On June 12, New Delhi-based artist Amar Kanwar was named winner of the 2014 Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, an annual award that recognizes artists whose practice promotes social consciousness and an engagement with causes that advance equity and justice. The internationally acclaimed artist and social activist is known for his intricate video essays, which are developed from documentary practices and explore critical socio-political issues of the Indian subcontinent.

Melissa Chiu, current Director and Senior Vice President for Global Arts and Cultural Programs at Asia Society Museum in New York, has been named as director of The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, after museum’s previous director, Richard Koshalek, announced his resignation over a funding controversy one year ago.

On June 7, Seoul-based architect Minsuk Cho received  this year’s prestigious Golden Lion award at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 for the Korean Pavilion. 

Hong Kong-based artist Adrian Wong was announced last Friday, May 9, as the winner of this year’s Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Previous recipients of the decade-old award  have mostly engaged with more conventional mediums, therefore making Wong’s selection somewhat surprising. Wong himself, who creates conceptually rigorous sculptural works, often in reference to Hong Kong’s history, both real and imagined,  remarked, “I had long thought that the prize was one that was reserved for painters—so I was honored even to be nominated. Winning the prize was not something that I had mentally prepared for.” 

Berlin-based Anselm Franke has been appointed chief curator of the tenth edition of the Shanghai Biennale. Franke, who currently works as the Head of Visual Art and Film at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, says the Biennale will explore notions of subjectivity and creative process as it exists in contrast to “the logic of modernization, its rationalizations and standardizations” in an age of technological mediation.

On March 24, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was announced as the 2014 laureate for the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. The self-proclaimed “paper-architect” is recognized for his humanitarian practice, and innovative use of low-cost recyclable materials such as bamboo, fabric, fiber and paper tubes.

On March 26, the renowned abstract painter Chu Teh-Chun died in Paris at the age of 93. Following closely after the passing of his friend and fellow proponent of the Chinese Modernist movement Zao Wou-ki (1920–2013), last year, as well as Wu Guangzhong in 2010, Chu’s death marks the end of generation of Chinese painters living in Europe whose works continue to offer salient cross-cultural perspectives.

Sydney’s 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art has elected Edmund Capon as its new chair of the board. A London native, Capon brings with him 33 years of arts experience gained while working at Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, where he was director and chief curator since 1978.

The future of the Biennale of Sydney (BoS) has been thrown into question after last Friday, when its board capitulated to pressure from participating artists to sever ties with its founding partner and major sponsor Transfield, the contractor which manages Australia’s immigration detention facilities, currently on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.

On March 5, the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) unveiled its plans to transform the historic Doha Fire Station into a new artist residency program. Fire Station: Artists in Residence is set to open to the public in November, by which time it will already have welcomed its first guests. 

On February 10, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has approved of the dismissal of Marine Mizandari, the nation’s first deputy minister of culture and monument protection. This order to step down came after a meeting with the cultural heritage protection council on January 27 where Mizandari proposed to reinstate the heritage status of the Sakdrisi gold mine, a 5400-year-old mine in central Georgia that was previously protected under heritage laws, which were lifted in 2013.  

Beirut Art Center (BAC), a non-profit space dedicated to contemporary art in Lebanon, has appointed Marie Muracciole as its new director on February 20. BAC’s co-founders and directors, Sandra Dagher and Lamia Joreige, announced their resignation from their five-year directorial post in January, promising to remain active as members on BAC’s board.

Prominent Chinese art collector, Guan Yi has donated 37 works to M+, Hong Kong’s much-anticipated museum for visual culture. Dating from 1980 onwards, the collection, which comprises of mainly New Wave, conceptual and large scale installations, traces key moments in the history of contemporary Chinese art. 

On Saturday, January 18th, at Singapore’s Suntec City convention center, the inaugural Prudential Eye Awards (PEA) for emerging Asian artists went to Ben Quilty of Sydney, Australia. Comprising of five categories—digital/video, installation, painting, photography, sculpture—the award recognized Quilty as the overall winner as well as the category winner for painting.  Judging the PEA was a panel of seven art and cultural professionals including Nick Mitzevich from the Art Gallery of Southern Australia, Nigel Hurst from the Saatchi Gallery, Serenella Ciclitira of Parallel Contemporary Art, and Tan Boon Hui from Singapore’s National Heritage Board.