Weekly News Roundup: September 13, 2024
By THE EDITORS
Key visual of Aichi Triennale 2025, illustrated by IGARASHI DAISUKE. Courtesy Aichi Triennale, Nagoya.
Aichi Triennale Reveals More Participating Artists
The Aichi Triennale 2025, which is slated to open on September 13, 2025, in the Japanese city of Nagoya, has announced the next round of artists and groups participating in its sixth edition. Curated by Sharjah Art Foundation president Hoor Al-Qasimi and themed “A Time Between Ashes and Roses,” a reference to an eponymous poem by Syrian modernist writer Adonis, the Triennale will navigate the relationship between humankind and the environment amid geopolitical crises. Supplementing the initial four-person lineup are 32 international artists and groups, 26 of whom will contribute to the contemporary art program, while the remaining six will participate in the performing arts program. The additional figures include Kenyan multidisciplinary artist Wangechi Mutu; Ghanaian-born British filmmaker John Akomfrah; Japanese painter and sculptor Izumi Kato; and Black Grace, an Auckland-based contemporary dance group, among others. The Triennale will run until November 30, 2025, in various venues in the Aichi Prefecture.
Portrait of JUNNI CHEN. Photo by Toni Cuhadi. Courtesy Para Site, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s Para Site Recruits New Deputy Director
On September 10, Hong Kong’s nonprofit Para Site announced the appointment of Junni Chen as its new deputy director, effective immediately. Chen joins Para Site from Tina Kim Gallery in New York, where she previously served as director. Para Site board chair Alan Lau and executive director and curator Billy Tang stated that Chen was selected for her “extensive experience working with artists, galleries, and museums [which] will be imperative to the enhancement of Para Site’s capabilities, global visibility, and long-term growth.” Chen’s prior experience includes curatorial positions at the National Gallery Singapore, as well as completing a graduate degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies at New York’s Bard College in 2022. She joins Para Site at a pivotal moment in the organization’s expansion, as it added a new annex its Quarry Bay space and plans to initiate a series of artist workshop programs.
Installation view of BHARTI KHER’s Target Queen, 2024, mixed media, dimensions variable, at Hayward Gallery, London. Photo by Jo Underhill. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, London.
Bharti Kher Debuts Outdoor Installation in London
On September 12, the Hayward Gallery unveiled Target Queen (2024), a colorful, large-scale commission by the renowned British Indian artist Bharti Kher, marking the first time a London institution has exhibited her outdoor work. Bold and vibrant, the commission comprises multicolored bindis, dots traditionally worn by South Asian women on their foreheads for various decorative, religious, and cultural reasons, and a recurring symbol in Kher’s practice. Positioned across the gallery’s eastern and southern facades, the concentric bindis each measure up to three meters in diameter and cover two sides of the building. “Kher’s art recontextualizes the traditional target motif into a symbol of the divine feminine, blending cultural narrative with aesthetic innovation,” said Rachel Thomas, the Hayward’s chief curator. Target Queen is supported by the gallery’s Commissioning Committee and the London-based Hauser & Wirth Its debut coincides with Kher’s ongoing solo exhibition “Alchemies” at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Yorkshire, which will run until April 27, 2025.
View of Green Hills Tsuyama in Okayama Prefecture. Photo by Asano Takeshi. Supported by JR West. Courtesy Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama.
Japanese Forest Festival Announces Artist Lineup
The Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama, running from September 28 to November 24 in the western Japanese prefecture, has revealed the 40 artists set to participate in its first edition. Themed “Clear-skies Country,” the festival will welcome international artists such as Brazilian installation artist Ernesto Neto, Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atoui, Korean multidisciplinary artist Kimsooja, Taiwanese painter Michael Lin, Indian interdisciplinary artist Asim Waqif, and Thai performance-installation artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Regional artists such as the Tsuyama-born photographer Keita Sugiura, Tokyo-based painter Hideaki Kawashima, acclaimed architect Arata Isozaki (1931–2022), and Tokyo-born multidisciplinary artist Aki Inomata are also listed as participants. The festival will take place across 12 venues in Okayama Prefecture, including the Tsuyama Castle, the Sakushu Folk Crafts Museum, and the Shurakuen Garden, among other sites.
Portrait of EVELYN LIN. Photo by Akira Yamada. Courtesy Pace Gallery, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong: Auction House Veteran Evelyn Lin Joins Pace
The Hong Kong outpost of New York-based Pace Gallery has appointed Evelyn Lin, a prominent figure in the Asian auction house world, as its president of Greater China. She will assume the Hong Kong-based position on October 1, replacing the gallery’s longtime Asia president Leng Lin. A seasoned art veteran, Evelyn Lin has worked with leading art businesses such as Sotheby’s, where she served as head of Contemporary Art, Asia from 2004 to 2017. She joined Christie’s Asia Pacific as deputy chairman in 2018, and most recently served as co-head of its 20th and 21th century art department. In her new role, Lin will take charge of sales, business development, and artist engagement in the region, as well as oversee the gallery’s teams in both Hong Kong and Beijing. Her first major project at Pace will be an exhibition on American artist Robert Indiana, which is scheduled to open at the gallery’s H Queens space on March 24, 2025, coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong.
ROBERT FIELDING’s Sacred earth/Manta Miil miilpa, 2024, photosensitive emulsion, cotton paper, acrylic paint, 224 × 228 cm overall. Courtesy of the artist, Mimili Maku Arts (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land), and Museum of Australian Photography, Wheelers Hill.
Aboriginal Australian Photographer Wins Prestigious Prize
Aboriginal artist Robert Fielding has won the 2024 Bowness Photography Prize for his “work of protest” Sacred earth/Manta Miil miilpa, a collage of images made with photosensitive emulsion on cotton paper and acrylic paint. The artist said of his collage: “Words of protest and resistance have been scrawled across this rally of works to remind the unseeing eyes of this world: this is Yankunytjatjara Land and our culture is strong.” Fielding was selected out of 73 finalists by Peta Clancy, a Yorta Yorta artist and researcher at Melbourne’s Monash University, and Anouska Phizacklea, director of the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh). Phizacklea lauded Fielding as “an eminent practitioner of photography [who] has dedicated his work to honoring Country and Culture.” Fielding will receive an AUD 30,000 (USD 20,190) cash prize, and his winning work will become a part of the MAPh collection, where it is currently on display.
