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The 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize

Shortlist

Angel Hui Hoi Kiu 
Angel Hui Pop Up Store - Handbag Series  image
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Angel Hui Pop Up Store – Handbag Series 
Ant Ngai Wing Lam 
​​進入迴旋處 | When Entering The Roundabout​  image
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​​進入迴旋處 | When Entering The Roundabout​
Arpita Akhanda 
Dendritic Data Ib  image
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DIRECT SALE
Dendritic Data Ib 
Awika Samukrsaman 
Louvers: Protection and Revelation  image
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DIRECT SALE
Louvers: Protection and Revelation 
Be Takerng Pattanopas 
Man from Venus  image
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Man from Venus 
Cho Hyun Taek 
Stone Market-Hwasun  image
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Stone Market-Hwasun 
Dawn Ng 
Volcano Blossoms  image
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Volcano Blossoms 
Dongi Lee
Weeping Woman  image
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Weeping Woman
Farhat Ali 
A world unfolded   image
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A world unfolded  
Fu Xiao Tong 
97,650 Pinpricks  image
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DIRECT SALE
97,650 Pinpricks 
Harit Srikhao 
Can a Moth Remember Its Caterpillar Days?  image
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Can a Moth Remember Its Caterpillar Days? 
Holly Greenwood 
After the game  image
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After the game 
JIHEA KIM (Tina Kim)  
Connection of pain and hope 3  image
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Connection of pain and hope 3 
Joydeb Roaza 
In Search of Indigenous people 2  image
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In Search of Indigenous people 2 
Justin Lee 
The Yellow Line  image
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The Yellow Line 
Kim, Jun Sik 
Red Meihua - the great selfie  image
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DIRECT SALE
Red Meihua – the great selfie 
Liu Wai Hang Ticko 
The journal of chasing sun  image
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The journal of chasing sun 
Maharani Mancanagara 
Lauik Sati, Rantau Batuah #4  (The Magic Sea, The Fortunate Region #4)  image
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DIRECT SALE
Lauik Sati, Rantau Batuah #4  (The Magic Sea, The Fortunate Region #4) 
Mervy C. Pueblo 
Pasalubong 06: Determination  image
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Pasalubong 06: Determination 
Miyeon Yi 
Our dog doesn't bite  image
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Our dog doesn’t bite 
Mojahid Musa 
Assimilated Musing  image
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Assimilated Musing
Najmun Nahar Keya 
Symphony of Words  image
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Symphony of Words 
Naveed Sadiq 
Ibadat Khana I, IV, V   image
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Ibadat Khana I, IV, V  
Nawin Nuthong 
Crows Fountain  image
VOTE NOW
Crows Fountain 
Ngo Dinh Bao Chau 
Diagram of the Repetition  image
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Diagram of the Repetition 
Pam Virada 
Early Spring  image
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Early Spring 
Praween Piangchoompu 
Beyond Remembrance  image
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Beyond Remembrance 
Tan Zi Hao 
Bags of Stories, No. 80  image
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DIRECT SALE
Bags of Stories, No. 80 
Viriya Chotpanyavisut 
Sudden Brightening  image
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Sudden Brightening 
Wonchul Lee 
TIME - Time outside the clock  image
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TIME – Time outside the clock 
WONG Sze Wai 
Trio  image
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Trio 
Yasmin Jahan Nupur 
Light to Dark  image
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Light to Dark 
Yinling Hsu 
The Eras in Bottles  image
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The Eras in Bottles 
Yujung Kim 
Island Swallowing the Moon, The Drifting Day   image
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Island Swallowing the Moon, The Drifting Day  
Zelin Seah
It's just some scratches on my back  image
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It’s just some scratches on my back
Zheng Mengqiang
An Afternoon in Homeland  image
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An Afternoon in Homeland
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01 / 36

Angel Hui Hoi Kiu 

Angel Hui Pop Up Store - Handbag Series  image

Angel Hui Hoi Kiu 

Angel Hui Pop Up Store – Handbag Series 
Dimension: 29 x 43 x 105 cm
Medium: Porcelain paint on ceramic handbags, ready-made objects & mixed media
Country: Hong Kong 
Nominated by: Gary Mok

Angel Hui Hoi Kiu is a contemporary ink painter who creates intricate porcelain sculptures and installations that merge Chinese tradition with contemporary  Western culture. Deeply inspired by traditional Chinese art, she often applies ink on delicate materials, such as facial tissue, rice paper, and porcelain with meticulous brushwork, twisting the ancient art form and transforming the nature
of everyday objects. Should an artist loyal to a particular regional culture, heritage and practices seek recognition by adhering to the standards of cultural hegemony? In this work, ceramic versions of high-fashion designer handbags are hand-painted with Yuan and Qing Dynasty motifs in classic blues and whites, questioning the concept of refined and vulgar art, and further exploring cultural identity and the impact of globalization.

Angel Hui Hoi Kiu is represented by Alisan Fine Arts.

02 / 36

Ant Ngai Wing Lam 

​​進入迴旋處 | When Entering The Roundabout​  image

Ant Ngai Wing Lam 

​​進入迴旋處 | When Entering The Roundabout​
Dimension: 80 x 60 x 2 cm
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Country: Hong Kong 
Nominated by: Chloe Chow

Ngai Wing-Lam, also known as Ant, is celebrated for her surreal and introspective paintings featuring koi fish-headed characters. Her works are inspired by her dreams and childhood experiences with pet fish. These hybrids symbolize her exploration of themes such as relationships, identity, and ambiguity. Set against Hong Kong’s urban landscapes, her paintings capture the tension between reality
and fantasy, inviting viewers to engage with narratives of alienation and individuality. This diptych features a male and female character, highlighting individuality within connection. This duality reflects the belief that while people can share strong bonds, they remain distinct individuals. The paired format explores themes of separation and unity, mirroring the unpredictable nature of human relationships. By presenting these paintings together, Ngai underscores the tension between togetherness and solitude.

Ngai Wing Lam is represented by Gallery EXIT.

03 / 36

Arpita Akhanda 

Dendritic Data Ib  image

Arpita Akhanda 

Dendritic Data Ib 
Dimension: 175 x 127 x 18cm
Medium: Paper weaving, archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper
Country: India 
Nominated by: Sadya Mizan

Arpita Akhanda is a multidisciplinary artist whose works delve into themes of cultural politics, memory, and history. Growing up, she was deeply influenced by her grandparents’ stories of their traumatic relocation following the partition of India, which shaped her understanding of identity, roots, and the ongoing search for belonging. Memory and migration are recurring motifs in her practice, as she explores the elusive path of remembrance and articulates the sense of loss that the body inherits from past traumas.

Dendritic Data Ib draws inspiration from the ancient iconographies and landscapes of Hampi, India. This artwork layers elements of land, water, and wind, exploring Hampi’s spirit through intricate dendritic patterns found on granite mines, mirroring the natural contours of the region. The piece incorporates representations of the Tungabhadra River, a lifeline to the city, and visualizes the wind’s flow across the land, evoking ancient script-like motifs in the top section of the composition.

Arpita Akhanda is represented by Emami Art, Kolkata, India.

 

 

04 / 36

Awika Samukrsaman 

Louvers: Protection and Revelation  image

Awika Samukrsaman 

Louvers: Protection and Revelation 
Dimension: 110 x 73 x 17
Medium: Woven textiles, laser-cut acrylic, aluminium frame
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Jiradej Meemalai and Pornpilai Meemalai

Awika Samukrsaman’s practice focuses on the use of textiles and weaving throughout everyday life, particularly as a means of communication deeply rooted in traditional cultures. Her focus on the use of texture in textile works has brought her into folk wisdom among local ethnic groups, and she runs various projects that aim to develop weaving arts and crafts, and retrace, reinterpret and restore Thai northeastern (Isaan) ancestry and heritage.

