Lee Seung Jio @ Tina Kim Gallery, NYC - "Nucleus in Resonance" Exhibition of work by a leading figure in postwar Korean geometric abstraction

Lee Seung Jio: Nucleus in Resonance

Tina Kim Gallery, New York

September 18 - November 1, 2025

Tina Kim Gallery presents Lee Seung Jio: Nucleus in Resonance. Marking the gallery’s second solo exhibition of LEE SEUNG JIO (1941–1990), a leading figure in postwar Korean geometric abstraction, this presentation surveys Lee’s defining Nucleus series, which he explored consistently from the late 1960s to his final decade. For Lee, the nucleus was more than a formal motif; it functioned as a central point of perception, where energy, rhythm, and sensory experience came together.

 “I began this [painting] after the launch of the Apollo spacecraft opened my eyes to the spatiality of the universe. It feels like the most fitting way to express the era I live in, so I’ve kept working on it ever since.”[1]

During Korea’s rapid industrialization and urban expansion in the 1960s, Lee turned to a single, enduring motif: the cylindrical pipe form. Lee’s pipes are both abstract and figurative, existing as two-dimensional planes and three-dimensional forms. Although often referred to as the “master of pipes,” Lee once noted that he neither sought nor rejected the label. For him, the repeated cylindrical form was never intended to represent any symbolic object; rather, it served to expose the illusions inherent in visual perception and to question the premise of figurative representation. Through this process, Lee aimed to depict a sensuous realm stripped of symbolic meaning—a world of “sheer particles,” as he described it.

As a founding member of the groups ORIGIN (1962–) and AG (Korean Avant-Garde Association, 1969–1975), Lee helped establish the theoretical and methodological foundations of postwar Korean art. Even though his work was often associated with movements such as Mono-ha, Minimalism, and Dansaekhwa at the time, Lee developed a distinct visual language characterized by precision, restraint, and structural clarity. As Joan Kee has observed, Lee’s work reveals how he critically engaged with contemporary abstraction—a mode in which socio-historical conditions are transformed into rigorous compositional structures.[2]

The earliest work in the exhibition, Nucleus 10 (1968), was first shown at the 12th Contemporary Art Exhibit at Gyeongbokgung Palace Museum. The painting marks the beginning of Lee’s signature motif—a tubular form. This vocabulary finds fuller articulation in Nucleus 74-9 (1968–1974), in which the pipe motif becomes the organizing framework of the entire composition. To achieve the illusion of metallic density, Lee applied oil paint with a flat brush loaded with light and dark tones at either end, then meticulously sanded the surface—burnishing the paint to heighten its reflectivity and optical depth. Featured in Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s—co-organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and the Guggenheim Museum—the work affirms Lee’s growing significance within Korean modernism.

Lee continued to experiment with iterations of the Nucleus and develop his formal vocabulary throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Nucleus 73-18 (1973) and Nucleus 74-07 (1974) demonstrate his continued inquiry into the nature of perception, while reflecting a more subtle visual language grounded in the distilled and process-driven aesthetics of the time. Works from the 1980s—represented here by Nucleus 88-10 (1988), Nucleus 86-71 (1986), and the monumental Nucleus 87-99 (1987)—demonstrate his sustained pursuit of structural rigor, while simultaneously drawing the viewer into contemplative, illusionistic spaces that transcend the material surface of the canvas.

The exhibition concludes with the first U.S. presentation of Lee’s black paintings, including Nucleus 78-23, 78-24, 78-25 and 78-26 (all 1978). For Lee, black was not merely a color but a fundamental space of silence, stillness, and emptiness—where all elements were reduced to their origin. In Lee’s vocabulary, the nucleus signified not only the structural core of the image but a condensed field of visual and sensory perception. These works represent the culmination of his decades-long exploration of abstraction, characterized by their emphasis on materiality and process. Lee’s black paintings draw the viewer into a contemplative space where being and form quietly converge, embodying his pursuit of abstraction’s essential condition. 

------------

[1] Lee Seung Jio, “Presenting the Nucleus Series with Cold Lines and Blazes of Fire,” interview with Maeil Business Newspaper, October 24, 1984.

[2] Joan Kee, “Force Fields,” in Lee Seung Jio: Advancing Columns (Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, 2020), 14-25.

TINA KIM GALLERY

525 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011

tinakimgallery.com

Korean Landscapes of Homeland and Longing - A Commemorative Exhibition for the 80th Anniversary of Korea's Liberation @ MMCA Deoksugung, Seoul

A Commemorative Exhibition for the 80th Anniversary of Korea's Liberation 

Landscapes of Homeland and Longing 

MMCA Deoksugung, Seoul

14 August – 9 November 2025

Chun Hyucklim 

Landscape of Tongyeong, 1992

Oil paint on canvas, 130×160cm

Tongyeong City Hall

Nam Kwan 

Refugees, 1957 

Oil paint on canvas, 160.5×130.5cm 

Private collection

Kim Junghyun 

Landscape, 1940s

Ink and color on paper, 168×94cm (×2) 

Bookook Cultural Foundation

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), presents A Commemorative Exhibition for the 80th Anniversary of Liberation: Landscapes of Homeland and Longing at MMCA Deoksugung.

Through modern and contemporary Korean landscape paintings, poetry, and Manchurian exile Gasa poetry, this exhibition explores the sentiment of “hometown” that has remained deeply rooted in Korean consciousness throughout the turbulent tides of Japanese colonial rule and liberation, division and war, and the subsequent waves of industrialization and urbanization.

In reflecting on the 80-year history since liberation, the concept of 'hometown' serves as a key link between this land and its people. In Korean literature and art, the “hometown” is depicted as homeland, motherland, paradise, or an object of eternal yearning. During the Japanese colonial period it symbolized a nation lost, it became the land of nostalgia after national division, and it transformed into a fading landscape during the era of industrialization. Nostalgia for home has been an enduring emotional thread running through the country’s turbulent modern history, serving as a source of inspiration in both modern and contemporary art and literature.

The exhibition is centered around four themes: homeland, affection for home, displacement from home, and longing for home. It presents an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of Korean land through modern and contemporary landscape paintings that portray the loss and rediscovery of territory during the Japanese colonial period, the separation and dispersal caused by division and war, survival amid ruins, and the hope of reconstruction. In particular, this exhibition sheds light on the diverse layers of modern and contemporary art by uncovering and showcasing works that have long been kept in museum storage, private collections, or the homes of artists' families—such as regional landscapes and pieces by local artists that have rarely been seen in the mainstream art world.

