- Co-opted Member of M+ Acquisitions Committee
Dr Koon Yee-wan is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Hong Kong where she teaches courses in Chinese and Japanese art history.
She has published numerous writings on both traditional and contemporary art including two book length studies: Nara Yoshitomo (Phaidon, 2020) and A Defiant Brush: Su Renshan and the Politics of Painting in Early 19th Century Guangdong (University of Hawaii Press, 2014). She is the recipient of several research awards including a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies scholarship in Humanities, and completed scholarships as visiting professor at Cambridge University, UK and Columbia University, NY.
In 2014, Dr Koon guest curated It Begins with Metamorphosis: Xu Bing at the Asia Society, Hong Kong Centre, and was one of the selected curators for the 12th Gwangju Biennale in 2018. In June 2021, she curated So long, thanks again for the fish!, an exhibition featuring five Hong Kong artists, presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and co-organised by the Art Promotion Office and HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme as part of the inaugural Helsinki Biennale in Finland.
Dr Koon is an active educator and her teaching excellence has received wide recognition within the Faculty of Arts and the University of Hong Kong. Most recently in 2021 she was awarded the prestigious UGC Teacher Award given by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in Hong Kong.
Dr Koon received her B.A. and M.A. at the University of London and her PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
