Centre A 10th Anniversary Gala and Art Auction
Saturday, May 9, 6:30-10:30
Kentizen Restaurant, Tinseltown, 88 West Pender Street
* (Gala night)Free parking under Tinseltown. Entrance on Abbott street.
Free Public Preview: Wednesday, May 6, 6-9pm at Centre A
Dinner tickets sold out. Absentee bids will be accepted by email to info@centrea.org until noon on May 9. Telephone bids may be accepted as part of the live auction. Please call 604-683-8326 for more information.
| ARTWORKS CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A BIGGER VERSION | ARTISTS |
 | Lida Abdul Born in Kabul, and currently lives between Afganistan and the United States, Lida Abdul is an artist who has produced work in many media including video, film, photography, installation and live performance. Her work has been featured at the 2005 Venice Biennale, Kunsthalle Vienna, Museum of Modern Art Arnhem Netherlands and Miami Cantral, CAC Centre d'art contemporain de Brétigny and Frac Lorraine Metz, France, Sao Paulo Biennal, Brazil; the Kwangju Biennale, South Korea; and the Singapore Biennale. Abdul was the winner of the Taiwan Award at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and in 2007 she shared the first prize in the visual arts category of the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts, for her contribution to the 8th Sharjah Biennale. Her first solo exhibition in Vancouver was held at Centre A in collaboration with Western Front in 2007.
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 | Abbas Akhavan Born in Tehran, Iran, Abbas Akhavan has been living in Canada for the last thirteen years. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Concordia University where he graduated with honors and received his Masters of Fine Arts in 2006 at the University of British Columbia. His artistic practice covers a variety of mediums: including painting, drawing, installation, video, performance, and site-specific ephemeral works. His works have been shown at various international venues such as Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver), Western Front (Vancouver), Musee D’Art Contemporain de Montreal (Montreal), Third Line Gallery (Dubai), and Nordjyallandds Kunstmuseum (Denmark). Recently he has been included in “How Soon is Now” at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The Makeshift Objects, are based on images of shivs (weapons made by prisoners) and made of domestic and self-care items found in the artist’s apartment, such as a teaspoon, comb, eyeglasses, razor, fork, etc. They are part of an ongoing series of works, previously shown in the exhibition Orientalism & Ephemera at Centre A in 2008.
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| Christine Cheung Born and raised in Canada, Christine Cheung was the 2006 recipient of the Joseph Beuys Scholarship at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where she completed graduate studies. Her paintings are exhibited regularly across Canada and internationally, and belong to numerous collections including the Emerging Artist Collection at Alberta Foundation for the Arts. She has recently been artist-in-residence at Red Gate Studios (Beijing) and Compeung (Thailand) and has upcoming residencies at STRUTS Gallery (New Brunswick) and AIR KREMS (Lower Austria). She has an upcoming show at TRUCK Gallery (Calgary). In 2008, she was awarded a production grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and traveled to Asia for the first time since childhood. She recently won the 2008 Alberta Lieutenant Governor's Emerging Artist Award. |
 | Paul de Guzman Paul de Guzman immigrated to Canada in 1986 from Philippines, and is currently based in Vancouver. De Guzman is a board member of Western Front, and most recently exhibited his first large scale architectural installation at Centre A in collaboration with Yoshihiro Suda and Masashi Ogura for the exhibition, Another City. The show will be travel to Musée d'Art de Joliette, Québec, September 2009. De Guman’s art practice is characterized by text-based combinations of architecture and visual art. De Guzman has exhibited widely in Canada and Europe over the last decade. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions including the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Kenderdine Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan, Art Gallery of Windsor, Vancouver Art Gallery, Oakville Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. nternationally he has shown at Hofstra University Museum in New York, Galerie Markus Richter in Berlin, Galerie Dominique Fiat in Paris and Galerie Transit, Antwerp. De Guzman is represented by Birch Libralato Gallery in Toronto and Galerie Dominique Fiat in Paris. |