Lee Insung 

Untitled, 1930s-1940s 

Ink and color on paper, 47×36cm 

Private collection

Part 1, “Homeland: The Stolen Fields,” examines perspectives of Korean land in the imperialist era through landscape paintings that depict the country’s various regions during the Japanese colonial period. During this period, the concept of homeland was shaped by Japan’s colonial perspective, which portrayed Joseon as an idyllic and pure countryside using the style of “local color” paintings. These works were simultaneously in vogue and at the center of controversy. Other artists, however, such as Oh Chiho and Kim Jukyung of the Nokhyanghoe (Green Hometown Association) in Gyeongseong, endeavored to express the true nature of Joseon through rich variations of light and color by recognizing “hometown” as a space that inspires national sentiment and seeking to discover the unique colors inherent in the Korean land. In addition, landscape paintings by artists from regional groups such as Hyangtohoe in Daegu, Chungwanghoe in Busan, Yeonjinhoe in Gwangju, and the art communities of Jeju and Honam region reflect the distinct climates and sceneries of their respective areas. This section presents works that reflect the complex perspectives surrounding Korean land during the Japanese colonial period, alongside powerful verses by resistance poet Yi Sang-hwa; nostalgic poems by other Korean poets including Jeong Ji-yong, Baek Seok, Lee Yong-ak, and Oh Jang-hwan; and Manchurian exile Gasa poetry written by independence activists in Manchuria, which have been inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. By presenting these materials alongside artworks, the exhibition seeks to explore shared expressions of the sense of 'hometown' embedded in the cultural and artistic consciousness of the time.

Heo Geon 

Cultural Landscape, 1945 

Ink and color on paper, 56×48cm

Private collection

Lee Sangbeom 

Returning at Dawn, 1945 

Ink on paper, 129×256cm 

Private collection

Yoo Youngkuk 

Mountain, 1984 

Oil paint on canvas, 97.5×130cm

MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection

Part 2, “Affection for Home: A Land Reclaimed,” explores how hometown emerged as a significant motif in the works of artists following Korea’s liberation. These pieces reflect experimentation aimed at conveying the vivid spirit of the country’s climate, terrain, and natural environment, along with efforts to incorporate traditional materials, colors, and aesthetic sensibilities. Featured artists include Son Ilbong, who returned to his hometown of Gyeongju after teaching in Japan and created numerous landscape paintings; Moon Shin, who returned to Korea immediately after liberation from studying in Japan and captured the vibrant energy of the sea off the coast of his native Masan; Lee Ungno, an artist known for his innovative approach to modern ink painting who explored diverse formal expressions in ink to capture the landscapes of his hometown Hongseong and its surrounding regions during the pre- and post-liberation periods; Kim Whanki, who forged a uniquely Korean modernism, inspired by the blue islands, skies, and moonlit seas of his native Anjwado Island in Sinan; and Yoo Youngkuk , who developed a uniquely Korean mode of abstraction through his persistent exploration of the mountainous forms of his hometown Uljin. Chun Hyucklim, who discovered a unique artistic language in the landscapes of his hometown Tongyeong, and Byun Shiji, who found his artistic identity in his native Jeju. These artist’ works highlight how hometown served as a powerful artistic inspiration. In this section, in particular, highlights how the artistic roots of well-known painters such as Kim Whanki, Yoo Youngkuk, and Lee Ungno can be traced back to their hometowns, offering insight into a crucial turning point in the transition from modern to contemporary art in Korea.

Kim Won 

Title unknown, 1954

Oil paint on canvas, 102×177.7cm 

MMCA

Byeon Gwansik 

Spring in Muchang, 1955

Ink and color on paper, 181×357cm 

MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection

Shin Youngheon 

Suffering, year unknown

Oil paint on canvas, 35×25cm 

Private collection

Part 3, “Displaced from Home: A Land Ruined,” examines depictions of Korean land as perceived and recorded by artists amidst the nation-wide tragedy of the Korean War. The City After the War (1950) by Lee Chongmoo and Demonlished (1953) by To Sangbong portray devastated urban landscapes with a sense of desolation and quiet melancholy. Abstract and semi-abstract landscapes such as Shin Youngheon’s Tragedy (1958), Lee Soo-auck’s 6.25 War (1954), and Nam Kwan’s Refugees (1957) express the horrors of war and the memory of suffering through dark colors, rough brushstrokes, and a fragmentation and deconstruction of form. Meanwhile, Lee Manik’s Cheonggyecheon (1964) and Chun Huahuan’s The Left Behind By War, (1964), painted from a realist perspective, vividly and intensely depict the bleak reality of the era, portraying the poverty and despair of refugee settlements during the war. Artists of this period reflected on their wartime experiences to confront trauma and terror while seeking to transform and overcome them through artistic creation. Rather than depicting tragedy directly, the expression reveals the inner emotions of people reflected in the landscapes, allowing viewers to interpret these historical landscape paintings from multiple perspectives.

Yoon Jungsik

Spring, 1975

Oil paint on canvas, 41×53cm

MMCA

Choi Youngrim

Spring Garden, 1982 

Oil paint and soil on canvas, 127×191cm

Seoul Museum

Kim Jonghwi

Hometown Nostalgia, 1987

Oil paint on canvas, 97×194.5cm 

MMCA

Part 4, “Longing for Home: A Land of Nostalgia,” features works by artists who explored their own artistic worlds grounded in longing and the pain of displacement and separation due to war and the ensuing national division. These artists included motifs in their work that evoke the lyrical sentiment of their native regions and depicted their hometowns as ideal paradises to soothe their yearning. Works such as Yoon Jungsik’s Spring (1975), Park Sungwhan’s Nostalgia (1971), and Choi Youngrim’s Spring Garden (1982), which present utopian visions of hometowns in the face of losing both family and hometown while enduring loneliness, isolation, poverty, and sorrow, pose a fundamental question: what does art leave behind and what purpose did it serve in an era of such loss and deprivation? During this period, artists who shared the experience of displacement came together to organize the 1952 Wolnam Artists’ Exhibition, followed by the founding of the Creative Art Association in 1957 and the Exhibition of Gusangjeon in 1967, through which they sought to explore a shared artistic direction grounded in the sentiment of longing.

Kim Sunghee, director of the MMCA, notes, “This exhibition commemorates the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation by retracing the emotional resonance of hometown that has remained in our hearts throughout the country’s modernization, industrialization, and urbanization, as expressed through landscape painting. I hope it offers visitors a sincere experience of the perspectives held by these artists who captured the spirit of their times and their homeland.”

MMCA Deoksugung - National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

99 Sejong-daero (Jeong-dong), Jung-gu, Seoul 04519

www.mmca.go.kr

The Way of Nature: Art from Japan, China, and Korea @ Baltimore Museum of Art

The Way of Nature

Art from Japan, China, and Korea

Baltimore Museum of Art

September 21, 2025 - March 8, 2026

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents The Way of Nature: Art from Japan, China, and Korea, which draws on the museum’s extensive holdings to consider the importance of nature in East Asian cultures. The exhibition features more than 40 objects, from magnificent ink drawings to beautifully crafted stoneware and poignant contemporary photographs and prints. Collectively, the works reflect on nature as a vital source of creative inspiration and spiritual connection and consider human existence within the complexity of the vast natural world across centuries and into the present day. The Way of Nature: Art from Japan, China, and Korea is part of the BMA’s Turn Again to the Earth initiative, which explores the relationships between art and the environment.