Louvers serve as filters that regulate sight, air, and sound, controlling the external influences we allow into our private spaces, balancing the outside world we confront with the privacy we seek. This piece highlights the tension between the fast-paced external world and the slow contemplation of inner space. The handweaving techniques contrast with the precision of laser-cut acrylic, which allows no pause. Louvers become more than mere materials; they bridge individuals to the overlapping layers of social, cultural, and historical interconnectedness.

05 / 36

Be Takerng Pattanopas 

Man from Venus  image

Be Takerng Pattanopas 

Man from Venus 
Dimension: 40 x 56 x 42 cm
Medium: Welded steel, oil paint, metal wires, haute-couture sequins and beads, and mixed media
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Brian Curtin

Be Takerng Pattanopas’s practice emerges from twin obsessions with space within and space without. His drawings, installations, paintings and sculptures explore the human body’s interior, and as such can be symbolized to suggest the infinity of the cosmos. The artist has suffered complex health issues with benign tumours in his endocrine system. This is addressed through hybrid forms that play with
symbolisations of voids, microscopic invasions of the body, tunnels, and monoliths.

Man from Venus speculates on forms that could bring a greater understanding about human bodies. Pattanopas imagines advanced beings that are integrated with spacecraft to travel through the cosmos. The sculpture’s ‘body’ references spaceships, while its excrescences resemble magnified internal micro-organs. These ‘excessive’ elements seem functional as they occupy or even invade space. Man from Venus is mainly orange, reflecting warmth as a rare trait for normative masculinity, and celebration of inversion and diversity.

Be Takerng Pattanopas is represented by Gallery VER.

06 / 36

Cho Hyun Taek 

Stone Market-Hwasun  image

Cho Hyun Taek 

Stone Market-Hwasun 
Dimension: 140 x 64 x 5 cm
Medium: Landscape photography
Country: South Korea 
Nominated by: JeongMee Yoon

Cho Hyun Taek’s work records events occurring at the border of cities and nonurban areas, capturing the changing faces of neighborhoods and community spaces to question the spiritual charge of inhabited realms and the medium of photography. He conceives experimental and sensitive portrayals through techniques ranging from camera obscura to panoramic imaging to document the traces of transformation in modern Korean ways of life

07 / 36

Dawn Ng 

Volcano Blossoms  image

Dawn Ng 

Volcano Blossoms 
Dimension: 123 x 123 x 5 cm
Medium: Acrylic paint, dye and ink on wood
Country: Singapore 
Nominated by: Lisa Botos, Seet Yun Teng   and Sofia Coombe 

Dawn Ng’s practice investigates concepts of time, memory, nostalgia, and temporality. Central to her work is the question: what if we understood time as a colour and form, instead of the numbers on the face of a clock? Ice is a key material in her practice, simply because it cannot last in her tropical climate, making it the ultimate ephemeral medium to work with. Time, residue, and memory are almost immaterial in a modern city like Singapore, that experiences no seasons and constantly yearns for the brand new. Dawn’s work strains in the opposite direction, seeking to give weight and emotionality to time’s presence and passing. To create this work, Ng emulates the primary forces that sculpt planetary landforms over millennia – wind, water, time, gravity, and heat – by applying them to arranged
conglomerates of frozen acrylics, inks and watercolours, across staggered time frames. Encouraging slow looking, Volcanic Blossoms draws upon elemental notions of time that traverse disintegration and creation through change.

Dawn Ng is represented by Sullivan+Strumpf and Kate MacGarry

08 / 36

Dongi Lee

Weeping Woman  image

Dongi Lee

Weeping Woman
Dimension: 110 x 150cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Country: South Korea

Dongi Lee takes special interest in popular images that are easily consumed and widely distributed. Believing that art is rooted in popular culture, he uses stereotypes of modern society directly in his work and encourages viewers to interpet them from their own standpoint. He maintains that a work is not something that is defined and concluded by the artist, but gains its grounds for existence by the active response and emotional participation of the viewer. Existing as if he were a part of the work itself, Dongi functions as a catalyst between the work, viewer, and the outer world as they react with each other.

Weeping Woman juxtaposes the abstract and figurative. By combining geometric patterns with a figure similar to that found in a Korean Soap opera, the artist aims to capture a sense of reality and the sublime in one image.

Dongi Lee is represented by NYB Gallery and Sho Plus One.

09 / 36

Farhat Ali 

A world unfolded   image

Farhat Ali 

A world unfolded  
Dimension: 89 x 127cm
Medium: Indian permanent ink on arches paper
Country: Pakistan 
Nominated by: Adeel uz Zafar

Through his works, Farhat Ai explores a variety of different materials and techniques. In A World Unfolded, he reinterprets a scene from history through a fusion of images that weave new, fictional narratives for his viewers. This work is inspired by the artist’s mother, who did not attend school but learned to read and write at home by studying the Quran, written in Arabic. Throughout Farhat’s childhood, she taught herself several other local languages, created drawings and embroidery, read to him from magazines, newspapers and novels, and taught him about the work of many important Pakistani and Western artists.

10 / 36

Fu Xiao Tong 

97,650 Pinpricks  image

Fu Xiao Tong 

97,650 Pinpricks 
Dimension: 61 x 80cm
Medium: Handmadepaper
Country: China 
Nominated by: Sovereign Art Foundation  

Fu Xiao Tong’s (b. 1976, China) work is characterised by the use of traditional, handmade rice paperto construct intricate, three-dimensional imagery. Using traditional embroidery tools, she punctures the paper, in a labour-intensive, meditative manner, slowly forming images such as mountains, breasts and snake eggs.

97,650 Pinpricks depicts one foot of the ancient Greek god Venus, who was born from a bubble.

 

11 / 36

Harit Srikhao 

Can a Moth Remember Its Caterpillar Days?  image

Harit Srikhao 

Can a Moth Remember Its Caterpillar Days? 
Dimension: 112 x 167cm Edition 2 of 3 + 1AP
Medium: Photography Giclée print on ILFORD Galerie Gold Fiber Gloss 310 gsm, aluminum composite; wooden frame
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Brian Curtin

Harit Srikhao is a visual artist whose practice focuses on the dilemma of photography, of being both a subject and of being the subject performing the act of capturing – the dichotomy in front and behind the lens. Harit’s work covers on a variety of interconnected themes, from political traditions to aesthetics of power, all struck through with an intense effort to understand his personal experience of being a subject and object, of surrendering the autonomy of one’s image, the struggle in reclaiming it, and giving it a body. For this work, Harit Srikhao crafted over 300 hand-painted paper moths from materials tied to the abuse and harassment he endured as a teenager, which led to struggles with dissociation and depression. Through Art Therapy, Harit reclaims the images that once held power over him, using them as a tool to liberate himself from his past. The light painting and long exposure techniques, recurring motifs in his work, emphasize the power of art as a ritual of resilience.

Harit Srikhao is represented by BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY.