 | Heri Dono Heri Dono is a celebrated contemporary artist from Indonesia, noted for paintings, installations and performance that incorporate myth, politics and imagination. He is one of the leading contemporary artists in South East Asia who had received the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands in 1998 and the Unesco Prize for the International Art Biennale from China in 2000. Born and based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, his work integrates classical dance, music and shadow theatre with a radical experimental practice that includes performance, video, sound, painting, electro-mechanical sculpture and installation. Heri Dono’s work has been featured in many international exhibitions including: “Traditions and Tensions” at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the 3rd Shanghai Biennale (where he shared the prize with Huang Yonping) , Yokohama Triennale of International At, Gwangju Biennale, Singapore Art Museum, Biennale Internazionale Dell’ Arte Contemporania di Firenze. He was invited as artist in residence by Centre A & Western Front in 2002 when he produced an exhibition and aperformance work. Heri Dono's works are in the collections of major public museum around the world including, Artoteek Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands, Cemeti Contemporary Art Gallery, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan, Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenthal, Leiden, the Netherlands, Okinawa Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan, the(National Gallery, Canberra, Australia. Heri Dono is represented by Sherman galleries, Sydney, Australia.
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 | Babak Golkar Born in Iran and currently living and working in Vancouver, Babak Golkar teaches in the MFA program at Emily Carr University. He has been actively participating and exhibiting in Canada, Europe and Asia since 2000. Golkar is conceptual and a multi-disciplinary artist combining diverse mediums such as drawing, video, sculpture and site specific installation with a strong interest in performance. His works explore politics, cultural tropes and art in relation to economy in complex but humorous ways. Golkar had his first solo show at Centre A in 2003, and has since participated in two major group shows, Emergency Biennale in 2006, and “Orientalism & Ephemera” in 2008. Most recently, he was a part of a group exhibition called “Moodyville”, at Presentation House Gallery, and “Interiority Complex', at the Republic Gallery. Golkar is commissioned to produce a public art project at the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in Toronto this year. Space #107 is part of an ongoing series of drawings entitled “Recollection” in which he depicts a built environment in unfamiliar ways of conflating architectural space with physiological states of mind. Based on his experiences of existing buildings such as his old house, doctor's office and friend's studio, the artist has tried to memorize objects and spaces and drawing them later in the studio. The resulting drawings are abstract, non perspectival, bird’s eye views.
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 | Instant Coffee Instant Coffee is a service-oriented artist collective based in Toronto & Vancouver. Its current members are, Cecilia Berkovic, Jinhan Ko, Kelly Lycan, Jenifer Papararo, Kate Monro and Khan Lee. Instant Coffee developed in response to the division between studio and exhibition practice. Through formal installation and event-based activities, they explore ideas, materials and actions outside of the isolation of the studio. Instant Coffee nationally and internationally has participated in group and solo exhibition in Oakville, Toronto, Seattle, Washington, Bergen, Norway and Medellin, Colombia. Most recently they produced LIGHT BAR , as a part of group show in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and participated in “ How Soon is Now” at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Instant Coffee also produced a major Public Commission project “ A BRIGHT FUTURE- 88 BLOCKS*Art on Main in Vancouver “ (presented by the City of Vancouver and TransLink in partnership with Transport Canada) and just opened their new public project, Disco Fallout Shelter, at the Toronto Sculpture Garden this May. Jinhan Ko, co-founder of Instant Coffee, held a solo exhibition at Centre A in 2000.