“The Way of Nature offers an insightful look at the intertwining roots of artistic expression and the experience of the natural world through vibrant works from the BMA’s Asian art collection. It’s an exciting opportunity to see objects on view for the first time, or in a long time, through a lens that is both accessible and meaningful, as many of us seek connection through and to nature,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “As the BMA focuses on expanding its collection with the work of artists from around the globe, we are excited to continue to share more of our holdings, and the stories they contain, with our community.”

The Way of Nature is organized around four overarching themes that engage with elemental aspects of the natural world and human intervention within it. The exhibition opens with a section that examines depictions, interpretations, and connections to the qualities of air, water, and stone. Among the highlights is a handmade Fireman's Coat (hikeshi banten) with Hawk and Waves (Japan, early- to mid-20th century) by an unidentified artist. The intricately sewn object depicts a hawk soaring above turbulent waves, suggesting that the firefighter who chose the design sought the protective powers of water, strength, and keen vision. During a fire, the beautiful imagery would have been worn on the interior, only to be revealed once the fire was extinguished. The section also includes works such as the evocative ink drawing Water and Mountain Landscape (China, 1955) by the artist Huang Junbi and the densely decorated wood and jade sculpture Miniature Mountain with Longevity Motifs (China, late 18th - early 19th century) by an unidentified artist. 

The second section explores the significance of the changing seasons as visual indicators of nature’s transformative power, whether in the experience of wild terrain or in meticulously tended gardens. Across East Asia, emblems of the seasons, such as plums for the spring and chrysanthemums for the fall, are both often shared within communities and widely referenced in art. A case in this section includes a range of objects featuring plum blossoms, such as the hanging scroll Plum Branch and Full Moon (Japan, 1905-1915) by Kamisaka Sekka and the stoneware Bowl Decorated with Plum Branch and Crescent Moon (China, 13th century) by an unidentified artist. The section also includes a stunning Buddhist Priest's Robe (Kesa) in Karaori with Floral Designs (Japan, 1750-1868) by an unidentified artist.

The Way of Nature continues with works that capture human intrusion into the natural realm, as artists reveal humanity’s environmental impact through both imagery of calamitous events and in more subtle and ambiguous scenes. In his series Between Mountains and Water (2014–2017), Chinese artist Zhang Kechun examined the effects of human activities on the landscape in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, while Japanese artist Leiko Shiga documented the aftermath of Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the poignant photo series Rasen Kaigan. The exhibition concludes with consideration of the spiritual transcendence that can be found in nature. This final section is anchored by the eight-panel screen Ten Symbols of Long Life (Korea, mid- to late 19th century) by an unidentified artist. The complex screen incorporates eight separate paintings to convey a wish for longevity, as embodied through such symbols as cranes, bamboo, water, and sun.

The Way of Nature: Art from Japan, China, and Korea is curated by Frances Klapthor, BMA Associate Curator of Asian Art.

BMA - BALTIMORE ART MUSEUM 

10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218

artbma.org

Ceci N’est Pas Une Guerre - This Is Not A War - Exhibition Curated by Do Tuong Linh Eli @ Klein Gallery, New York

Ceci N’est Pas Une Guerre - This Is Not A War

Curated by Do Tuong Linh

Eli Klein Gallery, New York

Through August 23, 2025

Bui Cong Khanh

Porcelain Medals, 2018

140 hand painted porcelain medals

Courtesy of Eli Klein Gallery

© Bui Cong Khanh

Ca Le Thang

Beneath Deep Rivers, Field Submerged No. 3, 2024

Oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas

39 3/8 x 67 inches  (100 x 170 cm)

Courtesy of the artist, Salon Wiking, and Eli Klein Gallery 

© Ca Le Thang

Nguyen Phuong Linh

Allergy, 2004

6kg of nails on underwears

Courtesy of Eli Klein Gallery

© Nguyen Phuong Linh

Eli Klein Gallery presents “Ceci N’est Pas Une Guerre - This Is Not A War,” a group exhibition of 17 Vietnamese artists showcasing 24 works. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the exhibition seeks to challenge the long-standing tendency to confine Vietnamese contemporary art within narrow narratives of war, trauma, and survival. Audiences are invited to move beyond inherited narratives and experience the breadth, complexity, and vitality of Vietnamese contemporary art today: unbound, unpredictable, and charged with energy.

Artists: Bui Cong Khanh, Bui Thanh Tam, Ca Le Thang, Doan Van Toi, My-Lan Hoang-Thuy, Le Hoang Bich Phuong, Oanh Phi Phi, Nguyen Phuong Linh, Anh Thuy Nguyen, Xuân-Lam Nguyen, Ha Ninh Pham, Pham Tuan Tu, Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, Tran Luong, Truong Tan, Van Khanh, Minh Dung Vu

The exhibition prompts a reconsideration of how Vietnamese visual culture is presented within a global context. While artists have engaged deeply with the past fifty years of history after the War, their works have often been interpreted through the lens of the aftermath. Within the context of Vietnam's massive economic reforms, the artists critically explore themes of identity, censorship, and queerness. The exhibition focuses on a younger generation of artists who reflect on materiality, memory, and mythology, reimagining self and culture beyond the burden of historical trauma. The exhibition also highlights Vietnamese artists living abroad, particularly in America, France and Germany, whose works address themes of displacement, cultural hybridity, and artistic innovation. Curated by Do Tuong Linh, the show brings together the voices that challenge the notion of “Vietnamese art” as a singular concept, creating a layered dialogue that is poetic and political, introspective and globally engaged.

Emerging in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the implementation of the widespread generation of influential artists responded to history, memory, and the shifting boundaries of identity and expression in deeply personal and resonant ways. Ca Le Thang’s compositionally poetic painting serves as a quiet footnote to the natural and spiritual landscapes of southern Vietnam, expressing a deep emotional connection to his homeland’s nature and history. Through humor and symbolism, Tran Luong retells a traditional Vietnamese legend in a gently narrated yet subtly subversive manner, reflecting the sociopolitical tensions and transformations of early 21st-century Vietnam.

Truong Tan, who was considered the first openly gay artist from Vietnam, creates work that is both emblematic and groundbreaking in its exploration of social norms and marginalized identities. Blending historical research with conceptual art not taught in Vietnam’s educational system, Bui Cong Khanh playfully, yet critically, challenges official reward systems by combining porcelain military insignias from multiple nations to question the authority behind medals. Vietnamese lacquer serves as the core medium in Oanh Phi Phi’s practice, through which she explores the transmission of memory, reflections on image theory, and experimental possibilities in scale and technique. Bui Thanh Tam blends the delicate spirit of Vietnamese folk traditions with the bold allure of pop and consumer culture, creating works that are at once challenging, seductive, and provocative.

