Latest news with #HoTzuNyen
South China Morning Post
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Your perfect week: what to do in Hong Kong, May 25-31
The Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival returns for its second edition at M+ from May 30 to June 1, celebrating independent filmmakers and artists who have influenced the Asian artistic landscape. Focusing on this year's theme of 'Time Will Tell', highlights include screenings of works by May Fung, Ho Tzu Nyen and Tehching Hsieh , alongside exhibitions, talks and performances exploring how artists conceptualise the passage of time.
Straits Times
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
S'pore artist Ho Tzu Nyen among medallists for inaugural Art Basel Awards, could get major commission
SINGAPORE – Singapore artist Ho Tzu Nyen, whose video work was the centrepiece during Hong Kong art week in March, is one of six medallists in the established artist category at the inaugural Art Basel Awards. The 49-year-old shares the honour with other globally acclaimed mid-career artists including Chinese Cao Fei and Ghanaian Ibrahim Mahama, on the list posted on Art Basel's website on May 16. The recognition puts him in line to potentially receive a major commission from Art Basel come December, when a shorter list of Gold medallists is due to be announced in Miami. He told The Straits Times: 'I've been very busy preparing a new work at the LUMA Foundation in Arles this Summer, so this hasn't quite sunk in in its entirety. But one thing I felt for sure was that I'm grateful to be in such great company, and can't wait to meet and learn about the other artists and medallists.' The first edition of the Art Basel Awards – the details of which were first made known in February – is a two-round affair. This first longlist comprises a total of 36 medallists – six established artists, six 'icon' artists, six emerging artists, three 'cross-disciplinary creators', three patrons, three museums and institutions, three curators, three members of the media and 'storytellers' and three 'allies'. They were selected by a nine-member international jury of art directors and curators including Venice Biennale curator Adriano Pedrosa and Sharjah Art Foundation president Hoor Al-Qasimi, and chaired by Mr Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel's director of fairs and exhibition platforms. The December shortlist of 12 Gold medallists will be decided by the medallists themselves after a process of peer review and voting. The diverse categories seek to honour achievers in the entire art ecosystem, and comes with networking, partnership and other support opportunities that will tap on Art Basel's global access through their annual fairs in Basel, Miami, Paris and Hong Kong. Ho, who has also been appointed artistic director of the 16th edition of the Gwangju Biennale opening in September 2026, acknowledged that 2025 has been 'a special year, with many new pathways, new perspectives, new adventures and new friends'. He is already one of Singapore's biggest names in Asia and globally, scoring a string of significant achievements of late, including a solo show at the Singapore Art Museum that has toured Seoul and New York and winning the 2024 Chanel Next Prize that comes with a cheque for €100,000 (S$146,000). Ho's works are known for combining archival images, animation and film to create immersive and theatre experiences that weave together documentary research and fantasy. They are eclectic in their reach for both Western and Eastern references, in fields from cinema to philosophy and music. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Three Singapore artists earn posts at major international arts bodies
(From left) Ho Tzu Nyen, Ming Wong and Tang Fu Kuen have landed high-profile engagements in the international contemporary art scene. PHOTOS: SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM, THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON, THOR BRODRESKIFT SINGAPORE - A trio of Singaporean artists have landed high-profile engagements in the international contemporary art scene. Artist Ho Tzu Nyen has been appointed artistic director of the 16th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, to be held in the South Korean city in September and November 2026. The renowned contemporary arts event is the oldest biennale in Asia, founded in 1995. Ho, who participated in the 2018 edition and made a commissioned work for the 2021 edition, told The Straits Times that the appointment 'is a great honour and a great adventure'. The 49-year-old, who represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and received a large-scale survey solo at the Singapore Art Museum in 2023, added: 'I hope to be able to give something back to this speciality which has contributed so much to both the history of democratic struggles in Asia, and also to the spirit of artistic enquiry and experimentation.' His appointment was announced on Apr 23 by acting president Lee Sang-Gap of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. In a statement, the foundation cited Ho's research-based practice and engagement with Asian historical narratives as key factors in his selection. On the other side of the world, multidisciplinary artist Ming Wong started his stint as The National Gallery's first Singaporean artist-in-residence in March. The year-long residency at the London institution, in its fifth iteration, offers artists access to a studio as well as the Gallery's staff and collections. His work will also be displayed at the museum and a work produced during the residency will be acquired. The 53-year-old said in a statement: 'It's such an exciting time to be granted this opportunity to re-navigate myself in the journeys of European art as the National Gallery celebrates 200 years with a rehang of its collection. 