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 | Tomoyo Ihaya Tomoyo Ihaya was born in Tsu-City, Mie, Japan and is currently based in Vancouver. She studied fine arts at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. She holds an MFA in printmaking from the University of Alberta. Ihaya has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions for over a decade across Canada and in the United States, Australia, Japan and Europe, and has participated in artist-in-residence programs in Thailand, the United States and India. Ihaya produces prints, drawings and installations inspired by the artist's experiences of the interconnectedness of the material and spiritual worlds. In recent work, Ihaya has explored the symbolic and physical importance of water. Recently, Ihaya held solo exhibitions at the Kelowna Art Gallery, Richmond Art Gallery and Art Beatus, Vancouver. |
 | Yang Jiechang Yang Jiechang was born in 1956 in Guangzhou (Canton), China. He currently lives and works in Paris and Heidelberg. After graduating from the Guangzhou Fine Arts Academy in 1982, he took up rigorous study of the Tao with the Taoist master, Huangtao. At the same time he became a leader on China’s contemporary art scene, gaining international recognition for his large monochrome ink paintings. His work was included in the landmark 1989 exhibitions, “Magiciens de la Terre” (Paris) and “China Avant Garde” (Beijing). Since then he has participated in “Cities on the Move”, the Shanghai Biennial, the Venice Biennial, the Gwangju Biennial, the Paris Biennial, the Guangzhou Biennial, the Liverpool Biennial and the Istanbul Biennial. He is one of China’s great masters of ink painting and a leader on the international scene.
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 | Hua Jin Phoebe Hua Jin was born in Shanghai, China, and currently lives in Vancouver. Jin was trained as a graphic/industrial designer and worked as an artist director for 10 years before moving to Canada to study visual art in 2008. A self-taught photographer, Jin has shown her works in exhibitions in China, Netherlands and Canada since 2005. Jin’s photo-based works are included in many private collections as well as the public collection of Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai. Her works can also been seen regularly in Shanghai-based art and design publications. Untitled, which is included in Centre A’s 10th Anniversary Art Auction, was included in Jin’s solo exhibition at Potential Gallery (Beijing) in 2007. It was taken at the famous People’s Park in Shanghai. This open green area came into being after the abolition of the horse-racing tracks which had been built by the British in 1862.
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 | Evan Lee Evan Lee is a Vancouver-based artist whose work primarily deals with the depictive possibilities of photography. Since completing his MFA at UBC in 2000, he has employed several different approaches to picture making; the resulting work exists on the very edge of the photographic medium. His more recent work has involved using a desktop scanner as a camera. The scanner's way of seeing offers a pointedly different viewpoint from that of a camera, and the resulting images are suggestive of things and places far more evocative and complex than the initial referents would suggest. In his hands, subjects such as oranges, dandelion spores, Christmas lights and boxes are imbued with a sense of oddity and tenuousness that highlights the transformative possibilities of representational art. These transformations are boundless in his pictures; boxes become little creatures, oil slicks on pavement resemble endless galaxies. The simultaneous sense of wonder and intellectual rigor that Lee brings to his work, both in technique and subject matter, has led him to making some of the most exciting and erudite pictures to come out of Vancouver in some time.
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 | Khan Lee Born in Seoul, Korea where completed his study in architecture at Hong-Ik University, Khan Lee immigrated to Canada in early 90's. Lee received a BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2000 and currently lives in Vancouver. He is a founding member of Vancouver based artists' collective “Intermission' and recently became an active member of 'Instant Coffee'. Lee has also been working as a studio and technical assistant for numerous artists in Vancouver including Jeff Wall, Judy Radul, Neil Campbell and Roy Arden. Khan Lee has applied his remarkable skills and professional knowledge in diverse art practices including, photography, video, sculpture, architecture, design and digital-media. Lee has participated in group exhibitions at Shudder Gallery, Or Gallery, Western Front, 44 Water Street and Canadian Embassy Tokyo. The placemat at your table tonight is designed by Khan Lee as a special commissioned for Centre A's 10th Anniversary. Centre A has also invited Khan Lee to mount his fist major solo exhibition in the fall 2009, including a new media installation commission.
