Karen Tam 譚嘉文 is artist and curator who examines the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities through immersive installations.

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Karen Tam 譚嘉文 creates immersive installations, recreating spaces such as Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops, and other sites of cultural encounters. Since 2000, Tam’s work has been exhibited internationally in North America, Europe, and China, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, He Xiangning Art Museum, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Deutsche Börse Residency at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Tam has received numerous grants and fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts du Québec, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her exhibition, Swallowing Mountains, presented by the McCord Stewart Museum, received Honourable Mention at the 2024 Canadian Museums Association Awards. She was also the winner of the 2021 Giverny Capital Prize awarded by the Fondation Giverny pour l’art contemporain, a finalist for the 2017 Louis-Comtois Prize and the 2016 Prix en art actuel from the Musée national des beaux-arts de Québec, and long-listed for the 2010 and 2016 Sobey Art Awards.

Tam holds an MFA in Sculpture (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and a PhD in Cultural Studies (Goldsmiths, University of London). She is the Adjunct Curator at Griffin Art Projects and has contributed to publications on Chinese art and consumerism. Her work is in collections including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Microsoft Art Collection. She is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau.