20/20 Artist Residency Programme with Gayle Chong Kwan

20/20 is an ambitious 3-year programme announced by the Decolonising Arts Institute in November 2021, with funding from Freelands Foundation, Arts Council England and UAL.

Combining artist residencies with artistic commissioning at scale, 20/20 is bringing together 20 emerging artists of colour and 20 UK public art collections, leading to 20 new permanent acquisitions.

Gayle has been our artist in residence since October 2022.

Artist Gayle Chong Kwan will respond to our Portrait Miniatures and China collection. This will be the first time a contemporary artist responds and creates an outcome for these collections. The outcome of her residency will be showcased in our permanent collections from January 2024.

Gayle has been in discussion with our Curators, Conservators, Dr Anke Hein the

Peter Moores Associate Professor in Chinese Archaeology, volunteer archaeologists, MothersWhoMake Coventry and others to develop a response to our two collections.

About the Artist

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Studio in London. Chinese/Mauritian/Scottish.

Awarded PhD in 2022 in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London, on ‘Imaginal Travel: political and ecological positioning as fine art practice’. Teaches and lectures at the Royal College of Art London, ARTEZ Arnhem Netherlands, Edinburgh College of Art, Goldsmiths University, London; Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design Stockholm. Devises and runs workshops and projects with the the V&A and Young V&A, London; Ca’ Foscari University, Venice; Imperial College, London; New Town Culture, London; Great Ormond Street Hospital, London; St George’s Hospital, London. BAME Expert in Fine Art for the BBC. Work is held in public and private collections internationally.

About the Project

A national commissioning and network project led by the Decolonising Arts Institute to catalyse artists’ careers and change in collections.

This work responds to urgent calls for action within arts and culture, to tackle social inequities and racial injustices amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the wake of Black Lives Matter. The programme will support ethnically diverse artists to take up residencies with public art collections across the country; leading to the collections’ permanent acquisition of new commissioned works, a series of commissioned texts; and a public programme bringing artists, curators and writers into conversation.

The project will directly invest in the development of a new generation of ethnically diverse artists who may identify as black, brown, or as people of colour.

For more information or to speak to project spokespeople, please contact:

Cat Cooper, Communications Executive, UAL: cat.cooper@arts.ac.uk
Daniel Austin, Communications Manager, UAL d.austin@arts.ac.uk
Katie Moss, Communications Executive, UAL: k.moss@arts.ac.uk

Website: arts.ac.uk/decolonising-arts-institute

Twitter: @ual | Instagram: @unioftheartslondon #2020Project

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20/20 Artist Residency Programme with Gayle Chong Kwan

About the Artist

About the Project

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