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 | Chi-Wo Leung Born in Hong Kong in 1968, Leung obtained his BFA and MFA degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He studied photography in Italy and interned in Belgium before returning to Hong Kong in 1992. Since then, Leung has exhibited his works internationally, including venues such as HongKong Museum of Art, Space Untitled Gallery (New York), West Space (Melbourne), Espace Cardin (Paris), Singapore Art Museum, Queens Museum of Art (New York), and Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, etc. In 1996, he co-founded Para/Site Art Space, which is the first artist-run contemporary art space in Hong Kong. He has also been granted a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council for him to reside in New York City from 1999 to 2000. The recipient of numerous international awards, Leung mounted a solo at Queens Museum of Art, New York (2000), represented Hong Kong in the 2001 Venice Biennale, and most recently, the Korean Gwangju Biennale (2002). Leung is exhibiting concurrently at Lee Ka-sing Gallery, Toronto.
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 | Shyh-Charng Lo Untitled, 2008 Oil on canvas 20" x 16" Estimated Value: $1,600 Courtesy of the artist Shyh-Charng Lo was born in Japan, raised in Taiwan, and immigrated to Canada in 1974. He holds a BA degree in Anthropology and Archaeology from the National Taiwan University, an MA degree at the University of British Columbia, and an MA degree in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. A self-taught painter, Lo has participated in countless local and international exhibitions, including 28 solo shows in Canada, China, Taiwan and Japan since 1984. His works have been shown widely, including such galleries as Art Beatus (Vancouver), Gallery OM (Japan), Caves Art Centre (Taiwan) and the Macau Museum of Art. His works are held in many private collections as well as Burnaby Art Gallery, Citibank in New York/Toronto/Singapore, and Toronto Dominion Bank in Vancouver. He’s a member of the advisory panel of Explorasian – the Asian Heritage Month in Canada. Lo’s paintings feature color-rich and softly muted landscapes, loosely depicting images of mountains and water. His works abandon realism and meditate on his relationship with his surroundings, articulating a perspective of inner peace, serenity and solitude. |
 | Ashok Mathur Ashok Mathur is a writer, educator, and cultural organizer. He is currently Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, where he directs CiCAC, the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada, a creative think-tank and artist residency space. He has published books of poetry and novels, including “Once Upon an Elephant” and “The Short, Happy Life of Harry Kumar”. Mathur recently produced an exhibition for Centre A entitled “A Little Distillery in Nowgong”, based on his forthcoming novel and produced in collaboration with Diyan Achjadi, David Bateman, and Brendan Tang. The work at auction is a small edition from this exhibition. The original was recently purchase by Art Bank of Canada Council. The novel will be published from Arsenal Pulp Press in Vancouver scheduled in September 2009. The exhibition “ A Little Distillery in Nowgong” is currently being presented in Ottawa as part of BC Scene. |
 | Bryan Mulvihill Bryan Mulvihill conceives of his work as “social sculpture” (Beuys), a process of collective creation that collapses the difference between audience and performer. By placing the culture of tea in the context of contemporary, this work also transcends the duality of ancient and modern. Mulvihill’s calligraphy can be found in many private collections and last year won a significant award in Japan. The expression in his calligraphy “ Have a Cup of Tea” is one of the most common expressions used in the tea ceremony and has its origins in a koan (question and answer) concerning the Chinese Zen monks from the 8th century. It means not only greeting, but also reflects our own attitudes and understanding of the spirit of Chanoyu (tea ceremony ) and the state of satori (enlightenment) .