12 / 36

Holly Greenwood 

After the game  image

Holly Greenwood 

After the game 
Dimension: 111 x 137 x 4cm
Medium: Oil on Canvas framed
Country: Australia 
Nominated by: Tim Etchells
13 / 36

JIHEA KIM (Tina Kim)  

Connection of pain and hope 3  image

JIHEA KIM (Tina Kim)  

Connection of pain and hope 3 
Dimension: 116 x 87 cm Unique work +1AP
Medium: Photography
Country: South Korea 
Nominated by: Gunsoo Choi 

Jihea Kim (Tina Kim) explores how people can maintain humanity and embrace one another, despite the challenges of contemporary society. Through her practice, she continually pursues the expansion of the pictorial possibilities and meanings
of photography. Jihea Kim (Tina Kim)’s photographs are characterized by the overlapping of multiple urban images, a process that results in bold linear patterns that merge with the scenery of the city and give her works the appearance of paintings. This work is based on one of her most meaningful photographs, which marked the starting point of a 14-year long photographic series. In a time when society is constantly plagued with issues of suppression, competition, and violence, the colourful lines throughout the image act as energy currents, flowing throughout the environment and representing the ways in which our collective pain can connect us to the past, to the future, and to each other.

14 / 36

Joydeb Roaza 

In Search of Indigenous people 2  image

Joydeb Roaza 

In Search of Indigenous people 2 
Dimension: 152 x 106cm
Medium: Ink on paper
Country: Bangladesh 
Nominated by: Kehkasha Sabah and Sadya Mizan 

Joydeb Roaza grew up in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a region in the north-eastern corner of Bangladesh that has been historically distinct in terms of cultural and ethnic diversity since ancient times. Over 11 different languages are spoken throughout the indigenous communities living in the area. His work is inspired by events taking place there, from his childhood to the present, including the ongoing struggle of local indigenous people for autonomy over their land and culture. This series of work, titled The Future of Indigenous Peoples, focuses on the lives of the 14 indigenous tribes based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and how the movement of over half a million Bengali people into the region has changed their lives drastically.

Joydeb Roaza is represented by Jhaveri Contemporary

15 / 36

Justin Lee 

The Yellow Line  image

Justin Lee 

The Yellow Line 
Dimension: 150 x 150cm
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Country: Singapore 
Nominated by: Sofia Coombe
16 / 36

Kim, Jun Sik 

Red Meihua - the great selfie  image

Kim, Jun Sik 

Red Meihua – the great selfie 
Dimension: 70 x 125cm
Medium: Oil paint on Korean paper
Country: Taiwan 
Nominated by: Yoon Sub Kim

Through his practice, Kim Jun Sik (b. 1980, South Korea) enjoys mixing things with ‘opposite’ properties– such as traditional and modern, realism and surrealism, and East and West. His Red Maehwa series of works focuses on the latter, contrasting the characteristic flatness of Oriental painting with the more three-dimensional perspective of traditional Western painting. As modern-day Eastern society gradually takes on more characteristics of West, he considers the search for a ‘new realism’ in Oriental painting.

Inspired by East Asian ink paintings of plum blossoms, Kim Jun Sik renders realistic plum tree branches in oil paint so they appear as if they are attached to Korean paper. He also paints blossoms and iconic characters representative of the 21st century, creating a variety of narratives. In this painting, the characters are depicted taking ‘selfies’, an important social behaviour in today’s society.

17 / 36

Liu Wai Hang Ticko 

The journal of chasing sun  image

Liu Wai Hang Ticko 

The journal of chasing sun 
Dimension: 150 x 130 x 5cm
Medium: Oil on Linen
Country: Hong Kong 
Nominated by: Gary Mok

Liu Wai Hang Ticko (Ticko Liu)’s work revolves around the ‘meaninglessness’ of the everyday. Sensing the immensity of the universe and the brevity of life, and hence the insignificance and meaninglessness of human existence, Ticko accumulates and organises these futile instances, capturing and transforming them into a mindscape – art as a form of existence. His surrealistic paintings are collages inspired by daily scenes, natural flora and fauna, cinema and moving images, and his collection of toy models. By reimagining and rendering them in bright colours and undulating lines on the canvas, the artist presents a fantasy space of the everyday that is nonetheless believable and relatable.

When looking at the scenery through the window while riding in vehicles, there are moments when the artist feels a distance between himself and everything else. Through visual segmentation in his work, he attempts to place these seemingly trivial pieces of information received in a moment alongside the vast universe on the same canvas, contrasting the immediate with the whole.

Ticko Liu is represented by Gallery EXIT.

18 / 36

Maharani Mancanagara 

Lauik Sati, Rantau Batuah #4  (The Magic Sea, The Fortunate Region #4)  image

Maharani Mancanagara 

Lauik Sati, Rantau Batuah #4  (The Magic Sea, The Fortunate Region #4) 
Dimension: 140 x 100cm
Medium: Charcoal on recycled wood, thread
Country: Indonesia 
Nominated by: Shormi Ahmed

The work of Maharani Mancanagara reflects on and reinterprets Indonesia’s complex and sometimes sensitive issues of modern socio-political and cultural history through fictional storytelling. Drawing on her personal family experiences of relocation and aggression in Indonesia prior to independence, Maharani’s work refers to and develops conversation about the condition of social equality, investigating its political and social complexity via the study of form and materiality.

Growing up with both Javanese and Sumatran heritage, Maharani was immersed in Indonesia’s vast cultural landscape, where folklore was a vessel for wisdom and collective memory. Stories like Malin Kundang, told to reinforce ideals of devotion and respect, have been told throughout the region for generations. Through conversations with ninik mamak (traditional elders), Maharani has encountered alternative interpretations of Malin Kundang that challenge rigid moral binaries and reveal deeper anxieties about migration, class mobility, and the burden of leaving home. This series reinterprets these legends as evolving narratives, encouraging reflection on history, identity, and belonging, and urging audiences to embrace multiple truths within cultural memory.

19 / 36

Mervy C. Pueblo 

Pasalubong 06: Determination  image

Mervy C. Pueblo 

Pasalubong 06: Determination 
Dimension: 110 x 110 x 10 cm
Medium: Wall bound sculpture framed on constructedacrylic box
Country: Philippines 
Nominated by: Rica Estrada 

Mervy C. Pueblo’s practice explores the everyday, seeing it as a lens into our social fabric. Her work is not led by styles or trends but focuses on the intersubjective—the indefinable connections between people shaped by love, fear, and courage. Driven by an existential curiosity, she examines how mundane objects reflect the structures and forces that shape us, such as family, society, and government. Ultimately, she believes art is democratic: its value lies in creating dialogue, sharing the real, and fostering connections that may expand our understanding of ourselves and others. This wall-bound sculpture, inspired by the 19th-century Moro shield, reinterprets traditional Filipino artifacts with modern materials. Using cardboard as a base—a nod to balikbayan boxes—it is built from sorted and cleaned packaging materials, symbolizing items commonly sent by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to their loved ones. This piece honours both the strength of the Moro warriors and the sacrifices of today’s OFWs.

Mervy C. Pueblo is represented by Galleria Duemila.

20 / 36

Miyeon Yi 

Our dog doesn't bite  image

Miyeon Yi 

Our dog doesn’t bite 
Dimension: 91.5 x 122 x 4 cm
Medium: Egg tempera on wood panel
Country: South Korea 
Nominated by: Priscilla Kong

Miyeon Yi’s work is a nuanced exploration of human emotion and the passage of time, set within the framework of theatricality. In her paintings, she constructs intricate spaces where figures and inanimate objects exist in a delicate interplay, navigating between realms of connection and isolation. Each canvas is divided into layers, like a stage, where figures move in and out of focus, sometimes as central protagonists, other times as silent spectators in waiting. The use of space in her work reflects the tension between the personal and the performative, the internal and the external, capturing the emotional drama of human experience.

