Launch of SEA: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia
The panel discussion will address Southeast Asian contemporary art practices as part of the global contemporary art landscape, and how this publication contributes to dialogues in the region and around the world.
Speakers
Alessio Antoniolli – Director, Gasworks & Triangle Network
Ute Meta Bauer – Founding Director, Nanyang Technological University Centre’s for
Contemporary Art Singapore and Professor, NTU School of Art, Design, and Media;
Aaron Cezar – Director, Delfina Foundation
Moderated by:
Karin G. Oen – Senior Lecturer and Head of Art History, Nanyang Technological
University, School of Humanities
Alessio Antoniolli – Director, Gasworks & Triangle Network
Alessio Antoniolli is the Director of Gasworks, London, where he oversees a program of artist residencies, exhibitions, and interactive projects focusing on developing the UK and international
artists. Gasworks, under Alessio’s leadership, has sponsored over 300 artist residencies from 80 nations worldwide. He is also the Director of Triangle Network, a world-wide network of visual art organisations that work together to create artists’ exchanges and to share knowledge with each other. In 2022 he was also appointed curator at Fondazione Memmo, Italy, where he will programme one
exhibition each year, starting with a solo presentation by Wai Kin Sin, in 2023. With an MA in Art History from Birkbeck College, the University of London in 1998, specialising in Internationalism, Diversity, and Cultural Policy in the Visual Arts, Alessio has lectured widely and has been on many jury panels, including the Turner Prize 2019.
Ute Meta Bauer – Founding Director, Nanyang Technological University Centre’s for Contemporary Art Singapore and Professor, NTU School of Art, Design, and Media;
Ute Meta Bauer is a curator of exhibitions and presentations that connect contemporary art, film, video and sound through transdisciplinary formats. Since October 2013 she has been Founding Director of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, a research centre of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where she is a full professor and Co-chair of the Master in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices in the School of Art Design and Media. At the Centre, she has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions, such as Non-Aligned (2020), featuring artists John Akomfrah, Naeem Mohaiemen and the Otolith Group, and Trinh T. Minh-ha: Films (2020/2021). From 2012 to 2013, she served as Dean
of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London. Prior to that, she was Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she was Founding
Director of the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (2009–2012) and Director of the MIT Visual Arts Program (2005–2009). In 2015, she co-curated with Paul Ha, Director of MIT List Visual Art Centre, the
US Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, presenting eminent artist, Joan Jonus. In 2021, she curated the Singapore Pavilion for at the 59th Venice Biennale, presenting multidisciplinary artist, Shubigi Rao.
Bauer’s current research focus is on the climate crisis and cultural loss. Most recently, she was the curator for the 17th Istanbul Biennale (2022) together with David Teh and Amar Kanwar.
Aaron Cezar – Director, Delfina Foundation
Aaron Cezar is the Founding Director of Delfina Foundation, where he develops, curates and oversees
its interrelated programme of residencies, exhibitions and public platforms. Over the last 14 years, Cezar has positioned Delfina Foundation as a meeting point and incubator of creative talent, forming partnerships with leading institutions internationally. He has devised Delfina Foundation’s ground-breaking thematic programmes such as Collecting as Practice, the first ever integrated residency programme for collectors and artists. Cezar has curated external exhibitions, performances and programmes at Hayward Gallery Project Space, SongEun Artspace, ArtBo, and Art Dubai, and is a regular moderator and contributor for various art platforms and publications. He has been appointed to numerous boards and committees, currently including All Change Arts, Shubbak, Caribbean Art Initiative, Aga Khan Museum, and has served on juries including the 2020 Turner Prize, LIVE WORKS Performance Art Award (2016), Samdani Artist Award (2012-2020), MOP CAP (2018), and the Absolut Creative Competition (2019), to name a few. Cezar was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Arts, London in June 2017. He earned a postgraduate degree with distinction in the Creative & Cultural Industries from King’s College London. He graduated from Princeton University with a first degree in Economics and a certificate in Dance and Theatre.
Karin G. Oen – Senior Lecturer and Head of Art History, Nanyang Technological
University, School of Humanities
Karin G. Oen is Senior Lecturer and Head of Art History, Nanyang Technological University, School of
Humanities. She was recently Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes for NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Prior to that, Oen was Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Asian Art Museum on San Francisco. Her current research explores inter-, trans- and post-disciplinary issues in contemporary art, design and media connected to Asian history and culture. Oen holds a PhD in the
History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master’s degree in Modern Art History, Connoisseurship and Art-market History from Christie’s Education and a Bachelor’s degree with Honors in Urban Studies from Stanford University.