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 | Heidi Nagtegaal Born in Langley, BC and currently living in Vancouver, Heidi Nagtegaal has been actively involved in the local art scene since graduating from Emily Carr University in 2005. Her art practice is characterized by the unique use of yarn as a medium to create wearable sculpture and interactive installation, centering on ideas of folk and alternative cultures, social interactions, costumes, identity and disguise, as well as disappearance and appearance. Her works have been shown as part of exhibitions Shift (2004) and Showroom (2008) at Centre A. She has also had recent exhibitions at CSA, Western Front, the Helen Pitt Gallery and Stratagem Pacific Consulting Gallery Ltd. The Facial Hair Study series has been recently featured in the two-person exhibition Guise at the Richmond Art Gallery. This series investigates alternative identities and explores personal, gender and queer politics. |
 | Louise Noguchi
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 | Bernadette Phan Bernadette Phan was born in Vietnam and currently lives in Vancouver. She received her BFA from Concordia University and MFA from Temple University, Philadelphia. Phan is actively involved in the local art scene a well as artistic community out-reach in the Downtown East Side. Phan’s paintings and drawings are mostly non-representational, exploring the boundaries between what is seen and surrounding, a continuous negotiation between surface and background. The artist has been producing the series of small square paintings since early 2000. Golden Daze was presented as part of the exhibition Fantastic with collaborating artist Sally Lee at Centre A in 2007. In the exhibition, the artists examined the studio space in relation to the paintings. She displayed some of her works on a shelf like books. The public was invited to touch and view the artworks in an intimate way. Phan’s works can be found in the collections of Canada Council Art Bank, TransCanada Pipeline, Ministry of External Affairs of Canada and numerous private collections. She was elected to the board of Centre A in 2008.
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 | Ed Pien Ed Pien immigrated to Canada from Taiwan, and currently lives and works in Toronto. He received MFA from York University in Toronto,and BFA from the University of Western Ontario. For over 20 years, Pien has exhibited nationally and internationally including; the Drawing Centre , New York; la Biennale de Montreal 2000 and 2002; W139 , Amsterdam, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Middlesbrough Art Gallery, The U.K; Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico City; Contemporary Art Gallery, Monterrey, Mexico; The Goethe Institute, Berlin. He held a solo exhibition at Centre A in September 2006 and currently teaches at the University of Toronto and Ontario College of Art and Design. Ed Pien draws on sources both Eastern and Western to create his work, including Asian ghost stories, hell scrolls, calligraphic traditions and the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya. He creates sensual, drawing-based installations using ink and translucent paper. The spectator is invited to walk into these floor-to-ceiling environments and approach the half-human, half-animal monsters within. In his most recent body of work, Ed Pien has replaced ink and gouache with an xacto knife in order to produce large-scale paper cuts. |
 | Kristina Lee Podesva
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 | Chick Rice Chick Rice is an artist and educator working and living in Vancouver. She is a graduate in photography at Emily Carr College of Art and Design, holds a BFA from the University of British Columbia, furthered her studies at the Banff Centre, and the National Film Board in Montreal. She was a VIVA award recipient in 1994 and has been an instructor in photography and design at ECI since 1991. She is also one of the artists featured in the historically significant exhibition Yellow Peril (1991) curated by Paul Wong, an exhibition of contemporary Canadian film, video and photo-based artworks that reflect an Asian new world consciousness. Rice has extensively exhibited and lectured across North America and Europe since 1975. Her work is in many public collections and she has annually been named as one of Who's Who of Canadian Women since 1995.Solo and group exhibition include Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, Gallery VU in Quebec, Presentation House Gallery, and Gallery Plennings in Eindhoven. |
 | Kyohei Sakaguchi Kyohei Sakaguchi is multi-talented artist, writer, thinker, adventure, and architect. Born in Kumamoto, Japan, he completed his study in architecture at Waseda University and currently lives in Tokyo. For the last three years, Sakaguchi has participated in solo and group exhibitions to present his architectural models, installations, drawings, and photography. These include his first solo exhibition "Zero Yen House" curated by Makiko Hara for the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2006, "Informal Architecture" at the Walter Philips Gallery at the Banff Centre for the Arts and ICA Plug In, Winnipeg, 2007-8, World Social Forum International Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007, “Global Life Japon(s)” in St Nazaier, France in 2008. Sakaguchi is included in the Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche in Toronto this year, where he will produce a new commission public project with 15 mobile bike-houses. Sakaguchi has also become a literary sensation in Japan, producing four novels and journals for major publishers in the two years. Kyohei Sakaguchi recently has been experimenting his new “self-sufficient , Zero Yen living” on the banks of the Tamagawa river in the centre of Tokyo, where he has built a house from found and recycled materials with no money with a person he called “Mr. Tokyo Robinson”. The drawing , “Robinson Crusoe in Tokyo,” can be seen as a precise “architectual “ and “anthropological “ research drawing for his new project.