Our Dog Doesn’t Bite centers on a little boy, sheltered by the steady, protective presence of an older man, whose heavily painted hands convey warmth and strength. The dog, though harmless, disrupts the narrative by influencing the interactions of the figures on stage. Meanwhile, in the far distance, a lone crane stands in complete solitude, almost as though in a waiting room, untouched by the drama unfolding

21 / 36

Mojahid Musa 

Assimilated Musing  image

Mojahid Musa 

Assimilated Musing
Dimension: 99 x 61 x 5cm
Medium: Variety color of Clay,aluminum net, adhesive, epoxy resin
Country: Bangladesh 
Nominated by: Kehkasha Sabah

As a multi-disciplinary artist specialising in sculpture, Mojahid Musa attempts to bring out the socio-political position of the human and animal body in his works, looking beyond physical appearances through decontextualization from conventional environments. His practice draws on the rich history of clay culture, cave art, Bangladeshi traditional motifs and folk art in a way that actively connects with contemporary issues.

The animal forms depicted in this work play with notions of ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’; they also implicitly critique the position of the domestic animal as an industrial by-product of our time.

Mojahid Musa is represented by Blueprint.12.

22 / 36

Najmun Nahar Keya 

Symphony of Words  image

Najmun Nahar Keya 

Symphony of Words 
Dimension: 150x150x20 cm
Medium: Hand woven Tangail Sari (Traditional cloths), cotton, thread and nails. and a Still frame to hang the work
Country: Bangladesh 
Nominated by: Kehkasha Sabah

Najmun Nahar Keya is a multi-disciplinary artist who is curious about the dichotomy of human behaviour and society. Through her work, she reflects on past experiences and current feelings, presenting the duality of societies through elements of their history, culture, cities, and customs.

Bangla, the artist’s national language, has a rich history. For generations, it has been used in folk literature, passed down orally within illiterate communities. Later it becomes a collective product, which assumes the traditions, emotions, thoughts and values of life within those communities. For this project, Najmun Nahar Keya enlisted the help of her older sisters and other women in her hometown of Tangail to craft characters from the Bangla language using Sari textiles. When suspended, the characters form popular Bangla sayings.

23 / 36

Naveed Sadiq 

Ibadat Khana I, IV, V   image

Naveed Sadiq 

Ibadat Khana I, IV, V  
Dimension: 43 x 63.5cm
Medium: Tea stain, natural pigment and shell gold on Indian Wasli paper
Country: Pakistan 
Nominated by: Adeel uz Zafar

The work of Naveed Sadiq involves an in-depth exploration of Indo-Pak Indigenous materials. For him, the ritual of grinding of earth into pigment is a meditative process that transcends time, neither confined to the past nor the present, but rather an ongoing chant-like practice that leads to clarity and awareness. This triptych forms part of a body of work that explores a dialogue between cultural and religious practices, drawing from the rich visual and textual traditions of Indo-Persian ateliers, focused on the Mughal Fun-e-Musawari manuscripts Badshah Nama, Akbar Nama, and Ain-e-Akbari. An illustration from the Akbarnama, ca. 1605, serves as a reference for this work. The Ibādat Khāna (House of Worship), built in 1575 CE at Fatehpur Sikri, was envisioned by Akbar as a space for interfaith dialogue. Inspired by this, the work explores the idea of oneness.

Naveed Sadiq is represented by Koel Gallery.

24 / 36

Nawin Nuthong 

Crows Fountain  image

Nawin Nuthong 

Crows Fountain 
Dimension: 90 x 50 x 50cm
Medium: Epoxy clay, wood, beads and cable ties
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Sakda Chantanavanich 

Nawin Nuthong is a contemporary artist and curator exploring the connections between history and cultural media through a wide range of mediums. Melding myths and legends with pop-cultural references from video games, comics, and film, he examines the role technology plays in reconfiguring the learning and understanding of history.

Crows Fountain of conceptualizes Thai history in the form of a fountain-shaped data stream. The crows are based on a mythical crow, a fantastical element found in the Thai national history archive, linked to the early Rattanakosin period. The work also references an assemblage of a murder of crows that the artist observed around the fields at Wat Arun during the Bangkok Art Biennale in 2022, which was titled CHAOS : CALM.

Nawin Nuthong is represented by BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY

25 / 36

Ngo Dinh Bao Chau 

Diagram of the Repetition  image

Ngo Dinh Bao Chau 

Diagram of the Repetition 
Dimension: 110 x 50 x 28cm
Medium: Paper powder on silk, Wooden frame, Stainless steel
Country: Vietnam 
Nominated by: Tanya Michele Amador

Ngo Dinh Bao Chau is a visual artist who creates paintings, sculptures, and installations. Through the repurposing of familiar and mundane images and
objects, Ngo Dinh Bao Chau gently traverses the dualisms existing within Vietnam’s contemporary socio-political structure to explore the fragility of human life. The series The Landscape Within embraces the Diagram of Internal Pathways, imagining the body as a vessel encompassing the world and cosmos. The inner landscape is both a universe and a natural realm. Diagram of the Repetition focuses this vision on self-reflection, presenting an array of stylized cell patterns. Two separate paintings on the sides will stand still like lock centres, allowing viewers to walk around. The cell patterns merge to form a collective, resembling a bunch of flowers or an abstract landscape, revealing the delicate nature of human life.

Ngo Dinh Bao Chau is represented by Galerie Quynh

26 / 36

Pam Virada 

Early Spring  image

Pam Virada 

Early Spring 
Dimension: 25.5 x 10.5 x 5.5 cm
Medium: V print on stainless steel, found tray, metal, candle
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Jiradej Meemalai, Pornpilai Meemalai and Sofia Coombe 

Pam Virada’s work explores various manifestations of spatial haunting and the haunted house archetype, especially in relation to non-places and film sets, treading the lines between fiction and reality. Employing a multidisciplinary approach that combines research, practice, and intuition, she uses installations and moving images to reconfigure existing contexts and narratives. By combining ready-mades with sculptures, she creates layered environments that invite viewers to experience a blend of historical and fictional elements.

In this work, Pam Virada reflects on ideas of domesticity, together with imagery from Yasujiro Ozu’s seasonal films. Fascinated by Ozu’s portrayal of domestic drama and the complexities of Confucianist family, Virada delves into histhematic exploration of time. She repurposes a tray, originally meant for serving, transforming its function to reflect light, like the transformation and subversion of the traditional female role within the Confucian family household. The candle, in turn, re-animates the image.

Pam Virada is represented by Nova Contemporary

27 / 36

Praween Piangchoompu 

Beyond Remembrance  image

Praween Piangchoompu 

Beyond Remembrance 
Dimension: 83 x 122 x 5.5cm
Medium: Collage with cotton, paper, acrylic on canvas
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Tom Van Blarcom

Praween Piangchompu seeks to communicate poetry through the technique of tearing paper, resembling the symbolic form of a poetic scripture that encapsulates complex memories onto the canvas. His work focuses on presenting physical space in relation to emptiness, while simultaneously conveying a sense of emptiness itself. The subtlety in his use of colour creates a perception of beauty that transcends memory.

By tearing cotton fibre paper into strips and layering these onto canvas, Praween Piangchoompu gives his works a quality reminiscent of recording—a beauty beyond memory. The aesthetics of the past can be difficult to let go and thus can influence our memories. Repeated memories create images in our mind’s eye, and these images change form according to our thoughts. As the artist shares, “thoughts create time of mind, time of mind gives us experiences, and experiences induce remembrance”.

Praween Piangchoompu is represented by La Lanta Fine Art, 333 Gallery Group and M Contemporary Bangkok.

28 / 36

Tan Zi Hao 

Bags of Stories, No. 80  image

Tan Zi Hao 

Bags of Stories, No. 80 
Dimension: 68 x 150 x 9 cm
Medium: UV printing on fabric and lightbox
Country: Malaysia 
Nominated by: Sakda Chantanavanich 

Tan Zi Hao’s works cover a wide range of subjects, from translingual practices and imaginary creatures to posthuman entanglements. Dwelling on issues of ontological insecurity, his works present a deep investigation about what it means ‘to be’, both singularly and plurally, in an age of global and ecological interdependence.