'There isn't a better time to reimagine the stories that these characters and creatures inhabiting these worlds can tell one another, and their exchanges that cross centuries and civilisations beyond the frames.' Dramaturg and curator Tang Fu Kuen, 52, is one of the international judges for the Taishin Art Awards. The biggest contemporary art prize in Taiwan, sponsored by Taishin Bank, offers a NT$1.5 million (S$64,382.34) grand prize and an additional NT$1 million each for the visual arts and performing arts categories. Mr Tang said he and fellow judges are poring over submissions for the prize, due to be announced via livestream on May 24: 'We have three intense days of being locked up in the hotel to debate and give points.' The first foreigner to helm the Taipei Arts Festival in 2017, Mr Tang has served on multiple international art juries but he noted the rigour of the judging process in Taiwan: 'The accountability and transparency is insane. It's like sitting for exams!' He added: 'To return to Taiwan in this capacity is special to me. As I've oft-shared, Taiwan is the only truly horizontal society I've experienced where never once, in my years directing Taipei Arts Festival, was I asked to defend the function of art in society, or to define what contemporary art is/could be. 'It takes relentless work and years of many organisations and governance - including the high recognition conferred by Taishin Art Prize - for art to arrive at such an enlightened and celebrated level, to such an enlightened society.' Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
South China Morning Post
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Beyond Art Basel Hong Kong: free events at M+, Tai Kwun, HKCEC and Eaton HK
March is Arts Month in Hong Kong, the city drawing in the global art crowd with its most important art fairs of the year. But as we all know, art is not confined to just gallery walls and exhibition halls. From Art Basel Hong Kong's public programme to satellite installations across the city, there are plenty of other art-related events that are, best of all, freely accessible to the public. Here are just a few of the highlights. Art Basel public programme Going well beyond the show floor, Art Basel Hong Kong includes a curated schedule of film screenings, panel discussions, experimental presentations and off-site installations that are open to all, as well as the highly visible M+ digital facade that lights up the city by night. Advertisement Curated for the first time by local independent art institution Para Site – and presented in collaboration with cultural video channel Nowness Asia, as well as Videotage, a non-profit organisation dedicated to video art – this year's Art Basel Hong Kong Film programme features seven screenings and the works of 30 artists. Screenings take place throughout the week at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Themes include ecological interdependence, resilience amid societal constraints, human desire, and the technology shaping our interconnected lives. For lively debates on the key topics shaping the art world today, don't miss Art Basel Hong Kong's flagship talks programme, Conversations. Curated by Stephanie Bailey, series highlights include how arts patronage is evolving in Southeast Asia, the role of tech and AI in the art world, and an exclusive talk with Ho Tzu Nyen, the artist behind this year's M+ Facade commission. All talks will be conducted in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, with simultaneous translation available. On the move? Drop by Exchange Circle at Art Basel Hong Kong, located at HKCEC's Level 1 Concourse, for short and experimental presentations including artist talks, discussions, lectures, signings and workshops. Or take a break from shopping at Pacific Place at the off-site Encounters installation – a blend of sculpture and performance art inspired by metamorphosis called Lanternfly Ballet, by Zurich-based artist Monster Chetwynd. M+ and Tai Kwun M+ museum of visual arts will highlight film during Art Month. Photo: M+ Over in West Kowloon, the M+ Facade will showcase Night Charades by Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen every night from Saturday, March 22, for three months. Co-commissioned by Art Basel and M+, the work pays tribute to the golden age of Hong Kong cinema and will be continuously edited in real time by an AI algorithm. In addition, M+ will screen five of Ho's most seminal films during the month of March.