Building on this historical trajectory, a younger cohort turned toward material experimentation, ironic language, and cross-disciplinary methods to address contemporary social issues, incisively engaging with gender, politics, and cultural memory amid Vietnam’s rapid transformation. Pham Tuan Tu combines elements of primitivism and humor in his work, using refined craftsmanship and a diverse range of materials to delve into the complexities of contemporary society. Nguyen Phuong Linh weaves personal memories into broader cultural contexts, skillfully transforming found objects and materials to reveal the vulnerability of being a woman in Vietnamese society.

Merging political themes with sci-fi aesthetics, Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran constructs nonlinear and absurd narratives of modern history, challenging dominant post–Cold War frameworks surrounding the Global South. Doan Van Toi and Le Hoang Bich Phuong both explore the contemporary rhythms of traditional media. Toi weaves digital pixels into silk and textiles to reflect on the intricate relationship between humans and nature, while Phuong employs delicate silk to blend surrealism with quiet subversion, questioning gender, eccentricity, and societal norms.

Artistic practice continues to expand into the intersections of new media, speculative narratives, and digital processes, reimagining and reconstructing tradition and identity. Vietnamese art now charts a future-oriented sensibility, forging new dialogues and connections between personal experience and global context. My-Lan Hoang-Thuy redefines the relationship between artist and medium, using acrylic drips as a “canvas” to merge painting with personal photography, creating a visual language where intimacy, spontaneity, and imagination intersect. Ha Ninh Pham explores the construction of territories and perception through drawing and sculpture, creating imagined worlds shaped by his unique logic and underlying sense of skepticism. By sewing dyed silk onto canvas, Minh Dung Vu initiates a dialogue between material surface and visual texture, investigating materiality, light, shadow, and perception.

Xuân-Lam Nguyen brings forgotten Vietnamese folk art into contemporary relevance, focusing on Indochinese Orientalist photography and displaced cultural artifacts, blending autobiographical elements with queer identity to construct glitchy, alternative narratives that offer a dynamic commentary on the intersections of identity and history. Anh Thuy Nguyen’s sculptural works explore the relationship between emotional states and the human body. Through digitizing and transforming everyday Vietnamese domestic objects, Van Khanh creates faux-fiber replicas that exist between physical reality and digital dreamscape, reimagining traditions and mythologies within trans narratives.

About the Curator Do Tuong Linh 

Do Tuong Linh is a curator based in Hanoi (Vietnam) and New York City (United States). Linh holds a BA in Art History and theoretical criticism from Vietnam University of Fine Arts, and a MA in Contemporary Art and Art Theory of Asia and Africa, at SOAS (University of London) UK with the prestigious Alphawood scholarship. She is a part of Bard Curatorial Studies program class of 2025 and was part of the curatorial team of 12th Berlin Biennial.

Linh has engaged in various art exhibitions and projects in Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond since 2005. She participated in international arts programs such as Le 18 Curator In Residency 2024, Asia Cultural Council Research Fellowship 2023, Ljubljana Graphic Art Biennial 2019, Slovenia; Association of Art Museum Curators conference, New York, USA; Mekong Cultural Hub 2018 – 2019, Taiwan; CIMAM International Museum Workshop 2018, Oslo, Norway; Asia Culture Center (Gwangju, Korea) 2018; Tate Intensive 2018, Tate Modern Museum, UK; French Encounter at Art Basel in Hong Kong 2018. Some of her notable curated exhibitions include Who is Weaving the Sky Net (Singapore), Means of Production 2024 (New York City, USA), Revived Photo Hanoi 2023 (Hanoi, Vietnam), Berlin Biennial 2022 (Berlin, Germany), Citizen Earth 2020 (Hanoi, Vietnam), The Foliage 3 (VCCA, Vincom Center for Contemporary Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam) 2019, Geo-Resilience of the All-world at La Colonie (Paris, France) 2018, the No War, No Vietnam exhibition at Galerie Nord (Berlin, Germany) 2018, and SEAcurrents (London, UK) 2017.

ELI KLEIN GALLERY

398 West Street, New York, NY 10014

www.galleryek.com

Ceci N’est Pas Une Guerre - This Is Not A War

Eli Klein Gallery, New York, May 23 - August 23, 2025

Zhao Yinou @ HdM Gallery, Beijing - "Ghost Raising" Exhibition

Zhao Yinou: Ghost Raising

HdM Gallery, Beijing

Through 28 June 2025

ZHAO YINOU

2024-25.3, 150 × 220 cm, 2024-2025

© Zhao Yinou, courtesy HdM Gallery

ZHAO YINOU

2025.4, 150 × 220 cm, 2025 

© Zhao Yinou, courtesy HdM Gallery

ZHAO YINOU

2025.10, 50 × 35 cm, 2025

© Zhao Yinou, courtesy HdM Gallery

ZHAO YINOU

2020-25.14, 150 × 220 cm, 2020-2025

© Zhao Yinou, courtesy HdM Gallery

HdM Gallery presents “Ghost Raising”, the latest solo exhibition of Zhao Yinou. This is Zhao Yinou’s third solo exhibition at HdM Gallery after “On the Wings of A Swan” in 2022. The exhibition features over 30 works on canvas and wood, alongside the artist’s first experimental integration of sound installations within painting. Zhao’s recent practice delves into meditations on eternity, transforming diffuse collective memories of our era-viewed through the microscopic lens of individual experience-into layered spatiotemporal structures. 

Light

Light is the universe’s primal language—formless yet shaping all visible forms. In Zhao Yinou’s oeuvre, light manifests itself as a spiritual presence: the sacred light, the arbitrary light, the stalemate light, and the repressed light appear repeatedly in different densities and in different stages of her creation, forming multiple echoes between the artist her spatiotemporal self. In her new artworks, light appears in every infinite texture and space radiated by herself, becoming a link connecting countless parallel spaces: on ice, sea, trees, mountains, and grasslands, resembles a fleeting blink of cosmic radiance.

 

Dust

The traces after "burning" are not only the suspension of material particles in the layers of paint, but also the poetic interval between the artist's memory and the present. Zhao Yinou's creation does not rely on linear narrative. She restrains and selects emotions and memories in a cross-dimensional perspective. Time is distorted into any frame that can be extracted in the physical dimension, and transformed into repeated brushstrokes and spray-painted textures on the canvas. Layered surfaces do not merely obscure but capture emotional variables through accumulated dust, extrapolating potential parallel worlds. The delayed emotional catharsis and stratified “dust” forge an intangible distance between artwork and viewer, immersing audiences in a heterogeneous field of overlapping time and space—a realm both visual and psychic.

 

Breath

The sound installation incorporated into this exhibition leads the audience into the artist's sealed field with a flowing energy that can be perceived in multiple dimensions. The low hum on the back of each artwork once again forms a kind of unspeakable "interval" with the audience. The "breath" of hearing drives the "breath" of vision. Between one breath and another, time is like a lie, the future collapses into the past, and the past flows towards the end.

