2017 Asia Arts Game Changer Awards Honourees
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s singular practice spans the mediums of photography, sculpture, installation, and architecture. His art deals with history and temporal existence through a variety of subject matter issues surrounding time, empiricism, and metaphysics that bridge Eastern and Western ideologies while examining the nature of time, perception, and the origins of consciousness. The artist was born in 1948 in Tokyo, Japan, and lives and works in Tokyo and New York. In 2011, he published Sense of Space, a reflection on international museum spaces from an artist’s perspective. Sugimoto’s work has been presented in numerous international solo and group exhibitions among them The J. Paul Getty Museum (2014); 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010); Yokohama Triennale (2001); 3rd Biennale d’art contemporain de Lyon (1995); and Carnegie International (1991). His work is in the collections of institutions including the Tate Modern, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; andThe Museum of Modern Art, New York. The artist received the Order of Arts and Letters (2013) from the French government; the Premium Imperiale Painting Award (2009) from the Japan Arts Association; the Photo España (2006); and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award inPhotography (2001).
Hon Chi Fun
Hon Chi Fun is one of Hong Kong’s most respected visual artists who is best known for his abstract paintings. Hon started to paint abstract paintings in 1960 and organized his first solo show at Chatham Galleries. He co-founded the Circle Art Group in 1965 and produced his first edition of serigraphic prints in 1966. He was amongst the first in Hong Kong to be awarded a John D. Rockefeller 3rdFund Fellowship by John D. Rockefeller 3rdFoundation—the predecessor organization of the Asian Cultural Council—in 1968. He was represented by Willard Gallery in New York. He traveled extensively from the late 60’s to the late 80’s and held a solo show at the Fung Ping Shan Museum (now known as the University Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Hong Kong) in 1988. The Documentary video ‘Hon’s Orbit’ introducing his work was produced by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1989. Hon moved to Canada in 1992 and returned to Hong Kong in 2000. In spite of an untimely stroke in 2000, another documentary video, ‘Hon’s Art of Serigraphy,’ was produced by the Heritage Museum. At the same time, the book on Hon’s art, “Space and Passion: The Art of Hon Chi Fun”, was published by Choi Yan Chi. Hon continued to paint and practice calligraphy whilst marching to the age of 90. In 2013, Hon received the Medal of Honor from the Hong Kong SAR Government in recognition of his outstanding artistic achievements.
Kimsooja
Kimsooja is an internationally acclaimed multimedia artist whose videos, installations, and performances poignantly address issues relating to culture, politics, history, and identity, especially with regard to the displaced self. The artist’s conceptual, aesthetic, and structural investigations of performance through immobility in her practice inverts the notion of the artist as the predominant auteur. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2016); Centre Pompidou-Metz (2015); Reina Sophia, Madrid (2006); MoMA PS1, New York (2001); 24th São Paulo Biennial (1998); the 48th, 49th, 51st and 52nd Venice Biennales. In 2013 she represented Korea at the 55th Venice Biennale.
Rashid Rana
Rashid Rana is known for his conceptual sculptures, videos, and photo composite collages that provocatively deconstruct social histories and cultural disjunctions to reflect the duality of our time. He has participated in major exhibitions including My East is Your West, a collateral event at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi (2013); Cornerhouse, Manchester (2011); Asia Society Museum, New York (2009); and Musée Guimet, Paris (2010) among others. Rana was recently appointed the artistic director of the 2017 Lahore Biennale. He is also the founding faculty member and current Dean of the School of Visual Arts and Design at the Beacon house National University in Lahore.