Co-presented with Asia Art Archive, this event brings together researchers and curators to highlight the contributions of women and women-identified artists of Southeast Asia.

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 female and femme-identified artists by publishing research and biographies on women artists, identifying relevant archives, and organising events that highlight their contributions.

Practical information

Saturday, 23 September 2023, from 2.00 – 5.00 PM
CCG Library, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong

Free and open to the public with registration.

Video documentation available here.