 

Reignition

The brevity inherent in the  existence of human beings in the universe is heavy and depressing; in this unburned box, Zhao Yinou uses almost always monochrome paint to visualize abstract emotions into an existence that jumps out of time and space, in the rational laws of physics, she uses a silent declaration to outline a love letter, which is eternally entangled in the vast smoke.

 

ZHAO YINOU was born in 1972 and currently lives and works in Paris. She was  the producer of documentaries “À l'ouest des rails” and “He Fengming”. Recent group and solo exhibitions include: “Being of Evils”, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2020); “Psychicalreality”, Space Station, Beijing, China (2019); “Prisonnier”, Vanities, Paris, French (2019); “HAPPY PEOPLE......”, Inside-out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2019); “HER KIND•CHUANG”, Zhuzhong Art Museum, Beijing, China (2018); “The Pleasures of Adventures”, N3 gallery, Beijing, China (2016); “OPEN TO YOU”, Pusan, Korea (2014) and etc. 

HdM GALLERY

798 East Road, 798 Art District, No.2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, 100015 Beijing

hdmgallery.com

Zhao Yinou: Ghost Raising

HdM Gallery, Beijing, 17 May - 28 June 2025

Marion Paquette, Shikichi Osamu, Shoji Asami @ Tokyo Arts and Space - ACT 2025 - Artists Contemporary TOKAS - 7th Edition - "Plural Body/ies" Exhibition

ACT 2025 - Artists Contemporary TOKAS - 7th Edition - Marion Paquette, Shikichi Osamu, Shoji Asami

Plural Body/ies 

複数形の身体 

Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo

22 February - 23 March 2025

― Examining contemporary society based on the plurality of the body/ies

It is said that, of the approximately 8 billion people that inhabit the earth today, we get in contact with a total of about 30,000 – or 0.000375% of the earth’s population – in our lifetime. When imagining all the people on the planet that we don’t and will never know, we realize the immense scale of human existence, that exceeds by far what we can grasp with our own bodily senses. This exhibition is themed around the plurality of the human body, which is also what the creative work of the three featured artists – Marion PAQUETTE, SHIKICHI Osamu, SHOJI Asami is derived from. The body that transforms through relationships with others; the body that is multiplied in the virtual space; or human society as one collective body – these are some of the various positions from which visitors are invited to explore the properties and possibilities of the “body” in the present age.

Our body is built to functions as an organ by which we perceive the world around us. Every single one of us is a subject that generates communication, recognizes the people around, and builds relationships with them.

But why is it that human existence comes with not only one, but multiple “bodies”? One thing that facilitates the plural nature of the body, are its reproductive functions. A human is always born from multiple other bodies, and for about 200,000 years since Homo sapiens is said to have emerged, history unfurled as a string of countless interactions between one human body and another.

At the same time, advanced medical technology has enabled us to extract such individual human body parts as organs or blood, and transplant them into the bodies of people in need of those specific parts. In other words, it is possible to manipulate living bodies to integrate parts of multiple bodies of other human beings. The pervasion of digital technologies in everyday life promoted the virtual multiplication of individual bodies, whereas images of avatars or bodies modified using apps, for example, assume multiple identities through various aspects on levels other than physical reality .

This exhibition focusing on the plural existence(s) of (the) human body/ies, features works by Marion Paquette, Shikichi Osamu,and Shoji Asami, three artists who examine in their respective works the mutual bodily relationships between human individuals. Considering his dance as a form of communication at a stage prior to verbal formulation, Shikichi pursues ways of transferring and internalizing sensations generated through interactions between individuals, into other bodies. Shoji translates the worlds that she explores with her body into painted spaces, to create works that viewers are to experience in a way as if moving back and forth between their own and the artist’s body. Paquette’s creations are collective structures that incorporate human individuals in coexistence and interaction with each other, constructing spaces where the boundaries between private and public are blurred. Each focusing on the delicate relationships between individual bodies that continue to affect one another, the three artists create works that project the plural nature of the human body, remind us of the imaginative faculty and sensibility as its fundamental abilities, and inspire us to envision new possible ways of extending/expanding it into different forms of “bodies.”

ACT (Artists Contemporary TOKAS) is a special exhibition introducing artists who practice notable activities, including those who have previously participated in other Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) programs.

Marion PAQUETTE

Marion Paquette participated in “Quebec-Tokyo Exchange Residency Program” (2023) at the Tokyo Arts and Space. In their artistic practice, Paquette creates interfaces and situations through which they explore the delicate relationships between bodies, spaces and objects. Their typical work is a soft sculpture made from textile, paper or other material with a plastic quality, that visualizes the physical transformations and behaviors that are triggered by the interrelations between one’s own singular body and the bodies of those around. Inspired by their interest in the “social body” that emerges in the space between private and public, Paquette also creates works that, with the various playful ideas they incorporate, encourage physical interventions by passersby at public places. During their stay in 2023 as part of a TOKAS residency program, Paquette conducted research into the phenomenon of “inemuri” (dozing) that can be observed at public spaces in Japan, and eventually created “inemuri · 居眠り· dormir présent·e,” a mobile private recreation space that people can take with them wherever they go. Proposing a form of private space that is temporarily set up in a public environment, the work creates situations in which the social body suddenly transforms into a private one.

In this exhibition, Marion Paquette presents a large-scale installation that was inspired by a mycelium structure of fungi that serve as a foundation for ecosystems of living organisms. Unfolding across the entire exhibition space, the work comprises approximately 45 objects made from recycled cloth taken from actual sails that the artist was given by friends back home in Montreal. Visitors are free to walk into the work, and through that physical action, loosely connect the pieces of cloth that have traveled all the way from Canada, along with the personal stories that are contained in every one of them. Just like humans have identified connections between stars in the night sky in the forms of constellations with certain added meanings, through devices that build connections between individual human beings, Marion Paquette reconsiders through their creative work the collective body that is human society. Their performance is scheduled for the closing day of the exhibition.

Marion Paquette was born in Montreal in 1992. Lives and works in Montreal. Graduated with a BA in Visual and Media Arts from the University of Quebec in Montreal in 2015. Recent exhibitions: “inemuri 居眠りdormir présent·e,” Occurrence espace d'art et d'essai contemporains, Montreal, 2024, “Fil · Flux · Figments,” Livart, Montreal, 2024, “Mur Mitoyen,” Espace Transmission, curators Clara and Alexis Cousineau, Montreal, 2023, “entre bleu," Vrille art actuel, La Pocatiere, 2023, “bleu de lieu,” Fondation PHI pour l’art contemporain, Montreal, 2022. 

