The 2023 Sovereign Asian Art Prize

Maryam was born and raised in a remote city called Zahedan in Iran. She came to Tehran to continue her education and got a bachelor’s degree in handicrafts and a master’s degree in art research, Since 2005, she has been working professionally and continuously in the field of sculpture, specializing in ceramics. Also, since 2009, she has worked in art universities in Iran and for a while in Mazar-e-Sharif Art University in Afghanistan. She has curated several exhibitions in Iran such as Nimrouz which was about Art of Afghanistan and was the most important one among all. Her main issue in art is the human identity and nature in the contemporary world beyond gender and nation. www.maryamkouhestani.com

Olga is a practicing independent curator. Her interests include socially engaged art, important socio-political issues and the development of the creative potential of the local commutions. Over the past 10 years, she has organized and conducted more than 60 exhibition projects in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, France, the UAE and the USA. Her projects include such festivals as ArtBat Fest, Urban Art Astana, Ashyk Aspan and others. An important project in the curator’s career is the educational initiative for young artists, the School of Artistic Gesture. She is currently running Art&creative Foundation. www.artandcreative.kz/en

A jewellery designer and art history major by training, Wei Ling has been duly recognised for her contribution and efforts towards the development of the Malaysian art scene, through numerous awards and nominations. In 2018, she was appointed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) to curate and spearhead the country’s first pavilion at ‘The 58th La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale)’.

Aung Myat Htay is a Yangon based Artist, writer, Independent curator and former lecturer at National University of Art and Culture. He is an ACC grantee artist for 2014 research grant in New York and have been residency in Japan, India, Germany, Indonesia and Vietnam since 2010 to the present. He expresses social messages in contemporary sense and his works presented in several regions of Asia, Europe and US. He founded SoCA contemporary art project and published art books, art documentation series and research papers. He curated local and international art program, exhibitions and workshops actively since 2013. www.aungmyathtay.com

Hit Man Gurung is an artist and curator based in Kathmandu by way of Lamjung. His diverse practice delves into human mobility, historical frictions, and post-revolutionary complexities. Rooted in Nepal’s recent past, Gurung’s artistic practice intricately reveals interwoven kinships and the exploitative tapestry of capitalism across geographies. His narratives powerfully depict migrant plight within a dehumanizing labor system, exacerbated by an indifferent nation-state. Intertwining Indigenous methodologies, Gurung Ingeniously reshapes contemporary artistic practice. Notably, he co-curated Kathmandu Triennale 2077 and curated the Nepal Pavilion, Venice Biennale, and ‘Garden of Ten Season’. hitmangurung.blogspot.com

Sangeeta Thapa founded Siddhartha Art Gallery in 1987 with eminent artist Shashikala Tiwari. She has curated over 600 shows of Nepali and international artists. She regularly gives consultations to collectors of Nepali art and initiates community art projects. She served on the Board of Patan Museum for six years and is a Fellow of the De Vos Institute of Arts Management. In 2009, she launched Nepal’s premier art event The Kathmandu International Arts Festival (KIAF) as a tri-annual event. In 2011, she established the Siddhartha Arts Foundation as a non-profit and organized the second edition of the Kathmandu International Arts Festival in 2012, through the Foundation.

In 2016, Ms. Thapa co-curated the first exhibition of contemporary Nepali art at the Moesgaard Museum in Arhus, Denmark.

In 2015, the Great Earthquakes struck Nepal causing a huge loss of lives and damage to homes and heritage sites. Taking this into account the third iteration of the Festival was postponed to 2017. In 2016, the Foundation decided to morph the Festival into a Triennale format and was recognized by the Biennale Foundation in Italy. The 2017 edition was curated by Philippe Van Cauteren from the S.M.A.K. Museum in Ghent, Belgium. The 2020 edition was also postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and took place in March 2022. The edition was led by the artistic director Cosmin Constinas from Para Site Hong Kong and Nepali curators Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hitman Gurung.

In 2021 , as a precursor to to the Triennale a selection of the works were showcased at Para Site Hong Kong. Post the Triennale a selection of the works were showcased at SAAVY contemporary in Berlin. In the same year the Siddhartha Arts Foundation served as the co commissioner of the Nepal Pavilion at the Venice Biennale which featured the works of Ang Tsherin Sherpa. In December 2022 the Siddhartha Art Foundation showcased works by Nepali artists at the Kochi Biennale.

Ms. Thapa is the publisher of four volumes of poetry: Khulla Dhoka, Nirantar Khulla Dhoka, A Thousand Earths Thousand Skies, and Even the Moonlight can Burn. She has written a book on the drawings of Nepali artist Manuj Babu Mishra entitled ‘In the Eye of the Storm’ and has written essays on contemporary Nepali art in the Gallerie Magazine (India) and for the Nepal Art Now exhibition catalog printed by the Welt Museum, Vienna. She has also contributed her essays to Telling a Tale, a publication of women’s’ narratives, Nukta Art Magazine (Pakistan), and the VOW Magazine in Nepal. Ms. Thapa has been invited in the capacity of a speaker to Art Basel Hong Kong, New North-South Dialogue organized by the British Council and Manchester University in Sri Lanka, the Asian Curatorial Forum Dhaka, and to a panel on South Asian art organized by the Habiart Foundation, New Delhi.