The Bags of Stories series focuses on a moth larva called the household casebearer, which accrues household debris and refashions it into a fusiform case. Small in size, but not in scale, the case presents a cosmos where we are a mere speck of dust. The insect lives with fragments of our dying life, providing a prism for rethinking the human condition at the intersection of mortality, ageing, and ecology.

Tan Zi Hao is represented by A+ Works of Art

29 / 36

Viriya Chotpanyavisut 

Sudden Brightening  image

Viriya Chotpanyavisut 

Sudden Brightening 
Dimension: 100 x 67cm Edition 1 of 3 +2AP
Medium: Inkjet print on aluminium
Country: Thailand 
Nominated by: Sakda Chantanavanich 

Viriya Chotpanyavisut’s work is motivated by the desire to be ‘outside’, in contact with other species, and to engage in dialogue with them through images. Viriya arranges his works in such a way that he questions the relationship between all living beings. His deep attention towards the small things hidden in everyday life and his capacity to capture them through photography are at the heart of his practice. Through this act, he attempts to transform the appearance of obsolete objects by investing them with a certain intimacy and a newfound vitality.

Sudden Brightening is a series of ephemeral environments that show everyday objects as poetic interstices. Viriya films and photographs the natural world in its most diverse contexts: city parks, remote areas and everyday places and situations. For Viriya Chotpanyavisut, these photographs, which combine dreamt and realised images, merge the exterior and interior worlds. These images represent thoughts captured in tangible, material form.

Viriya Chotpanyavisut is represented by Gallery VER and Gilles Drouault, galerie/multiples

30 / 36

Wonchul Lee 

TIME - Time outside the clock  image

Wonchul Lee 

TIME – Time outside the clock 
Dimension: 141 x 105 x 5cm Edition 1 of 3 +2AP
Medium: Pigment print
Country: South Korea 
Nominated by: JeongMee Yoon

Wonchul Lee is a photographer whose works are characterised by combinations of objects or atmospheres with conflicting meanings. Artificial light and natural light, life and death, quantitative time and qualitative time… When these opposite states exist in one frame, it feels unrealistic, and such images create a photographic landscape that only exists in the work.

TIME is a work of trying to talk about time through the clock and drawing the existence of time out of the clock. Through long exposure, the clock hands disappear from the clock, and only the scale exists. Eliminating the time in the clock erases the uniform time (quantitative time) of modern people and emphasizes the personal time (qualitative time) beyond it. The image generated in this way appears unrealistic, becomes an opportunity to rethink the existence of time, and at the same time represents a recording of a moment, due to the nature of the photographic medium.

31 / 36

WONG Sze Wai 

Trio  image

WONG Sze Wai 

Trio 
Dimension: 120 x150 cm
Medium: Ink, water-based colour, pigments, plaster and clay on canvas
Country: Hong Kong 
Nominated by: Chloe Chow and Priscilla Kong 

Sze Wai’s art explores the intricate relationship between memory, imagination, and history, crafting spiritual landscapes that reflect personal and collective experiences. Her fascination with abandoned spaces and forgotten objects is rooted in feelings of loneliness and fear of abandonment, resonating with her exploration of hidden childhood memories. She employs ancient grotto techniques with clay, mineral pigments, and ink to convey depth and the passage of time.

Trio is inspired by the backyards of old village houses in the suburbs of Hong Kong. Greek-style sculptures transport viewers back to the past, while local plant pots, mops, and plastic chairs represent daily life in Hong Kong. Sculptures of children symbolize childhood years. When we were young, we tried hard to protect what we believed in, even if it seemed unimportant to others. Viewers are invited to explore the artwork like a journey, but in the end, it is merely a depiction of unnoticed sculptures in a backyard.

Wong Sze Wai is represented by Contemporary by Angela Li

32 / 36

Yasmin Jahan Nupur 

Light to Dark  image

Yasmin Jahan Nupur 

Light to Dark 
Dimension: 145 x 130 x 7 cm
Medium: Pencil and Graphite (on paper)
Country: Bangladesh 
Nominated by: Kehkasha Sabah and Sadya Mizan 

Yasmin Jahan Nupur is a visual and performance artist whose work is influenced by the ecological and community driven aspects of life. Depicting human relationships from various points of view, her work explores class distinctions, and the social discrepancies people face, particularly women and migrants of South Asia, in an effort to increase understanding between people of different backgrounds.

Light to Dark is inspired by the artist’s fascination with the cycles of the moon and the interaction between light, dark, and gravity in space. When light encounters a gravity well, it is ‘bent’ onto a new path. Time slows down in the presence of gravity, and the effect of time slowing bends the light. In a black hole, the gravity is so great light cannot escape. This can lead to an effect known as gravitational lensing. This work reflects the cosmological beauty and awe inspired by these natural phenomena.

Yasmin Jahan Nupur is represented by Gallery Exhibit 320.

33 / 36

Yinling Hsu 

The Eras in Bottles  image

Yinling Hsu 

The Eras in Bottles 
Dimension: 123 x 153 x 7cm
Medium: Oil on linen
Country: Taiwan 
Nominated by: Shormi Ahmed

Yinling Hsu’s chosen subject matter is human behavior, emotions, and mental states, and how these things can reflect a person’s existence in society, with every behavior being a vindication of someone’s existence. She transforms and superimposes these different states through her paintings. During her creative process, she explores the nature of humanity, and the close and alienated subtle connection between humans and their social environment.

The Eras in Bottles is a contemplation on how stressful it can feel to constantly remind yourself to relax. When creating this work, Yinling Hsu reflected on different relaxation techniques and found that they all shared the similar approach of using images to connect to the subconscious, bringing out subsequent sensory experiences to release inner stress. Through painting, the artist tries to recreate this process, reflecting on how visual images might evoke senses other than sight.

Yinling Hsu is represented by Project Fulfill Art Space.

34 / 36

Yujung Kim 

Island Swallowing the Moon, The Drifting Day   image

Yujung Kim 

Island Swallowing the Moon, The Drifting Day  
Dimension: 146 x 96 x 4cm
Medium: Fresco, Scratch on lime wall on a wooden panel
Country: South Korea 
Nominated by: Gunsoo Choi 

Through scratching frescoes and plant installations, Yujung Kim explores the complex dominant relationship between humans and nature, offering a fresh perspective on how individuals in society project themselves onto artificial representations of the natural world. Her work explores the organic relationships between plants and humans, the influence of socialized plants, and the connections between life and civilization, emphasizing perspectives on ecological solidarity and coexistence.

The scratch technique in this fresco work, which applies a layer of black pigment to a wet lime layer formed through mortar, primary lime, and final lime surfaces, involves repeated carving with a knife rather than applying color before the limestone dries. This technique allows the artist to depict psychological landscapes through the act and process of contemplation. In today’s cities, plants placed in “planteria” spaces, designed to foster a nature-friendly environment and provide comfort, are often used as visual decorations. Delicate yet resilient plants growing under artificial lighting are manifested as distinct linear fragments. Transplanted nature, thriving in artificial habitats, heals itself and extends a hand of reconciliation, nurturing a bond with humans.