SHIKICHI Osamu

Shikichi Osamu participated in “OPEN SITE 6” (2021) at the Tokyo Arts and Space. Shikichi explores ways of grasping one’s own body and its “reality” as things that are impossible to perceive objectively from the outside, by way of interacting with other people in our immediate, material environment. Revolving around a central axis of choreography and dance, his works incorporate elements of performance, sculpture, video art, etc., realized through creative processes in which the artist blurs identification methods related to the human body, in order to reconfigure the mechanism of physical perception at large. In the works in the “blooming dots” series that he has been working on continuously since 2020, he uses a smartphone – an indispensable daily life tool for us today, almost like an additional body part – as a “third eye,” to explore the new body languages that emerge when transforming oneself into what seems like someone else’s body, and thereby establishing a “new body that belongs to everyone and no-one.” At the same time, Shikichi focuses also on the physical sensation itself that is spawned through such kinds of interactions, visualizing especially the so-called “autonomous sensory meridian response” (ASMR) – a pleasantly tingling sensation in response to audio-visual stimulation – through forms of movement charged with what he refers to as “WET” (weird erotic tension).

The subject of Shikichi’s work at this exhibition is the Noh play “Izutsu,” in which a woman sees a reflection of herself in the water of a well, wearing her deceased husband’s attire, and performs a dance while imagining his face and remembering the days they spent together. Shikichi translates the story into a performative installation, identifying the woman’s dance with a sensual “lap dance” that is performed for one specific person, based on his own texts related to choreography. Shikichi will also show a performance during the exhibition period.

Shikichi Osamu was born in Saitama in 1994. Lives and works in Brussels and Tokyo. Graduated with P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Training Cycle) in 2024 (dance), and an MA in Film and New Media from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2020. Recent exhibitions: “ ユアファントムアイ、アワクリスタライズペイン / ur phantom eyes, our crystalized pains,” Kaaistudios, Brussels, 2024, “unisex #01,” Camping Asia, Taipei, 2023, “Hyper Ambient Club 'My lips to your ear, my hand on yours, the words moving underneath the shadows we made',” Creative Center Osaka (CCO), 2023, “Subterraneans and Mirrorless Mirror,” gallery αM, Tokyo, 2022, “BankART Under 35 2021 'ama phantom',” BankART KAIKO, Yokohama, 2021. Recent awards: “Grants for Overseas Study by Young Artists,” Pola Art Foundation, 2023, “Yokohama Dance Collection 2020," French Embassy Award for Young Choreographers.

SHOJI Asami

Shoji Asami participated in “TOKAS-Emerging 2016” at the Tokyo Arts and Space. Considering her human body as “the origin of painting,” Shoji has been exploring in her work the physical image and sensation that arises through the experience of “viewing a painting.” Her work at large is characterized by an approach of painting intuitively without defining beforehand what the finished painting will look like, using mainly semitransparent acrylic panels and canvases as support media. She usually begins by drawing a single line without doing any prior sketching, and applies paint, only to remove the paint again by wiping it away. She then gives herself to the image that instinctively appears in her mind in the process, picks up the brush once again to paint, then removes the paint again… It is a cyclic repetition of physical actions, during which the painting gradually takes shape. Birds and other animals, nude human figures, transparent bodies with their bones exposed, and various other images that are coincidentally born in the painted spaces from the strokes of her arms, are all manifestations of the artist herself that exist alongside her actual body. Charged with swirling primitive impulse and emotion, her paintings show human figures with arms opened wide as if offering their body to someone else, or touching each other’s faces with their hands or cheeks, adding a vague sense of affection that stirs the viewer’s senses.

Shoji’s exhibition this time comprises several dozen new works including oil paintings, around a series of drawings as a centerpiece. Scheduled for the opening day is a performance in which the artist paints the window of the exhibition venue, as part of the artist’s attempt to travel back and forth between her body in the painter’s position, and those in the paintings that she makes.

Shoji Asami was born in Fukushima in 1988. Lives and works in Tokyo. Graduated with an MA in Printmaking course from Tama Art University Graduate School of Fine Arts in 2012. Recent exhibitions: “MOT ANNUAL 2024 'on the imagined terrain',” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2024, “October, Much Ado About Nothing,” Semiose, Paris, 2024, “A Stranger’s Tales” Independent Art Fair with LINSEED, New York, 2024, “a Gait Without Foot,” gallery21yo-j,Tokyo, 2023, “Body, Love, Gender,” Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea, 2023, “Yearning for Vision,” Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kanagawa, and others, 2023. Recent awards: “The 31st Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award,” Newcomer's Prize of Art, 2020, “Tokyo Wonder Wall 2015,” Tokyo Wonder Wall Prize, 2015, Selected, “The 18th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art” (participated as art unit, Conceptual Architect), 2015.

TOKYO ARTS AND SPACE HONGO - TOKAS

2 -4-16 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

www.tokyoartsandspace.jp

PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF ACT - ARTISTS CONTEMPORARY TOKAS @ TOKYO ARTS AND SPACE, ON WANAFOTO:

1st Edition - ACT 2019 - Artists: Sato Masaharu, Nishimura Yu, Yoshigai Nao

2nd Edition - ACT 2020 - Artists: Tanaka Shusuke, Hirose Nana & Nagatani Kazuma, Watanabe Go

3rd Edition - ACT 2021 - Artists: Tanaka Shusuke, Hirose Nana & Nagatani Kazuma, Watanabe Go

4th Edition - ACT 2022 - Artists: Saito Haruka, Nakazawa Daisuke, Yuasa Ebosi

5th Edition - ACT 2023 - Artists: Ebihara Yasushi, Samejima Yui, Sudo Misa

6th Edition - ACT 2024 - Artists: Ohba Takafumi, Suga Yushi, YOF = Yanagawa Tomoyuki + Ohara Takayoshi + Furusawa Ryu

ACT（Artists Contemporary TOKAS）Vol. 7  "Plural Body/ies"

Updated 18-02-2025

Bangkok Art Biennale 2024: Curators and Advisors - Biographies & Portraits

 BANGKOK ART BIENNALE 2024

Curators and Advisors

24 October 2024 - 25 February 2025

The Bangkok Art Biennale 2024's team includes 7 advisors and 5 curators.

BANGKOK ART BIENNALE 2024 CURATORS

Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda

Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Bangkok Art Biennale

Dr. Apinan Poshyananda

Image courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Professor Dr. Apinan Poshyananda was born in 1956. He received his Bachelor and Master Degree in Fine Arts from Edinburgh University, Scotland, and Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History of Art from Cornell University, USA. As an artist, he won three medals at the National Exhibition of Art, Thailand, and has held solo exhibitions at the Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art, and the National Gallery, Thailand. Between 1981-2002, Poshyananda taught at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, and held the position of Director at The Art Centre of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He was awarded outstanding researcher from the National Research Council, Bangkok, and was a recipient of the Bellagio Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. He served as the Director-General of the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (2003-2009), Director-General of the Cultural Promotion Department (2010-2011), and the Permanent Secretary, the Ministry of Culture, Thailand (2014-2016). During his time at the Ministry, Poshyananda was the commissioner of the Thai Pavilion at the 50th, 51st, 52nd Venice Biennale (2003, 2005 and 2008). 

