around Hong Kong Lau began work as a window display designer and advertising to make a living.
In 1997, he was asked to do the cover design of the Anodize album. In 1998 Lau began the Gardener comic strip in East Touch magazine. The characters featured in this comic strip were the basis for the first original figurines that he created.
Later Lau worked with the cult Hong Kong hip-hop group LMF, creating a series of figures based on them.
In 1999 his work had become famous enough to get the attention of the Sony corporation, who exclusively distributed a selection of his work "Gardener" in Asia. In 2003, the contract with Sony ended.
Currently, Lau has introduced different series of works including Gardener Series, Crazychildren Series, Lamdog Series and some other individual works.
In 2004, he opened his own gallery, "michael", in Hong Kong.