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 | Jayce Salloum Jayce Salloum’s work exists within and between the very personal, the quotidian, the local, and the trans-national. It engages in an intimate subjectivity and discursive challenge. He has worked in installation, photography, video, performance and text since 1975, as well as curating exhibitions, conducting workshops, organizing collectives, and coordinating sustainable cultural projects. His work critically asserts itself in the perception of social manifestations and political realities. Salloum has exhibited pervasively at the widest range of local and international venues possible, from the smallest unnamed storefronts & community centres in his downtown eastside Vancouver neighbourhood to institutions such as the Louvre, Paris, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Canada, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Centre Pompidou, Paris, CaixaForum, Barcelona, 8th Havana Biennial, 7th Sharjah Biennial, 15th Biennale Of Sydney, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Salloum is presently preparing two new monographs, one for the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand and the other for his solo survey touring exhibition being produced by the Kamloops Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. Drawn from an ongoing body of work titled “untitled photographs: location/dis-location(s)”, these photographs attempt to engage critically in the representation of public and private space, the tableaux of commercial enterprises acting as ideological stage fronts, domestic settings, and the spaces of intimacy found in between both. “Sylvia's Shop” has been presented several times in his solo and group exhibitions the last 5 years, and is in the collection of Art Bank, Ottawa.
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 | Sharmila Samant
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 | Mohamed Somani Mohamed Somani was born in Sweden in 1974 and received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia in 2000. Much of his work is explores the nature of 'conceptual-art' itself, and its inherent inability to convey the total aesthetic experience of the thought itself. His images incorporate drawing, atmospheric effects, and strong narrative impulses. Somani has shown works at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (2000), Anodyne Gallery (1999), the Dynamo Gallery (1997), the Atelier Gallery (1997), and Access Artist Run Centre (1997), Western Front (2002), Republic Gallery (2008). His solo show Propositions For A Public Monument: 27 Sketches For Mixing All The Materials In The World was held at Centre A in 2002. Mohamed is also part of the upcoming exhibition Nkr: Light – the Essence at the Roundhouse (May 2009). |
 | Joomi Seo Joomi Seo is a multi-disciplinary artist. Born in Seoul, Korea and based in Vancouver, Seo graduated from Emily Carr University in 2007, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2005-6. She is currently a candidate of Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of British Columbia. She has shown works and performed in Vancouver and Boston at venues such as Centre A (International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art), Western Front, Charles H. Scott Gallery, the Concourse Gallery, Federation of Canadian Art Gallery, and the BAG Gallery. Her work has recently been published in the book Carte Blanche Vol. 2 Painting, by Magenta Foundation in Toronto and in WOO magazine. In 2008, Seo performed improvised piano as part of How to Feed a Piano at Centre A, a project conceptualized by David Khang based on La Monte Young’s compositions 1960. Centre A. Seo’s most recent work was a Fluxus-based performance event at 1067 Granville as part of the LIVE off-season program. Her current interest lies in sounding instruments and writing musical scores for improvisational music performance.
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 | Mark Soo Based in Vancouver, Mark Soo is a conceptual artist working in various media including photography, sculpture and installation. His work is an exploration and critique of specific moments and movements in cultural and social history. Soo has exhibited in international exhibitions in Manchester, Melbourne, New York and Toronto. In 2006 he had a solo exhibition at Vancouver's Artspeak Gallery and most recently, his works were shown as part of group exhibitions “Exponential Futures”, at the Belkin Art Gallery, 2008, and “How Soon Is Now” at the Vancouver Art Gallery, 2009. His work was the first work selected for purchase by the Vancouver Art Gallery for its Audain Emerging Artists Acquisition Fund and Mark Soo is also one of the VIVA Awards recipients for 2009.
