CURATOR TALK WITH HAMMAD NASAR

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Open to the public - you do not have to be a CASV member to attend this event. 

Minutes From a Second Story | Visiting International Speaker | Centre A

Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Thursday, September 19, 2013, 7pm
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, Room 2555
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Simon Fraser University
149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver.

Presented with the support of SFU Woodwards Cultural Unit, Vancity Office of Community Engagement and the Contemporary Arts Society, Vancouver.

Hammad Nasar is a curator and writer, and recently moved to Hong Kong as Head of Research and Programmes at the Asia Art Archive, where he plays a strategic role in developing AAA’s collection and shaping initiatives, partnerships and programmes that generate new thinking around the material in the collection and about the art of the region. Earlier, he co-founded and was Curatorial Director of the London-based arts organization Green Cardamom. He was a Fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme, Research Fellow at Goldsmith College, and Arts Director for the UK’s Festival of Muslim Cultures (2006-07). His recent projects include: Safavids Revisited at the British Museum (2009); Where Three Dreams Cross at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010); Beyond the Page: Miniature as Attitude in Contemporary Art from Pakistan at the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA (2010) and Drawn from Life at Abbot Hall Gallery & Museum, Kendal, UK (2011). His ongoing curatorial projects include Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space (2005-ongoing) and Mashq: Repetition, Meditation, Mediation (2009-ongoing). Prior to entering the art world, Nasar worked as a management consultant and banker. Nasar will speak on questions of geography, region and nation with insights into developments in contemporary art from West Asia or the “Middle East”, and with relation to the current exhibition at Centre A, “Minutes from a Second Story” by Hajra Waheed.

Asia Art Archive is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the recent history of contemporary art in Asia within an international context. Founded in 2000, AAA is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading public resources for contemporary art in Asia. It continues to grow through a systematic program of research and critical engagement.

Centre A was constituted in 1999 and opened its first gallery space at 849 Homer Street in 2000. Artist, Hank Bull was the Founding Director of Centre A (1999-2010) working with a founding Board of Directors which included art patron and educator, Stephanie Holmquist, artist and curator, Sheng Zhengtian, and artist Jin Me Yoon. Founding Benefactors, Stephanie Holmquist and Milton Wong, along with Anndraya Luui ensured Centre A’s success as a public gallery. In 2002, Sadira Rodrigues was hired as Centre A’s first curator, succeeded by Alice Ming Wai Jim (2004) and Makiko Hara (2007). Since its inception, Centre A has produced almost 100 exhibitions, showcasing the work of over 300 artists. Some highlights of Centre A’s past programming include: Yoko Ono, Lida Abdul, David Khang and Noriko Sunayama.