In 2023, she received the President’s medal ‘Kala Sumbardhak Award’ for her contribution to uplifting and supporting the arts scene in the country and in the same year received the ‘Kala Prabhandak Award’ from the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts in recognition for promoting the arts of the country over 35 years.

Amra Ali is a Karachi based art critic and curator. She has been writing reviews and essays in local and international publications on art in Pakistan since 1900. She is a co-founder of Nukta Art, a first bi annual publication on art in Pakistan. She has been the secretary of AICA Pakistan, a subsidiary of the International art critics association, Paris. Amra has many curatorial projects to her credit, among them is the mini retrospective of Rasheed Araeen, titled, ‘Homecoming Rasheed Araeen’ in 2014-15, at the VM Gallery. She has edited the publication, Rasheed Araeen, Homecoming. The emphasis of her curatorial work is to locate links between her critique viz a viz gallery spaces.

Brian Curtin is an Irish-born art critic and lecturer. From 2007-18 he worked as an independent curator of contemporary art and now works on commission. He holds a Ph.D. in studio art from the University of Bristol and has been based in Bangkok since 2000. He has lectured in art history, visual culture, and studio courses at the Faculty of Architecture of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, since 2006. Brian is one of the curatorial team for the Bangkok Art Biennale 2024. www.brianacurtin.com

Lisa Botos has built a global career delivering art and culture for diverse entities, from foundations to artists to nations, including Swire, WYNG Foundation, and the Kingdom of Bhutan. In Hong Kong, she co-founded OOI BOTOS gallery and Art Unchained. In 2013, she served as guest curator for the Vladivostok Biennale of Visual Arts. As a senior editor at TIME, Lisa led an award-winning photo department. A founding partner of the advisory Private Partners & Co., Lisa counsels families on cultural legacy. She holds an MA with honors in international communication, focusing on visual culture, from American University, and is a fellow of Hong Kong University’s ACLP and BeFantastic ArtTech. Read more here.

Born and raised in 1980,Tehran, Iran, Sheida Ghomashchi works as an independent curator in Milan, Italy. She has been part of various projects including: Co-curator of “Dixit Algorizmi, The Garden of Knowledge”, the fisrt natioonal pavilion of Uzbekistan in Venice Biennale of Art, 2022.

Co- Curator of “ Dixit Algorizmi”, International exhibition, CCA, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2021. Fellow at Floating University, Forensic Architecture Group, Berlin, Germany. Curator of “Archive Alive!”, Exhibition of Ramak Fazel, Kandovan, Pejman Foundation, Tehran, Iran. Fellow of “Ideas City – Detroit”, New Museum of New York, USA. Researcher in Urban Research program, BAUHAUS, Dessau, Germany.

Tanya is the co-founder of the website ArtWorldDatabase.com, a website dedicated to promoting and supporting Southeast Asian contemporary art. Before moving to London in 2020, she lived and worked in Singapore for 11 years where worked as an independent curator and published art writer. She holds a Masters degree from Goldsmiths University of London in Asian Art Histories and is dedicated to working with artists living in the diaspora and presenting curatorial projects as part of the Peruke Projects team. www.artworlddatabase.com

Daryl Goh is a startup-advisor, angel investor and art critic/collector who holds 2 Masters Degrees and authored Design Innovation for Everyone (2023). Daryl is also the designer behind Asia’s first-ever phy-gital retail experience – Zhuang: Home of Singapore Designers that kickstarted an industry trend towards digital retail spaces. The technopreneurship & fashion scholar previously started Singapore’s first free art residency, NPE Art Residency and has judged for multiple prominent art awards. www.darylgoh.com

For 40 years, Gun Soo Choi has been an image critic, photographer, and university professor. he has published 12 photographic books and held 10 individual exhibitions.

Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1969, she majored in painting at Seoul National University, Seoul, photography design at Hongik University, Seoul, and studied at the School of Visual Arts, New York, USA.

As a winner of the Daum Prize in 2006, she held a successful solo exhibition at Kumho Museum of Art in South Korea, and ‘The Pink and Blue Project‘ book was published by the Parkgeonhi Foundation (Seoul, South Korea) in 2007, and ‘Animal Companions’ book was published by IANN publisher (Seoul, South Korea) in 2015.

Also, In 2011, She won the first Prize at The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Hong Kong with ‘The Pink & Blue Project II’, and the Ilwoo Photography Award in Seoul, South Korea. www.jeongmeeyoon.com

Godwin Constantine is a professor and Chairman of the Theertha International Artists Collective.