Apinan Poshyananda has curated works by Thai and international artists exhibitions across Asia, Europe, USA and Oceania including The 9th Sydney Biennale (1992); The 1st and 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial (1993 and 1996, Australia), The 1st Johannesburg Biennale (1995); Contemporary Art in Asia: Traditions/Tensions (1996-1998, Grey Art Gallery, Queens Museum of Art, and Asia Society Galleries, New York, Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Western Australia Art Gallery, Perth, Taipei Fine Arts Museum); major retrospective show Montien Boonma: Temple of the Mind (2003, 2004, Asia Society and Museum, New York, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and the National Gallery of Australia); Traces of Siamese Smile: Art + Faith + Politic + Love (2008, the inaugural exhibition of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)); Thai Transience (2013, Singapore Art Museum); Thailand Eye (2015, Saatchi Gallery, London and BACC); and most recently three editions of Bangkok Art Biennale (2018, 2020, 2022). Poshyananda is the author to several seminal books on Thai and Asian art including Modern Art in Thailand in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1992); Western-style Painting and Sculpture in the Royal Thai Court (1993); Behind Thai Smiles Selected Writings: 1991-2007 (2007); Playing with Slippery Lubricants Selected Writings: 1993-2004 (2010), among others.

He is a committee member of the Asian Art Council, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Research committee of the National Gallery Singapore; and Advisor to the President and CEO of Thai Beverage Plc. He was conferred Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant, Thailand; Knight First Class of Royal Order of the Polar Star, Sweden; Knight, Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, Italy and Officer of the French Arts and Letters Order, France.

Pojai Akratanakul

Curator, Bangkok Art Biennale 2024

Pojai Akratanakul

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Pojai Akratanakul is a curator based in Bangkok, and was Assistant Curator for two editions of the Bangkok Art Biennale in 2020 and 2022. She holds an MA in Visual Arts Administration in Curatorial Concentration and Non-profit Management from New York University. Her research interests include the history and study of different models of art institutions in Thailand, and the development of the Thai art ecosystem.

Recent independent curatorial experience includes exhibitions Area 721,346 and Footnotes on Institution at Gallery VER (2023, 2019) and Almost Nature at 3RD Fl alternative space (2019). She is also a member of collective Charoen Contemporaries, with whom she curated exhibitions PostScripts, a site-responsive and public art project at Praisaneeyakarn (2018) and co-juried Early Years Project 4: Praxis Makes Perfect at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (2019). Prior to joining the Bangkok Art Biennale, Akratanakul had experience working in exhibitions and publications in Bangkok and New York City, as well as managing a private collection, The Petch Osathanugrah Collection.

She has been a guest lecturer on curatorial studies, art history, and issues in contemporary art at many institutions, including the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Archeology and Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts at Silpakorn University, School of Fine and Applied Arts, Bangkok University, School of Architecture, Art, and Design, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, among others.

Brian Curtin

Curator, Bangkok Art Biennale 2024

Brian Curtin

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Brian Curtin is an Irish-born art critic and educator. He was very active as a curator between 2007-18, mounting exhibitions internationally and managing the experimental venue H Project Space in Bangkok. Trained as an artist, BrianCurtin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, UK, and his writings have been published in Art Journal, Artforum, Craft Research, Frieze, Journal of Curatorial Studies, and Parachute, amongst others. His monograph Essential Desires: Contemporary Art in Thailand was published by Reaktion Books in 2021. Influenced by dialogues between queer theories, contemporary art, and critical inquiries into visual and material cultures, publications include studies of the art-historical marginalizing of ‘decoration’ and issues of national identity as a frame for recent art. His published profiles of artists include Paul Pfeiffer, Collier Schorr, Jakkai Siributr, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In 2018 Brian led Uncommon Pursuits: A Temporary School for Emergent Curators in Southeast Asia at Sàn Art, a non-profit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A regular consultant, commissions include Alphawood Foundation Chicago, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and De Gruyter publishers. Brian Curtin lectures on the International Programme in Communication Design (CommDe and CommMA) at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok where he has lived since 2000.

Akiko Miki

Curator, Bangkok Art Biennale 2024

Akiko Miki

Photo courtesy of  Bangkok Art Biennale

Former Chief and Senior curator, Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2000-2014), Co-director, Yokohama Triennale 2017 and Artistic Director of its 2011 edition among others. She has curated many international exhibitions including 1998 Taipei Biennial as well as served guest curator for number of large-scaled exhibitions of Japanese artists such as Nobuyoshi Araki, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Takashi Murakami at major museums in Asia and Europe including Barbican Art Gallery (London), Taipei Fine Art Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Yokohama Museum of Art and Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. She is also Director of Naoshima New Museum of Art (provisional) to be opened in 2025.

Paramaporn Sirikulchayanont

Curator, Bangkok Art Biennale 2024

Paramaporn Sirikulchayanont

Photo courtesy of  Bangkok Art Biennale

Paramaporn Sirikulchayanont (PhD) has extensive experience managing a nonprofit art institution as the Director of the Art Centre, Silpakorn University, for ten years between 2013 and 2023. Her background in the art and cultural management fields, together with her contemporary vision, has distinguishably turned the traditional image of the Art Centre, Silpakorn University, into an entire connecting point of contemporary art by focusing on building a standard curatorial and educational system with the aim to strengthen the significance of university’s art centre role in the art ecosystem. She is interested in creating contemporary art spaces, exhibitions and art projects that interrelate to humans, society, diverse cultures and various fields of knowledge. Apart from her extended background in organizing contemporary art exhibition projects, she has regularly been invited as a guest lecturer, an art and cultural juror, and an advisor for both state and private art and cultural projects. Sirikulchayanont is currently a full-time lecturer at the Department of Art Theory, Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University.

BANGKOK ART BIENNALE 2024 ADVISORS

Marina Abramović

Artist

Marina Abramović

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art, creating some of the form's most important early works. Exploring her physical and mental limits, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation.

Marina Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In 2010, Marina Abramović had her first major U.S. retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in The Artist is Present at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Marina Abramović founded Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a platform for immaterial and long durational work to create new possibilities for collaboration among thinkers of all fields.

Her most recent publication is Walk Through Walls: A Memoir, published by Crown Archetype on October 25, 2016. Her retrospective The Cleaner opened at Moderna Museet, Stockholm in February 2017 and has toured to seven additional European venues, ending at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia in 2019. In September 2020 the Bayerische Staatsoper presented the world premiere of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, which will continue to tour to other venues. In 2023 she will present the solo exhibition After Life at the Royal Academy, and become the first female artist in the institution’s 250 year history to occupy the entire gallery space with her work.

