BA, MA University of London; PhD New York University

Yeewan Koon is Associate Dean (Global) and Chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Nara Yoshitomo (translated into Japanese and Korean), A Defiant Brush: Su Renshan and the Politics of Painting in 19th Century Guangdong, A Chinese Canton? Painting the Local in Export Art, and Where is Hong Kong Now?, as well as “Where Are We Now? M+ and the Uncertain Future of Hong Kong,” among other publications. Her current research includes co-editing the 19th century volume of The Cultural History of Asian Art Project (Courtauld Institute) and developing the Hong Kong Art Timeline website. She has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and visiting scholarships at Cambridge and Columbia Universities. She is also a recipient of Hong Kong wide University Grants Committee’s Teacher Award. An active critic and curator in contemporary art, Koon is on the board of several art institutions.

Selected Publications

Yoshitomo Nara. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2020.

A Defiant Brush: Su Renshan and the Politics of Painting in 19th Century Guangdong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2014.

It Begins with Metamorphosis: Xu Bing. Hong Kong: Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 2014.

“A Chinese Canton? Painting the Local in Export Art.” In Eighteenth-century Art Worlds: Global and Local Geographies of Art, edited by Michael Yonan and Stacey Sloboda, 71-94. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019.

“Faultlines.” In 12th Gwangju Biennale 2018: Imagined Borders, edited by Gwangju Biennale editorial committee. Gwangju, Republic of Korea: Gwangju Biennale Foundation, 2018.

“The Artist Behind the Camera: Yoshitomo Nara.” In Once in a Life: Encounters with Nara, edited by Dominique Chan and Fumio Nanjo, 83-117. Hong Kong: Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 2016.

Awards

2021 UGC Teaching Award (General Faculty Members) (read more)

2020 Teaching Excellence Award: Outstanding Teaching Award (individual award) (read more)

Faculty Knowledge Exchange Award 2020 (read more)

Fulbright-RGC Hong Kong Senior Research Scholar Awards 2018/2019 (read more)

Other Activities

Hong Kong Art Timeline (2021) (read more)

Curator of the exhibition “So long, thanks again for the fish” at Levyhalli, Suomenlinna (2021) (read more)

Selected curator for the co-curated exhibition “Faultlines,” at 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018) (read more)

Guest curator of the exhibition “It Begins with Metamorphosis: Xu Bing“ at the Asia Society, Hong Kong Center (2014) (read more)