35 / 36

Zelin Seah

It's just some scratches on my back  image

Zelin Seah

It’s just some scratches on my back
Dimension: 60 x 116cm
Medium: Topographic maps washed, transferred, carved and burnt with soldering iron onto aluminum
Country: Malaysia 
Nominated by: Shormi Ahmed

Zelin Seah is drawn to things in flux, finding in them a beauty marked by impermanence. He enjoys collecting topographic maps and appreciates the organic, abstract shapes of land rendered through orderly measurements and markings. His artistic process involves deliberately deconstructing maps through actions like scouring, tearing, re-splicing, burning, and carving, challenging the resilience of paper, a material derived from nature. This disintegration of the map’s original purpose reflects his ongoing concerns with land ownership and usage. These newly purchased maps of the national park and its surroundings, obtained from the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia, appear unchanged since 1993. But have the landscapes truly remained preserved, or have there been hidden changes beneath the surface? Using fine scratches and burn marks along the contour lines, he etches across industrial aluminium panels hidden beneath the maps, suggesting scars beneath the land’s surface. These marks, like traces of lost habitats, are only visible and reflective up close, mirroring how we overlook the ecological damage caused by development.

Zelin Seah is represented by Richard Koh Fine Art.

36 / 36

Zheng Mengqiang

An Afternoon in Homeland  image

Zheng Mengqiang

An Afternoon in Homeland
Dimension: 150 x 110cm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Country: China 
Nominated by: Priscilla Kong

Zheng Mengqiang is a painter whose creative inspiration stems from personal experiences, travel, music, literature, and philosophy. Evoking cinematographic scenes, his works use blocks of monochromatic colours to blend different elements, creating compositions that transform moments in time into narrative images of personal growth.

These compositions transform moments in time into narrative images of personal growth that are not about what comes next, but rather retrospective of the past. As a result, the nostalgic coastline, pink reefs, inimitable dusks and summer nights, as well as interacting human figures, all become recurring themes in the paintings.

Zheng Mengqiang is represented by HdM GALLERY.

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Thanks for voting!

Testimonials

Sameen Agha | 2024 Grand Prize Winner image
Michelle Fung | 2024 Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize Winner image
Demet | 2024 Public Vote Prize Winner image
01

Sameen Agha | 2024 Grand Prize Winner

“It is an incredible honour to be awarded The 2024 Sovereign Asian Art Grand Prize. I am thrilled and deeply grateful for this recognition. This award is a significant milestone for my career, and I am profoundly appreciative and thankful for the acknowledgment and support. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Adeel Uz Zafar for nominating me and believing in my practice. It is a huge privilege to showcase my work on the prestigious platform provided by The Sovereign Art Foundation“

02

Michelle Fung | 2024 Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize Winner

“I am absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize Winner. I would like to extend the gratitude to Kurt Chan my nominator, the Sovereign Art Foundation team and esteemed judges for understanding me. Finally, of course to Vogue who supports this prize. It’s not easy to be an artist, and it’s even more difficult to do it in a woman’s body. Thank you for recognising that”

03

Demet | 2024 Public Vote Prize Winner

“I am incredibly grateful, heartfully thankful for selecting me as a finalist and to be the recipient of the Public Vote Prize. I am forever thankful for this not only for the recognition, but also the opportunity to share my work and take part in the Sovereign Foundation’s noble cause.  To the SAF team, please continue to carry on the foundation’s objectives and goals. To the dedicated team, I really appreciate all your hard work”

Judges

David Elliott image
David Elliott
Writer, Curator and Museum Director
David Elliott image

David Elliott

Writer, Curator and Museum Director

David Elliott is a cultural and art historian, writer, curator and museum director primarily concerned with modern and contemporary art. Elliott was Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England from 1976-96, Director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden from 1996-2001, the founding Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan from 2001-06, the first Director of Istanbul Modern, Turkey in 2007 and from 2016-2019, Vice-Director and Senior Curator of the Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art in Guangzhou. From 1998-2004, he was President of CIMAM (the International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) and in 2008, the Rudolf Arnheim Guest Professor of Art History at Humboldt University, Berlin; from 2012 to 2017 he was a guest professor in curatorship at the Chinese University, Hong Kong. Since 2010. He has been the Artistic Director of biennales of contemporary art in Sydney, Kiev, Moscow and Belgrade and is currently working freelance as a writer and curator.

Billy Tang image
Billy Tang
Executive Director and Curator at Para Site, Hong Kong
Billy Tang image

Billy Tang

Executive Director and Curator at Para Site, Hong Kong
Billy Tang is Executive Director & Curator at Para Site, Hong Kong. He was previously the Senior Curator at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, and Curatorial Director at the artist-run Magician Space in Beijing. Writing contributions have appeared in ArtAsiaPacific, Leap, Spike Magazine, Terremoto, and Mousse Magazine. Photo credit: Shuwei Liu
Debbie Han image
Debbie Han
Artist
Debbie Han image

Debbie Han

Artist

Debbie Han is a transdisciplinary artist whose work encompasses a wide range of genres, methods, and forms. Han is deeply interested in human consciousness and the forces that shape human lives. Her quest after a deeper understanding of human existence has inspired her to travel to many places and produce a spectrum of artworks investigating identity, perception, and culturalization. Her recent work explores the power of human emotions as the key to grasping the interconnectedness of human existence. Han received her BA in art from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and MFA from Pratt Institute in New York.

She was the winner of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2009 and the recipient of The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2007. She was also awarded with numerous artist residencies around the world. Han’s works have been shown internationally, including seventeen solo shows in the USA, Korea, China, Germany, and Spain. Han also participated in over a hundred group exhibitions, including exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Santa Barbara Museum and the Museum of Photographic Arts in California, the Saatchi Gallery in London, and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. Han lives and works in Seoul and Los Angeles.

Marian Pastor Roces image
Marian Pastor Roces
Independent Curator, Critic, and Policy Analyst
Marian Pastor Roces image

Marian Pastor Roces

Independent Curator, Critic, and Policy Analyst

Marian Pastor Roces is an independent curator, critic, and policy analyst working from her base in Manila, Philippines. An anthology of 45 years of writing was published by the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (Manila) and Art Asia Pacific (Hongkong) in 2018. Her work in criticism notably includes a critique of biennales (in Over Here, MIT Press, and The Biennale Reader, Bergen Kunsthalle); and loss of cultural memory (in Climate, Habitats, Environments, Singapores CCA and MIT). She leads TAOINC, a corporation curating the establishment of museums, parks, publications, and cultural projects. TAOINC built 21AM, the new online museum of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Also a partner and director of Brain Trust, Inc, a sustainable development think tank, Roces  participated in writing the peace and development plan for Mindanao. She is co-editor and partner in the endeavor, Mapping Philippine Material Culture Overseas, a website that uploads museum holdings, run from SOAS, University of London.

Parul Gupta image
Parul Gupta
Artist, The 2023 Grand Prize Winner
Parul Gupta image

Parul Gupta

Artist, The 2023 Grand Prize Winner

Nominators

Afghanistan /
Baqer Ahmadi

Baqer Ahmadi

Australia/
Ross Rudesch Harley

Ross Rudesch Harley

Bangladesh/
Nadia Samdani

Nadia Samdani

Rajeeb Samdani

Rajeeb Samdani

Brunei/
Osveanne Osman

Osveanne Osman

Bhutan /
Pema Tshering
Pema Tshering image

Pema Tshering

Artist

Pema (Tintin) Tshering is an artist from Thimphu, Bhutan whose work is presented through illustration, film, graphic novels, sculpture, installation, design, and painting. Tintin is one of the founding members of Voluntary Artist Studio Thimphu (VAST) set up in 1998 in Thimphu, Bhutan, where he continues to contribute as an educator, mentor and is on the Executive board. VAST was established as the first and only contemporary art organisation which philanthropically offers informal educational programmes for young people and adults. www.pematshering.com

Cambodia /
Erin Gleeson

Erin Gleeson

China /
Gary Wai Hong Mok
Gary Wai Hong Mok image

Gary Wai Hong Mok

Curator

Mok Wai Hong, Gary was born in Hong Kong, 1977. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing with BA degree in 2007 MA degree in 2010, his works have been nominated as a finalist for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2014. In 2009, he curates opening art exhibition “Endless” for Chow Sang Sang Beijing flagship store at Sanlitun. Curating different exhibition “Today & Tomorrow”, thematic show for Art Macao 2013, Art Nova 100 HK station at K11 art mall in 2014. In 2019, 0-1 breakthrough of a collection, CP Treasure, Beijing. 2022,The outsider, Hao Museum, Shanghai. 1/X Andy Lau X Art Exhibition in 2023.