Lito Camacho

Chairman, University of the Arts Singapore (UAS)

Lito Camacho

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Lito Camacho is currently a Consultant for the Wealth Management Division of Credit Suisse, Chairman of SunLife of Canada (Philippines), and Board Member of STPI (Singapore). Lito was formerly Vice Chairman for Credit Suisse Asia Pacific. Lito joined Credit Suisse in March 2005 after a distinguished career in government and international banking. He was appointed Secretary of Finance for the Philippines in 2001, a position he held until November 2003. Prior to that, Lito was the Secretary of Energy for the Philippines. He was also Chairman of several government corporations and agencies.

Prior to joining the government, Lito Camacho was a Managing Director and Chief Country Officer for the Philippines at Deutsche Bank, AG in Manila. Before Deutsche Bank, Lito Camacho worked for Bankers Trust Company for over twenty years in New York, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Singapore.

Lito Camacho is currently a Director of SymAsia Foundation (Singapore), a Founding Member of Asia Peace and Reconciliation Council (Thailand), a Member of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s International Advisory Panel (China) and a Senior Advisor/Board Member of a number of other companies in the region. He was previously a board member of the National Gallery Singapore (2013-June 2021), the National Heritage Board of Singapore (2007-2013) and Sun Life Malaysia Takaful Bhd (2013-2019) and Sun Life Malaysia Assurance Bhd (2013-2022). Lito was also formerly a member of the Securities Industry Council of Singapore (2010-2017), the Securities Commission of Malaysia’s International Advisory Group (2008-2010) and the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum’s Group of Experts (2008-2012), and the Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse Singapore (2007-2016).

Lito obtained his Bachelor's degree in Mathematics (cum laude) from De La Salle University in 1975. He received his MBA with concentration in Finance from Harvard University in 1979.  In 2017, Lito Camacho was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration from Thailand’s Eastern Asia University, and was a recipient of Singapore’s 2021 Public Service Medal (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat).

Kim Camacho

Art collector

Kim Camacho

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Kim Camacho is a graduate of Harvard Business School, 1980 and an economics graduate, cum laude, from Radcliffe College, Harvard University, 1977. She trained in Seagrams Latin America in New York and worked for the National Development Company of the Philippines under the Minister of Trade and Industry. She then founded a fashion accessories business in 1984 before working briefly in property development. In 2001, she opened and ran the Sotheby's representative office in the Philippines.

She and her husband (banker and former Secretary of Energy and Secretary of Finance of the Philippines) Lito Camacho have been collecting art since 1981. Today, their collection has some of the most important works of one of the world's most popular artists, Yayoi Kusama. Their Gutai art collection is also well-known, having been started before Gutai was widely acclaimed in a Guggenheim New York retrospective. Both their Kusama and Gutai collections have been shown at the Ayala Museum. Their video art collection is considered to contain the largest private collection of digital video works of Japanese art collaborative, teamLab. Their collection also includes major works of American Abstract Expressionist, Alfonso Ossorio, and Filipino and Southeast Asian artworks. They regularly lend artworks to museums and art exhibitions around the world. She and Lito Camacho have 6 children, 2 of whom are artists- Bea, and Lorenzo. She now considers herself a full time art collector.

Mami Kataoka

Director of Mori Art Museum, Japan

Mami Kataoka

Photo Credit Ito Akinori

Kataoka Mami joined the Mori Art Museum in 2003, taking on the role of Director in 2020. She has also taken on the position of Director of the National Center for Art Research since April 2023.

Beyond Tokyo, Mami Kataoka has held positions at the Hayward Gallery in London, where from 2007 to 2009 she was the institution’s first International Curator; she has also acted as Co-Artistic Director for the 9th Gwangju Biennale (2012), Artistic Director for the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018) and Artistic Director for the Aichi Triennale 2022. Mami Kataoka served as a Board Member (2014-2022) and the President (2020-2022) of CIMAM [International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art].

Jean-Hubert Martin

Honorary director of the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou

Jean-Hubert Martin

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Jean-Hubert Martin (born 1944 in Strasbourg) was curator at the Musée National d'Art Moderne Paris (1971-1982) and became then Director of the Kunsthalle Bern (1982-1985). During his directorship of the Musée National d‘Art Moderne Centre Pompidou (1987-1990), he curated the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre (1989), which for the first time showed the western avant-garde together with unknown artists from Africa, Asia and Oceania. Favoring a sensitive approach over knowledge, Jean-Hubert Martin strove to show art beyond historical and cultural categories first with the presentation of the collection at the Museum Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf in 2001. It was followed by several similar exhibitions in Paris in 2016 and in Moscow 2020. 

Qiu Zhijie

Artist, Curator, Writer, President of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts,

Professor at Central Academy of Fine Arts

Qui Zhijie

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

Born in 1969, in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China, Qiu graduated in 1992 from the Printmaking Department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art, CAA). He is the President of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and a Central Academy of Fine Arts professor. As an artist, Qiu Zhijie is known for his calligraphy and ink painting, photography, video, installation, performance, and works of Technology and Art. 

As an art writer, Qiu Zhijie has published dozens of books including On Total Art, The Image and Post-Modernism, Give Me a Mask, The Limit of Freedom, Post-Photography Photography, Experimentalist, How to Become a Loser, How to Become Ignorant, The Spoiler, etc. His work's catalog includes Breaking Through the Ice, The Shape of Time, Archeology of Memory, etc. 

He held dozens of solo exhibitions in art museums both domestically and internationally and participated in hundreds of group exhibitions. He was also the curator of the first video art exhibition Phenomena / Image in China in 1996. He curated a series of “Post-sense Sensibility” exhibitions between 1999 and 2005 promoting the young generation of Chinese artists. In 2012 he was the chief curator of the 9th Shanghai Biennale “Reactivation”, in 2017 he was the chief curator of the Chinese Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale. He also curated and launched the International Children’s Poetry Beach Project.

Dr. Eugene Tan

Director, National Gallery Singapore & Singapore Art Museum

Eugene Tan

Photo Courtesy of Singapore Art Museum

Eugene Tan is the Director of the National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum. He received his PhD in Art History from the University of Manchester. He has curated numerous exhibitions including the inaugural Singapore Biennale in 2006 and the Singapore Pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Recent exhibitions he has curated at the National Gallery Singapore include: Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s (2019), Minimalism: Space, Light and Object (2018); Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond (2016); Between Dreams and Declarations: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century and Siapa Nama Kamu? Art from Singapore since the 19th Century (2015). Other selected exhibitions include: Of Human Scale and Beyond: Experience and Transcendence (2012) at the Hong Kong Art Centre, as well as solo exhibitions by Danh Vo (2016), Lee Mingwei (2010) and Jompet (2010). He is co-author of the publication Contemporary Art in Singapore (2007) and has written widely for exhibition catalogues and art publications, including Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, Broadsheet, among others. He was formerly a member of the Board of Governance of CIMAM, the International Association of Contemporary Art Museums and serves on the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (MuHKA) in Belgium and the International Advisory Board of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. He also lectures on Art History at the National University of Singapore.

BANGKOK ART BIENNALE

www.bkkartbiennale.com