Justin Hui
“Decoding Visual Structures in Photography”
Justin Hui is an architect and artist based in Hong Kong. His work examines places shaped by the effects of globalization, focusing on themes around urbanisation, absence, memory, phenomenology, identity, and recontextualisation. Ongoing works include ‘Searching for Poon‘, which retraces his grandmother’s journey from mainland China into Hong Kong, imagining her past in present-day Hong Kong as she struggles with dementia; ‘New Territories‘ explores the changing landscape of Hong Kong’s northern frontier, caught between its past and ongoing integration with mainland China. Past works include Urban Africa, Made in China, which examines Chinese development throughout Africa and its impact on Africa’s urban future. He is a licensed architect who worked at Herzog & de Meuron and Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and holds a B.Arch from Cornell University.
Minyoung Kang
“Beyond the Human”
Minyoung Kang records psychological insights into human life through combining visual images and text. She works on printmaking, photography, video and theory. Recently, as an extension of philosophical questions about humanity, she intends to expand by examining the definition of the concept of Human in the ‘Post-human’ era. In this conference, <Water, Eye of the Mind series, 心眼圖帖 – 水> a work reflecting on nature, will be revealed in a meditative way, showing the process by which a person who has suffered an inner loss gradually realizes the concept of ‘Non-action,無爲’.
Eli Kessler
“Apparatus and Uncertainty”
Eli Kessler approaches art-making as a way to examine particular artifacts, rituals, and cultural phenomena. Within Kessler’s artwork, materials and iconography are cut up, rematerialized, and arranged to find meaning. The resulting artwork addresses the psychological implications within complex social structures and offers a glimpse into ideological beliefs throughout time. Kessler’s recent work analyzes existence within a world of hyper-digital industrialization and ecological uncertainty. The work reimagines obscure folk art through the utilization of rapid prototyping, ventures into expressive material abstraction, and experiments with video and perceptual distortion. Processes such as metal fabrication, woodworking, casting, video, and digital fabrication techniques are combined, intermixing history and materiality. Kessler’s work has been on view in Cleveland, OH, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Indiana, PA, Richmond, VA, Newton, MA, Tyler, TX, Washington D.C., New York, NY, Venice, Italy, and South Korea. Eli earned a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and an MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University. Eli Kessler is currently an Assistant Professor in Sculpture and Expanded Media at Kent State University.
Minu Kim
“목격된 징후들 : 환경과 내러티브 / Witnessed Symptoms : Environment and Narrative”
Minu Kim graduated from the Department of Art and Design, Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 2014. In 2021 he took Painting Class by Prof. Anne Berning in Mainz Kunsthochschule, Fine Art and is a Diploma Graduate.
Minu Kim participated in many exhibitions including “<Buy Young Art> Art Fair Season 3”, Chungmu Art Hall, Seoul (2014), ”This is journey to…”, project exhibition, Caos Art Gallery, Venice, Italy (2016), “Ach!”, group exhibition, Kunsthaus Frankenthal, Frankenthal, Germany (2017) and “Start55”, Gopea-Kunstraum, Bad Bentheim, Germany (2021). He was awarded “Hyundai Asan Mural Contest” (project planner), Seoul, Korea in 2012. He took part in “SSAZEAL”, street art <Project Dummy>, <Memorial for Trash> as team leader and planner in 2012 and participated in making “Plastic Book”, co-authored art magazine ‘Plastic Book’, material exhibition, Korea University Pavilion, Seoul in 2014.
Joella Kiu
“Carrying Fire: Artist-Collectives as Praxis and Response to Ecological Emergencies”
Joella Kiu is a curator, editor, and art historian whose practice examines contemporary art making processes and ecologies in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Joella is currently Assistant Curator at the Singapore Art Museum, and Editor of Object Lessons Space. She is also the host of Mushroomed, a visual arts podcast produced by Singapore Community Radio. Joella holds an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a BA from the University of York.
Eric T. Kunsman
“Felicific Calculus: Technology as a Social Marker of Race, Class, & Economics in Rochester, NY”
Eric T. Kunsman (b. 1975) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is an educator at the Rochester Institute of Technology for the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences. Eric was named one of 10 B&W photographers to watch of 2018 by BW Gallerist, B&W Best Photographers of the Year 2019 by Dodho Magazine, and won the Association of Photography (UK) Gold Award for Open Series in 2019, Finalist, Top 200 for Critical Mass in 2019, 2020, & 2021, Top 15 Photographers for the Rust Belt Biennial. His project Felicific Calculus was also awarded a Warhol Foundations Grant through CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY. Eric has held 39 solo exhibitions and counting. At this point, his work has been exhibited in over 250 galleries and museums and featured in Bloomberg Business Week, Dodho Magazine, Dek Unu, All About Photo, and LensWork.
Wenwen Liu
“How art as a vehicle for ideas-based ideologies, can facilitate the understanding of climate change and help people explore a speculative and sustainable future“
Wenwen Liu finished her bachelor’s degree at Huber University of Economics (2013-2017) in China and her master’s degree at Teesside University (2017-2018) in the UK. At present, she is doing her PhD study at Teesside University. Her work involves data visualization, digital art, concept art and game design.
Alex Manea
“Art I Can’t Afford”
Alex Manea (Romania, 1988), a visual artist from Bucharest, Romania is working and experimenting on different media: painting, drawing, sculpture, installations, found objects, photography.