Zhenhua Li

Zhenhua Li

Zikang Zhang

Zikang Zhang

Hong Kong /
Kurt Chan
Kurt Chan image

Kurt Chan

Adjunct Professor

Prof. Kurt, Chan Yuk Keung was graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He then obtained his M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (鶴溪藝術學院), Michigan, U.S.A. Professor Chan joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1989, teaching studio courses and supervising M.F.A. students. He has retired from CUHK since 2016, and has taken the position of deputy director of Hong Kong Art School from 2019-2021.

Kurt is an artist as well as an educator, his research interests cover a wide range of topics such as Hong Kong Art, Art in public realm and mixed media, whereas the outputs mostly presented as exhibition, curatorship, and publication.

Leona Yu
Leona Yu image

Leona Yu

Curator, Modern and Hong Kong Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art

Leona Yu, graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and obtained Bachelor of Arts and a Professional Diploma in Museum Studies from Sydney University. She had joined the Leisure and Cultural Services Department since 1996 and participated in organizing numerous international and Hong Kong art exhibitions of the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Art Promotion Office. She is devoted to modern and contemporary art research, exhibition and education programme planning, as well as acquisition and collection management and is currently Curator (Modern and Hong Kong Art), Hong Kong Museum of Art.

May Fung
May Fung image

May Fung

Chair, Art and Culture Outreach

May Fung’s key achievements include:

1994 Fellowship on video art in USA granted by the Asian Cultural Centre.
1999 Fellowship for Artistic Development granted by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (mainly for development in video installation art).
3 Video works acquired by M+.
Starting curatorial work since 1990’s.
Expert Advisor to the Art Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau.
Co-opted Member to the Dance & Multi-Arts Sub-committee of the Leisure & Cultural Services Department.
Examiner for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
Chair, Art & Culture Outreach.
Engaged in art administration, education and criticism activities.

Yifawn Lee

Yifawn Lee

India /
Jeebesh Bagchi

Jeebesh Bagchi

Kriti Sood

Kriti Sood

Kurchi Dasgupta

Kurchi Dasgupta

Premjish Achari

Premjish Achari

Indonesia /
Arif Bagus Prasetyo

Arif Bagus Prasetyo

Iran/
Maryam Kuhestani
Maryam Kuhestani image

Maryam Kuhestani

Multi Media Artist and Curator

Maryam was born and raised in a remote city called Zahedan in Iran. She came to Tehran to continue her education and got a bachelor’s degree in handicrafts and a master’s degree in art research, Since 2005, she has been working professionally and continuously in the field of sculpture, specializing in ceramics. Also, since 2009, she has worked in art universities in Iran and for a while in Mazar-e-Sharif Art University in Afghanistan. She has curated several exhibitions in Iran such as Nimrouz which was about Art of Afghanistan and was the most important one among all. Her main issue in art is the human identity and nature in the contemporary world beyond gender and nation. www.maryamkouhestani.com

Japan/
Amano Taro

Amano Taro

Naoko Sumi

Naoko Sumi

Kazakhstan/
Olga Veselova
Olga Veselova image

Olga Veselova

Curator

Olga is a practicing independent curator. Her interests include socially engaged art, important socio-political issues and the development of the creative potential of the local commutions. Over the past 10 years, she has organized and conducted more than 60 exhibition projects in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, France, the UAE and the USA. Her projects include such festivals as ArtBat Fest, Urban Art Astana, Ashyk Aspan and others. An important project in the curator’s career is the educational initiative for young artists, the School of Artistic Gesture. She is currently running Art&creative Foundation. www.artandcreative.kz/en

Kyrgyzstan/
Natalia Muravjeva

Natalia Muravjeva

Laos/
Alice Kok

Alice Kok

Malaysia /
Lim Wei Ling
Lim Wei Ling image

Lim Wei Ling

Curator

A jewellery designer and art history major by training, Wei Ling has been duly recognised for her contribution and efforts towards the development of the Malaysian art scene, through numerous awards and nominations. In 2018, she was appointed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) to curate and spearhead the country’s first pavilion at ‘The 58th La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale)’.

Maldives/
Khaled Ramadan

Khaled Ramadan

Mongolia/
Gantuya Badamgarav

Gantuya Badamgarav

Tsendpurev Tsegmid

Tsendpurev Tsegmid

Myanmar/
Aung Myat Htay
Aung Myat Htay image

Aung Myat Htay

Artist, Curator

Aung Myat Htay is a Yangon based Artist, writer, Independent curator and former lecturer at National University of Art and Culture. He is an ACC grantee artist for 2014 research grant in New York and have been residency in Japan, India, Germany, Indonesia and Vietnam since 2010 to the present. He expresses social messages in contemporary sense and his works presented in several regions of Asia, Europe and US. He founded SoCA contemporary art project and published art books, art documentation series and research papers. He curated local and international art program, exhibitions and workshops actively since 2013. www.aungmyathtay.com

Sid Ksl

Sid Ksl

Nepal/
Hit Man Gurung
Hit Man Gurung image

Hit Man Gurung

Artist and Curator

Hit Man Gurung is an artist and curator based in Kathmandu by way of Lamjung. His diverse practice delves into human mobility, historical frictions, and post-revolutionary complexities. Rooted in Nepal’s recent past, Gurung’s artistic practice intricately reveals interwoven kinships and the exploitative tapestry of capitalism across geographies. His narratives powerfully depict migrant plight within a dehumanizing labor system, exacerbated by an indifferent nation-state. Intertwining Indigenous methodologies, Gurung Ingeniously reshapes contemporary artistic practice. Notably, he co-curated Kathmandu Triennale 2077 and curated the Nepal Pavilion, Venice Biennale, and ‘Garden of Ten Season’. hitmangurung.blogspot.com

Mahima Singh

Mahima Singh

Sangeeta Thapa
Sangeeta Thapa image

Sangeeta Thapa

Founder/Director

Sangeeta Thapa founded Siddhartha Art Gallery in 1987 with eminent artist Shashikala Tiwari. She has curated over 600 shows of Nepali and international artists. She regularly gives consultations to collectors of Nepali art and initiates community art projects. She served on the Board of Patan Museum for six years and is a Fellow of the De Vos Institute of Arts Management. In 2009, she launched Nepal’s premier art event The Kathmandu International Arts Festival (KIAF) as a tri-annual event. In 2011, she established the Siddhartha Arts Foundation as a non-profit and organized the second edition of the Kathmandu International Arts Festival in 2012, through the Foundation.

In 2016, Ms. Thapa co-curated the first exhibition of contemporary Nepali art at the Moesgaard Museum in Arhus, Denmark.

In 2015, the Great Earthquakes struck Nepal causing a huge loss of lives and damage to homes and heritage sites. Taking this into account the third iteration of the Festival was postponed to 2017. In 2016, the Foundation decided to morph the Festival into a Triennale format and was recognized by the Biennale Foundation in Italy. The 2017 edition was curated by Philippe Van Cauteren from the S.M.A.K. Museum in Ghent, Belgium. The 2020 edition was also postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and took place in March 2022. The edition was led by the artistic director Cosmin Constinas from Para Site Hong Kong and Nepali curators Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hitman Gurung.

