Sydney Asian Art Series 2024 Cūra: collection, community, care

The Sydney Asian Art Series invites leading researchers from across the world to share their work on a critical issue in early, modern and contemporary Asian art. 

Entitled Cūra: collection, community, care, from 2023 to 2025, the annual series will gather leading scholars on collecting histories, object provenance, shifting notions of custodianship, and the role of researchers and curators as agents of care for artworks and their communities.  

The 2024 series focuses on ‘community’ in Asian art history.

In the study of Asian art history, much attention has been paid to the impact of art associations and patronage circles on the development of art movements, and the periodisation of styles and concepts. Four lectures by scholars May Adadol Ingawanij, Justin Jesty, Jung Joon Lee and Thanavi Chotpradit will consider communities spanning gender, race and ideological differences, in Southeast Asian moving image practices, socially engaged art initiatives in contemporary Japan, photography and race in postwar Korean camptowns, as well as art collectives and workers’ unions in Thailand. While global connectedness might foster the mainstreaming of creative practices, the research of these scholars instead considers communities that exceed or evade the contours of nations, regions or language groups, often advocating for new ways of making and seeing.

The Sydney Asian Art Series is convened by art historians Dr Olivier Krischer and Dr Yvonne Low. The series is co-presented by The Power Institute and VisAsia, with support from the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

More information on this year’s series and scholars (including scholar-in-residence Thanavi Chotpradit), and recordings of previous lectures, are available on the Sydney Asian Art Series website