Co-presented with AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions, this event brings together researchers and curators to highlight the contributions of women and femme-identified artists of Southeast Asia.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Eileen Legaspi Ramirez will be unable to attend the event as planned.
In the first panel, Sarena Abdullah, Pamela Nguyen Corey, Chương-Đài Võ, and Wong Binghao share their experiences researching specific artists, highlighting methodological challenges in their research and teaching. In the second panel, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, Yvonne Low, and Grace Samboh explore art exhibitions and projects as vehicles for increasing the visibility of women artists in Southeast Asia, including a wave of group shows that emerged following the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
The panels are part of “The Flow of History: Southeast Asian Women Artists,” a research programme led by AWARE with Asia Art Archive, which highlights the work of women artists of Southeast Asia from the eighteenth century to today. Inspired by Indonesian poet Toeti Heraty (1933–2021)—who in “The Portrait of a Woman 1938” signalled the important work of memory—the project poses transversal historical questions when considering gender issues in the biographies and practices of women artists in Southeast Asia born between 1700 and 1973, embracing the diversity of the region and its particular sociopolitical dynamics during such pivotal stages as decolonisation. AWARE and Asia Art Archive are working with an advisory committee—whose members will be the speakers of this first event—to increase the visibility of women and femme-identified artists by publishing research and biographies on women artists, identifying relevant archives, and organising events that highlight their contributions.
Free and open to the public with registration.
Panel #1 | 2–3:30pm HKT
Speakers: Sarena Abdullah, Pamela Nguyen Corey, Chương-Đài Võ, and Wong Binghao
Moderator: Nina Volz (AWARE)
Panel #2 | 3:45–5pm HKT
Speakers: Gridthiya Gaweewong, Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, Yvonne Low, and Grace Samboh
Moderator: John Tain (AAA)
Sarena Abdullah is Associate Professor of Art History at the School of The Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
Gridthiya Gaweewong is Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, and co-artistic director of Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai 2023.
Eileen Legaspi Ramirez is Associate Professor in the Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines Diliman.
Yvonne Low is Lecturer in the Discipline of Art History and Museum Studies, University of Sydney. Her current projects include The Womanifesto Way, a digital publication and exhibition, and the Artists Trajectories Map (ArTM).
Pamela Nguyen Corey is Associate Professor of Art History in the Faculty of Art & Media Studies, Fulbright University Vietnam.
Grace Samboh is a researcher, curator, and a member of Hyphen—.
Chương-Đài Võ is a researcher, curator, and former Researcher for Southeast Asia at Asia Art Archive.
Wong Binghao is a writer, editor, and curator.
AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions is a non-profit organisation founded in 2014. Faced with the under-representation of women in the art world, AWARE’s aim is to balance out the presence of these women artists, these “forgotten figures of art history,” in order to improve their visibility through the sharing of free access resources.
