Hou Hanru - 2011
Hou Hanru is currently the Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of Exhibition and Museum Studies, San Francisco Art Institute. Born in 1963, Guangzhou, China, Hou Hanru graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 1985 (BA) and 1988 (MA). He lived and worked in Paris, France as an art critic and curator from 1990 - 2005. Since then, Hou Hanru has been based out of San Francisco.
As an art and culture critic and curator, Hou Hanru has focused on the dynamic relationship between art, architecture, urbanism and social change in the age of globalisation. Collaborating closely with professionals and the public from various domains, his curatorial and writing projects are highly experimental and propose new understandings of the tension and interactions between global and local, between past, present and future, in order to envision new conditions for cultural production.
Hou Hanru has lectured in numerous international institutions and served on international juries of art and architecture awards. His international credits are extensive and varied. He has served as Advisor (professor) at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands, as a visiting Professor, HISK, Antwerp/Ghent, Belgium, a member of the Asian Art Council, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York, a member of International committees for Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Culture Foundation, Turkey, the Deutsche Bank Collection, and the Yokohama Triennial, Japan Foundation, among others. He has also served as a contributor and guest editor for several magazines, such as Flash Art International, Urban China, Yishu, and Art Asia Pacific. He is a frequent contributor to exhibition catalogues, art and architecture magazines and books. Hou Hanru's book,On The Mid-Ground, was published by Timezone 8, Beijing-Hong Kong, in 2002.
Hou Hanru received the honours of Chévalier des ordres des arts et des lettres of the French Cultural Ministry, 2008.
Lecture - Exhibitions: Making Places
For the past several decades, exhibition curating has become a central component in the system of art production and distribution. With the growth of biennials, contemporary art museums, and public interventions, and their proliferation across the globe, curatorial practices are going through intense processes of experimentation and innovation. Exhibitions are not only expanding to accommodate creative activity from all around the world, they are also turning into sites of production new artistic visions, concept forms and social relationships. Ultimately, they are a driving force in the making of new cultural localities in the age of globalisation. Lecture currently unavailable
MFA Grad Seminar