Maria Petroff
“Art and the Decline of Capitalism: Artist as a storyteller”
I am a self-taught contemporary artist who is inspired by big Masters of social realism while developing my own style. Originally from Moscow, Russia I moved to Montreal, Canada in 2009. The artistic flair of the “North American Montmartre” made me turn my lifelong passion into a career.
I like to paint people who marked our history whether they are politicians, scientists, artists, philosophers or even fictional characters. I believe that realistic portraiture allows one to show the character’s feelings and emotions in the most efficient way. Most of my paintings are spiced up with light humor with no intention to offend anyone. Large scale scene paintings are my favorite.
Miki SASAKI
“Rethinking the versification of Visual Poetry Though the practice of ‘Plastic Word Dictionary’.”
Miki SASAKI is a a poet born in Miyagi, Japan in 1992. Enrolled in a PhD program at Akita University of Art, Researcher at Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences.
Using Visual Research methods based on a sociological point of view, Miki explores the emotions and memories inherent in each individual and through the accumulation of fragments that evoke these emotions and memories.
And then, Miki attempts to explore the common and dissimilar “Poetic Imagery” that permeates in today’s society.
Jinsik Shin
“Records of Regression”
“Say it”
Since the 1980s, Jinsik Shin has been presenting works containing social remarks through various media such as computer art, interactive art, video art, performance, TV broadcasting, and advertisement. In 1985, he opened Korea’s first solo exhibitions of new media art, Computer Art Performance and Interactive Art, and received favorable reviews. In 1991, he formed ‘Art Tech’ with Kim Jae-kwon and Kang Sang-joong to explore various media experiments. After moving to New York in 1993, he worked as a TV producer and documentary director in addition to producing works. The main characteristic of his work is that the latest equipment and technologies he encountered at this time naturally permeate his work. He has presented a number of exhibitions and performance performances at home and abroad. Representative exhibitions include 《Art and Technology》 held at the Seoul Arts Center in 1991, 《Science + Art》 held at the Korea Science Promotion Foundation in 1992 and 1994, and Nam June Paik’s 《Seoul Nymax》 (1994). Representative exhibitions include 《Art and Technology》 held at the Seoul Arts Center in 1991, 《Science + Art》 held at the Korea Science Promotion Foundation in 1992 and 1994, and 《Seoul Nymax》 (1994) is curated by the video artist Nam June Paik. In 1995, he received the Excellence Award (Director Award) in the TV category at the KBS World Korean Broadcasters Competition and the MNN Award given to a TV producer by the Manhattan Neighborhood Network in New York City in 2000.
Rio Ahn
“Healing That Comes from Colors and Flows”
Rio Ahn is a painter and illustrator based in South Korea. She focuses on the relation of people, nature and thought, and expresses that with various colors and flows in her paintings and ink drawings, which has a mysterious yet tranquil and inspirational vibe. She has presented her works in art galleries, produced art calendars in collaboration for every 14 years and done artworks for art products collaboration, picture books and editorial works. She got her B.A in Visual Design at Seoul national University in Seoul, Korea, M.A in communication Design at Kingston University in London, U.K and got a curator certification from National museum of Korea. She taught chromatics, illustration, and visual design as a professor in Sejong, Sungshin and Suwon universities.
Kyle Yip
“Renaissance Show”
Kyle Yip is a Canadian, JUNO Award-Nominated hyper surrealist artist internationally recognized for his highly accurate creations of original visual art, electronic music, and films from his dreams. Since a 2006 Arts York Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition at Frederick Varley’s residence, Yip’s work has been widely exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions.
Yip accepted the Artist of the Year Finalist Award and Honorable Mention Award from the Circle Foundation for the Arts in 2019. He also received nominations for Keepin’ It Weird from the Austin Music Video Festival and Best Cinematography from the Kinsale Shark Awards alongside artists such as Prince and The Chemical Brothers. In 2021 he received a four-page publication in RICE Contemporary Art Magazine Vol. 2 alongside artists such as Marina Abramović, was nominated for Best of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles 2021, was awarded 1st Prize at The Holy Art INFINITY group exhibition in London, and published a two-page article in Al-Tiba9 Magazine ISSUE09.
Junghye Yun
“A Floating Journey”
Junghye Yun is an artist who works with sculptures, painting, and video. Yun explores the impact of the discarded plastic disposable materials upon human relations and the natural environment with political ecology. Junghye uses plastic trash – the main culprit of environmental pollution – to point to values of capitalism and materialism that inform contemporary society and harm the natural environment. Plastics collected by the artist are transformed and re-presented with the beauty of a new form of sculpture that has never been seen before. Junghye’s experimental working process draws on the conflicting symbols of abandonment and recycling, danger and beauty. Junghye uses the sculpture works to create a light- based installation in which cast shadow and the light reflected in the coloured plastic sculpture. Yun has exhibited at Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (2017); Gallery GAIA, S. Korea(2013); Is Gallery, S. Korea (2014) and participated in several international art fairs including the New York Art Hampton Art Fair, New York (2016); Art Gwangju Fair, S. Korea (2015); and Seoul Art Fair, S. Korea (2015). Yun’s work is represented in the art collection of the Hangyang University Medical Center in S. Korea.