PERTH.- Today, The Art Gallery of Western Australia revealed the inaugural program for their new, major creative and curatorial initiative, the Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art. From Hong Kong to Tokyo to Shanghai to the Persian Gulf – the State Gallery is set to showcase some of the most exciting contemporary Asian artists of today, while simultaneously exploring cultural thinking across Asia and its diaspora communities from 22 July 2022 – 30 July 2023.

Generously supported by a philanthropic partnership with the Simon Lee Foundation, SLF ICAA is a five-year-project, set to strengthen connections with Asia and its artists by exhibiting, collecting, and fostering the exchange of art and ideas throughout Western Australia and the wider region.

“We are thrilled to be presenting this expansive and bold new program in partnership with the Simon Lee Foundation,” says AGWA Director Colin Walker. "We look forward to welcoming new ideas; conversations; audiences; and artists into the State Gallery, propelling AGWA into new territory over the next five years.”

Established in 1994 by Dr Simon Lee AO, the Simon Lee Foundation supports Australian organisations with a cultural investment focus across the arts, community, education, and medical research industries.

“At the Simon Lee Foundation our mission is to champion the human spirit,” says Orion Lee, Trustee, Simon Lee Foundation. “The SLF and AGWA have come together to create this new Institute to celebrate art and culture with the hope that experiencing different modes of thought and expression will expand our minds and bring greater mutual understanding between people."

SLF ICAA will provide AGWA’s audiences with access to a dedicated program of contemporary Asian art, comprised of exhibitions, events, digital projects, publishing and education. The Institute will introduce a new publication series, Unclaimed Ideas – a paper-back collection of essays and interviews from leading artists and undiscovered talent who change the way we understand art in the world today.

The multidisciplinary program comprises new-and-notable artists across the contemporary space – exploring wide-spanning ideas and experiences, such as human relations, equality and networks of power, the dynamics of diaspora, the built environment, love and labour, and the impact of digital communication technologies.

Commencing today – Friday 22 July – in celebration of the full program announcement, two new commissioned works are revealed, including politically charged feminist work, Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy by Thai performance artist Kawita Vatanajyankur and technologist Pat Pataranutaporn. Along with a new installation by one of the most exciting artists to emerge out of Hong Kong in the past decade, Wong Ping presents puberty.

From 18 November 2022, I have not loved (enough or worked) transforms the walls of the State Gallery, bringing together an array of mediums including film, photography, painting and sculpture by artists Daisuke Kosugi, Hai-Hsin Huang, Lieko Shiga, Pixy Liao, Rinko Kawauchi, Sejin Kim, Tao Hui and Lin Zhipeng aka No.223 to reveal how deeply enmeshed our bodies, and the subjective forces of love and desire are within the formations of globalisation, colonialism, technology and capitalism.

In a coup for WA – conceived especially for AGWA – photographer, filmmaker, and performer Farah Al Qasimi presents her first solo exhibition in Australia, from 4 February to 30 July 2023. The exhibition will explore Al Qasimi's tactical approach to image-making – primarily through photographs taken in the United Arab Emirates and New York – as she reflects and amplifies the experience of cultural hybridity in our digital-physical world.

On the inaugural program, SLF ICAA Lead Creative Rachel Cieśla says, “Creating new conversations founded on curiosity, possibility and – most importantly – connection, each of these artists positions their work as an open inquiry into the world, buoyed by an incredibly generous critical spirit.

“AGWA is uniquely positioned, both geographically and culturally, to foster a deeper engagement with contemporary Asian art and artists, and our 22-23 program reflects our commitment to supporting practices from across the region, while offering audiences some of the most inspiring art of today.”

AGWA formally launches SLF ICAA on Friday 22 July, revealing the full program and presenting two new commissioned works to the general public: Kawita Vatanajyankur and Pat Pataranutaporn's Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy, and Wong Ping's, puberty.