Out now
For the July/August issue of ArtAsiaPacific, we consider the seminal figures that have shaped contemporary art in Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific, as well as a younger generation of artists who are the protagonists in the cultural histories of these regions.
In the Features section, Gabriel Ritter, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art, examines Koki Tanaka—who is representing Japan at this year’s Venice Biennale—and his humorously absurd practice, which explores both performative collaborations and the relationship between objects and actions. For our cover feature, AAP contributing editor Jyoti Dhar mines the prolific career of Nalini Malani, an innovator in the realms of digital media as well as a strong advocate for female artists in India’s largely patriarchal art world.
We also honor the legacy of another 20th-century master, Zao Wou-ki, who passed away in April this year. In this special feature, Beijing-based independent curator Tiffany Wai-Ying Beres reflects on the influence of Chinese ink-painting on Zao’s own form of abstraction, while veteran Hong Kong gallerist and early Zao supporter Alice King recalls her friendship with the artist over the course of more than half a century.
Our yearlong project to mark AAP‘s twentieth anniversary, 20/20, pinpoints unconventional artworks and concepts from 1993 to the present. Director and head curator of the forthcoming Palestinian Museum, Jack Persekian, introduces Mona Hatoum’s 1996 Present Tense, inspired by a map of the Oslo Accords, while curator Jang-Un Kim shares his recollections of the late conceptualist Yiso Bahc’s 2001 solo exhibition at Seoul’s Alternative Space Pool.
For Where I Work, AAP editor-at-large HG Masters heads to Bali where he pops into the home-cum-studio compound of mischief-making Neo-Geo artist Ashley Bickerton. In Profiles, Olivier Krischer contemplates the narrative paintings of Gulammohammed Sheikh, while contributing editor Michael Young meets Indonesian-Chinese collector Budi Tek, exploring his personal style of collecting and his plans for his second private museum, to be built in Shanghai. Managing editor John Jervis visits the modest studio of emerging Hong Kong artist Ho Sin Tung, who creates meticulous drawings of insects, maps and movies.
Among our Essays, assistant editor Noelle Bodick ruminates on the joys of being lost in the labyrinthine exhibition spaces at Sharjah’s recent biennial, while guest contributor Wei-Ling Woo writes a tribute to Shomei Tomatsu, one of the world’s greatest photographers, whose finest work chronicles the survivors of the atomic bomb that fell on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
Rounding out the issue, for The Point we invite longtime champion of Southeast Asian contemporary art Valentine Willie to discuss the impact of auction houses on the region’s artists. Times Museum curator Ruijun Shen files a Dispatch from Guangzhou and explains why the southern metropolis may be turning into the best place for artists to work in China. Our book review by China specialist Lee Ambrozy embraces another opportunity to look back, evaluating the long-awaited survey of the country’s art from the 1840s on, The Art of Modern China, by Julia F. Andrews and Kuiyu Shen.
Hong Kong lawyer Antony Dapiran pens Fine Print, discussing the dilemmas that plague artists who seek droit de suite, or resale royalties, particularly those living ones who might benefit from such legislation more than the estates of deceased artists. Finally, in One on One, Isabel Aquilizan, from the Filipino husband-and-wife duo Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, explains her admiration for Antonio Calma, a painter of souvenir landscapes and contributor to their “Mabini Art Project,” which was on show at the 2013 Sharjah Biennial.
Select articles now online in Arabic and Chinese: artasiapacific.com.
Subscribe to the print edition, buy digital copies on Zinio, become a Facebook fan and follow us on Twitter.