In 2021 , as a precursor to to the Triennale a selection of the works were showcased at Para Site Hong Kong. Post the Triennale a selection of the works were showcased at SAAVY contemporary in Berlin. In the same year the Siddhartha Arts Foundation served as the co commissioner of the Nepal Pavilion at the Venice Biennale which featured the works of Ang Tsherin Sherpa. In December 2022 the Siddhartha Art Foundation showcased works by Nepali artists at the Kochi Biennale.

Ms. Thapa is the publisher of four volumes of poetry: Khulla Dhoka, Nirantar Khulla Dhoka, A Thousand Earths Thousand Skies, and Even the Moonlight can Burn. She has written a book on the drawings of Nepali artist Manuj Babu Mishra entitled ‘In the Eye of the Storm’ and has written essays on contemporary Nepali art in the Gallerie Magazine (India) and for the Nepal Art Now exhibition catalog printed by the Welt Museum, Vienna. She has also contributed her essays to Telling a Tale, a publication of women’s’ narratives, Nukta Art Magazine (Pakistan), and the VOW Magazine in Nepal. Ms. Thapa has been invited in the capacity of a speaker to Art Basel Hong Kong, New North-South Dialogue organized by the British Council and Manchester University in Sri Lanka, the Asian Curatorial Forum Dhaka, and to a panel on South Asian art organized by the Habiart Foundation, New Delhi.

In 2023, she received the President’s medal ‘Kala Sumbardhak Award’ for her contribution to uplifting and supporting the arts scene in the country and in the same year received the ‘Kala Prabhandak Award’ from the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts in recognition for promoting the arts of the country over 35 years.

New Zealand & Pacific/
Israel Randell

Israel Randell

Tim Etchells

Tim Etchells

Pakistan/
Amra Ali
Amra Ali image

Amra Ali

Freelance Art Critic and Curator

Amra Ali is a Karachi based art critic and curator. She has been writing reviews and essays in local and international publications on art in Pakistan since 1900. She is a co-founder of Nukta Art, a first bi annual publication on art in Pakistan. She has been the secretary of AICA Pakistan, a subsidiary of the International art critics association, Paris. Amra has many curatorial projects to her credit, among them is the mini retrospective of Rasheed Araeen, titled, ‘Homecoming Rasheed Araeen’ in 2014-15, at the VM Gallery. She has edited the publication, Rasheed Araeen, Homecoming. The emphasis of her curatorial work is to locate links between her critique viz a viz gallery spaces.

Natasha Malik

Natasha Malik

Waseem Ahmed

Waseem Ahmed

Zara Sajid

Zara Sajid

Philippines/
Cid Reyes

Cid Reyes

Rica Estrada-Uson
Rica Estrada-Uson image

Rica Estrada-Uson

Director, Visual Arts and Museum Division, Cultural Center of the Philippines
Victoria Boots Herrera

Victoria Boots Herrera

Regional/
Brian Curtin
Brian Curtin image

Brian Curtin

Art Critic and Educator

Brian Curtin is an Irish-born art critic and lecturer. From 2007-18 he worked as an independent curator of contemporary art and now works on commission. He holds a Ph.D. in studio art from the University of Bristol and has been based in Bangkok since 2000. He has lectured in art history, visual culture, and studio courses at the Faculty of Architecture of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, since 2006. Brian is one of the curatorial team for the Bangkok Art Biennale 2024. www.brianacurtin.com

Lisa Botos
Lisa Botos image

Lisa Botos

Curator and Art Advisor

Lisa Botos has built a global career delivering art and culture for diverse entities, from foundations to artists to nations, including Swire, WYNG Foundation, and the Kingdom of Bhutan. In Hong Kong, she co-founded OOI BOTOS gallery and Art Unchained. In 2013, she served as guest curator for the Vladivostok Biennale of Visual Arts. As a senior editor at TIME, Lisa led an award-winning photo department. A founding partner of the advisory Private Partners & Co., Lisa counsels families on cultural legacy. She holds an MA with honors in international communication, focusing on visual culture, from American University, and is a fellow of Hong Kong University’s ACLP and BeFantastic ArtTech. Read more here.

Sheida Ghomashchi
Sheida Ghomashchi image

Sheida Ghomashchi

Curator

Born and raised in 1980,Tehran, Iran, Sheida Ghomashchi works as an independent curator in Milan, Italy. She has been part of various projects including: Co-curator of “Dixit Algorizmi, The Garden of Knowledge”, the fisrt natioonal pavilion of Uzbekistan in Venice Biennale of Art, 2022.

Co- Curator of “ Dixit Algorizmi”, International exhibition, CCA, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2021. Fellow at Floating University, Forensic Architecture Group, Berlin, Germany. Curator of “Archive Alive!”, Exhibition of Ramak Fazel, Kandovan, Pejman Foundation, Tehran, Iran. Fellow of “Ideas City – Detroit”, New Museum of New York, USA. Researcher in Urban Research program, BAUHAUS, Dessau, Germany.

Tanya Michele Amador
Tanya Michele Amador image

Tanya Michele Amador

Curator and Writer

Tanya is the co-founder of the website ArtWorldDatabase.com, a website dedicated to promoting and supporting Southeast Asian contemporary art. Before moving to London in 2020, she lived and worked in Singapore for 11 years where worked as an independent curator and published art writer. She holds a Masters degree from Goldsmiths University of London in Asian Art Histories and is dedicated to working with artists living in the diaspora and presenting curatorial projects as part of the Peruke Projects team. www.artworlddatabase.com

Singapore/
Daryl Goh
Daryl Goh image

Daryl Goh

Entrepreneur

Daryl Goh is a startup-advisor, angel investor and art critic/collector who holds 2 Masters Degrees and authored Design Innovation for Everyone (2023). Daryl is also the designer behind Asia’s first-ever phy-gital retail experience – Zhuang: Home of Singapore Designers that kickstarted an industry trend towards digital retail spaces. The technopreneurship & fashion scholar previously started Singapore’s first free art residency, NPE Art Residency and has judged for multiple prominent art awards. www.darylgoh.com

South Korea/
Gun Soo Choi
Gun Soo Choi image

Gun Soo Choi

Photographer, Image Critic and Professor

For 40 years, Gun Soo Choi has been an image critic, photographer, and university professor. he has published 12 photographic books and held 10 individual exhibitions.

JeongMee Yoon
JeongMee Yoon image

JeongMee Yoon

Professor, Artist, photographer

Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1969, she majored in painting at Seoul National University, Seoul, photography design at Hongik University, Seoul, and studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York, USA.

Her work had been featured in LIFE Magazine cover (2007), New York Times (2008), National Geographic (2017). Her works are the collections of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Santa Barbara Museum or Art, and Philadelphia Museum of Art etc.

www.jeongmeeyoon.com

Yoonsub Kim

Yoonsub Kim

Sri Lanka/
Alnoor Mitha

Alnoor Mitha

Annoushka Hempel

Annoushka Hempel

Godwin Constantine
Godwin Constantine image

Godwin Constantine

Professor

Godwin Constantine is a professor and Chairman of the Theertha International Artists Collective.

Taiwan/
Nobuo Takamori
Nobuo Takamori image

Nobuo Takamori

Independent Curator
Thailand/
Tom Van Blarcom

Tom Van Blarcom

Uzbekistan/
Vietnam/
Le Ngoc Thanh and Le Duc Hai

Le Ngoc Thanh and Le Duc Hai

Thuy Quynh Nguyen

Thuy Quynh Nguyen