Vanessa Kwan is an art

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

and artist based in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada who believes in collaborative, site-specific and cross-disciplinary practices.

Background

Kwan was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. They graduated from

Emily Carr University Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co-e ...

in 2004.

Curatorial

Kwan's curatorial work includes positions held at the Richmond Art Gallery, British Columbia, the Vancouver Art Gallery and

grunt gallery The grunt gallery is a Canadian artist-run centre, founded in 1984 and located in Vancouver, British Columbia. They show work by both indigenous and non-indigenous artists. History Established in 1984, and founded by Glenn Alteen, Kempton Dexte ...

, Vancouver where they were Curator (2014-2019) and then in 2019, Program director. According to Kwan, their role as a curator often "consists of producing artist projects that engage with the community, are site-specific, and are generally not situated inside the gallery." Kwan elaborates that they are interested in "art practices that are not focused solely on the gallery, but might be produced elsewhere." Kwan is a member of Other Sights for Artist's Projects, a public art collective in Vancouver. Kwan is also a founding member of Norma public art collective that began while they were studying at Emily Carr University. In addition to these artistic and curatorial activities, Kwan works closely with Vancouver-based artists, Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed on Big Rock Candy Mountain, a project initiated in early 2015. In 2022, they were chosen as Director + Curator, Gallery + Exhibitions at

(ECU) in charge of the Libby Leshgold Gallery and other university exhibition spaces and venues, as well as READ Books, ECU Press, the ECU Art Collection and the university’s outdoor screen.

Artistic practice

Kwan created ''Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver'', a public art work for the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

. In 2013, Kwan created an interactive piece entitled ''Everything Between Open and Closed'', a work that was temporarily sited at the Bob Prittie Burnaby Public Library as a part of its KIOSK event. For that project, the artist occupied the kiosk for two weeks creating signs that were posted on the walls of the kiosk, as a means of interacting with the community space.

Residencies

In 2017, Kwan completed a post residency in Visual + Digital Arts at the

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

, Banff, Calgary, and received the Post Residency Award from the Banff Centre for Residency.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwan, Vanessa Living people Canadian art curators Artists from Vancouver Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian women curators