THOMAS BERGHUIS

Dr. Thomas J. Berghuis is a lecturer in Asian Art at the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the University of Sydney. Starting in 2008 Berghuis is a Consultant Lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Arts in Singapore. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of Gallery 4A, Sydney. From June 2007 to July 2008 he worked as Senior Research Curator with the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics, College of Fine Arts/ UNSW in Sydney. He completed his PhD dissertation on Performance Art in China at the University of Sydney (Australia), following an MA in Sinology at Leiden University (The Netherlands). During the past 10 years he has traveled extensively to China for his research, and from 2003 to 2004 he was a visiting scholar at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Next to his studies he has also been involved in several curatorial projects, including Associate Curator for the 6th Sharjah International Biennale, U.A.E (2003), Curator for the 1st Dashanzi International Arts Festival at the 798 Factory in Beijing (2004), Associate Curator for the 3rd Israel Video Art Biennial in Tel Aviv (2006), and Co-Curator for Edge of Elsewhere, a three-year exhibition project with the Sydney Festival, Campbelltown Art Centre and Gallery 4A (2010-2012). Since 2007 Berghuis is a contributing editor for C-Arts, an art magazine focusing on contemporary Asian art. His writings have been published in various magazines and art publications, including in The Australian, Art Review UK, Art Asia Pacific, Artlink, Broadsheet, C-Arts, Mesh, positions and RealTime. His book, Performance Art in China, has been published in 2006 with Timezone 8, Hong Kong. Since 2006 he has been actively involved with research and curatorial projects on modern and contemporary art in Southeast Asia, with special attention to art from Indonesia.

IAN HOWARD

Trained as an artist and art educator – in Sydney (Diploma of Art Education), London (Graduate Diploma of Advanced Studies, Film and Television) and Montreal (Master of Fine Arts).
Taught visual arts at secondary and tertiary levels in Australia, England, USA and Canada,Practicing artist since 1968, concentrating on the theme of the relationship between civilian and military cultures, and their material and symbolic products. Works included in regional, state (including QAG), national and international galleries. Worked on the Berlin Wall (1973), in April 2000 completed a project on the Great Wall of China that began in 1972. Worked extensively with Australian, British, Chinese and USA defense forces, including the Pentagon, gaining access to highly secret facilities and equipment ‘for artistic purposes’. Traveled throughout Eastern Europe in 70s and 80s, undertaking research into military sites, museums and monuments. Curatorial coordinator of Vietnamese artists, and National Advisory Committee member for Queensland Art Gallery’s Asia Pacific Triennials. Since early 1990s working with artists and institutions in Vietnam and China on artist and student exchange projects including own work with Colonel Xing Junqin of the Peoples Liberation Army. Executive Producer of Art of Place Hanoi-Brisbane Art Exchange (Broadcast SBS and ATVI 1995/96), Millennium Shift – Art of the New World Order, SBS, AFC and Film Queensland sponsored APT II Documentary (1997) and Handcrafted Cinema, the Animation of Caroline Leaf (1998) for National Film Board of Canada. Subject of Central China Television documentary, Howard and the Great Wall of China, 2000 and 2002 CCTV productions on- COFA, Great Art Schools of the World and the International Drawing Research Institute. Currently Chair of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and member, Churchill Fellowship Committee (NSW).

CHARLES MEREWETHER

Charles Merewether was until recently Deputy Director of the Cultural District (Saadiyat Island) in Abu Dhabi and was Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Hong Kong International Art Fair. He was the Artistic Director and Curator of the Biennale of Sydney 2006. He has taught at the University of Sydney, Universidad Autonoma (Barcelona), the Ibero-Americana (Mexico City), and University of Southern California and had been recipient of various Fellowships. From 1994 to 2004 he was Collections Curator at the Getty Rsearch Center in LA. He has published widely on modernism and contemporary art. His most recent publications include Under Construction: Ai Weiwei (2008), and Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan 1950-1970′ (2007) and forthcoming co-editor (with John Potts) of After the Event by Manchester University Press. Charles Merewether is currently Director of the ICA in Singapore, and he is Honorary Director of MOMENTUM | Sydney.