Maverick Practices in Asian Art

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

[View program on CAEA's website]

The Center for the Art of East Asia in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago will host a forthcoming symposium titled Maverick Practices in Asian Art: Artists, Curators, and Scholars Breaching the Boundaries. Maverick Practices in Asian Art will feature project-based artist talks and panel discussions aimed at underscoring innovative insights and methodologies that are actively reframing the field of contemporary Asian art. Organized in collaboration with internet based PoNJA-GenKon (Post-1945 Japanese Art Discussion Group/Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai), Maverick Practices in Asian Art emphasizes unconventional approaches in both scholarship and curatorial work relating to modern and contemporary art from Asia and its diasporas. While such terms as “interdisciplinary” and “transdisciplinary” may objectively describe these disparate approaches, the word “maverick” aptly captures the symposium’s collective spirit of breaching traditional boundaries. The symposium draws upon four key themes that signal important new directions in contemporary Asian curatorial and art historical studies, including: Conceptualism in Global Asia; Contemporary Asian Diasporas; Materiality in Modern and Contemporary Asian Art; and Curating Community: Decentralized Contemporary Art Spaces.

Maverick Practices in Asian Art: Artists, Curators, and Scholars Breaching the Boundaries also hopes to honor the memory of University of Chicago PhD student Alan Longino, a fearless practitioner of modern and contemporary art history and exhibition making whose maverick spirit and intellectual legacy lives on through the work of his contemporaries.

SPONSORS

This program is made possible thanks to generous support from Stephen Cheng, the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies (through funding from a Title VI National Resource Center Grant, U.S. Department of Education), The Franke Institute for the Humanities, donations made in memory of Alan Longino, and PoNJA-GenKon. Promotional sponsors include The Visual Resources Center at the University of Chicago and UChicago’s Committee on Southern Asian Studies.

Image credit: © Tomorrow Girls Troop

Info: "On Kawara and Matsuzawa Yutaka: Two Mavericks of Conceptualism," Anne Rorimer (Independent Scholar and Curator), in conversation with Reiko Tomii (Historian and Curator), moderated by Martha Joseph (Associate Curator of Media and Performance at The Museum of Modern Art)

Info: Go Calmly Across this Room: In Memory, an exhibition in honor of Alan Longino, curated by Lex Ladge (PhD Candidate in Art History, University of Chicago), Cybele Tom (PhD Candidate in Art History, University of Chicago),  and Trevor Brandt (PhD Student in Art History, University of Chicago) | Drifting Timelines 流动时序, Curated by Heather Kim (Undergraduate Student in Art History, University of Chicago)

Info: Presentations by Tomorrow Girls Troop and Ei Arakawa-Nash 

Info: Panelists: Nina Horisaki-Christens (Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles), Chaeeun Lee (PhD candidate in Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center), Soyoon Ryu  (PhD candidate in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)

Info: Panelists: Leo Genjiro Amino (PhD Candidate in English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University), Baseera Khan (Contemporary artist), Tie Jojima (Curator of Global Contemporary Art, The Phillips Collection)

Info: Panelists: Ignacio Adriasola (Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, The University of British Columbia), Orianna Cacchione (Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions, University of Richmond Art Museum), Joyce Chung (Curator, Asian Arts Initiative)

Host or Publisher Center for the Art of East Asia