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 | Yoshihiro Suda Yoshihiro Suda is based in Tokyo. Suda is an internationally celebrated contemporary artist who was nominated for the Canadian Millennium Prize (National Gallery of Canada, 2001), and his work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery in Ottawa. Suda has exhibited at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago (2002), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2004), and the Victoria & Alberta Museum, London (2007-08). He will be the first Japanese artist to have a solo exhibition in the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, in 2009. Another City is Suda’s first exhibition on the west coast of Canada. Much sought after by collectors, Suda is represented by several galleries including Gallery Koyanagi in Tokyo and Galerie René Blouin in Canada. |
 | Ho Tam Ho Tam was born in Hong Kong and educated in Toronto, Canada. He is a graduate of Whitney Museum Independent Studies Program, Bard College (MFA). Before turning to art, Tam worked in advertising firms and community psychiatric facilities. He works in a diverse mix of disciplinary including painting, video, photography, print and public art. He has had numerous exhibitions in Yukon Arts Centre (Whitehorse), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (Ottawa), Plug In (Winnipeg), YYZ Artist Run Centre (Toronto) as well as Centre A in 2002 and 2008. Over 15 of his experimental film/video works are in circulation including screenings at Centre Pompidou, Paris, Toronto International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and the traveling exhibition Magnetic North: Canadian Experimental Video, organized by Walker Art Center, Minnesota. Tam is a recipient of various grants and awards, including the Grand Marnier Video Fellowship from the Film Society of Lincoln Center (New York). |
 | Erika Tan & Anthony Lam Erika Tan is a British-based artist and curator from Singapore. She studied Social Anthropology and Archaeology at Kings College, Cambridge and Film Directing at The Beijing Film Academy, followed by an M.A in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins School of Art, London. Evolving from her interest in anthropology and the moving image, Tan's work is often informed by specific cultural, geographical or physical contexts; exploring different media to create situations that excite, provoke, question, confront and invite comments from an audience. Collaborating with her partner, Anthony Lam, her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including Thermocline of Art (ZKM, Germany 2007), The Singapore Biennale (2006), Around The World in Eighty Days (South London Gallery / ICA 2007), EAST International (Norwich Gallery 2000), Cities on the Move (The Hayward Gallery, London), and Incommunicado (Hayward Touring exhibition). Her collaborative exhibition with Anthony Lam at Centre A, Mining the Archive, took place in 2006. Anthony Lam is a London-based photographic artist with a MA in photography from the London College of Printing. His practice is concerned with producing representations that address issues of identity, culture and representation from a personal and socio-political viewpoint. Lam has shown internationally since the mid 1990s (including Abu Dubai, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK & USA) and continues to pursue his interests in East Asia particularly China. He currently works as a Senior Lecturer in Photography and has led numerous public art projects as lead artist, collaborating with major UK institutions including The Photographers Gallery, Barbican Centre, Brighton Photo Biennial, Chisenhale Gallery, Chinese Arts Centre, Hayward Gallery, Mass Observation Archive, Museum of London, National Portrait Gallery, The National Trust and the V & A. His projects (including Notes from the Street 1995, Port of Call 2002) have gained wide press publicity including coverage in UK newspapers and publications: Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail as well as interviews for radio (BBC London). His collaborative exhibition with Erika Tan, Mining the Archive, was held at Centre A in 2006.
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 | Brendan Tang Brendan Tang was born in Dublin, Ireland of Trinidadian parents, and is a naturalized citizen of Canada. His education includes the Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Tang has exhibited in juried and invitational shows in Canada and the US, including at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Ottawa Art Gallery, and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Tang has been recognized as an emerging artist in the periodical Ceramics Monthly, and his work has been featured in publications such as Hi-Fructose”and”FUSE. Recently, Tang completed a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Montana. He currently resides in Kamloops, British Columbia. Brendan Tang was included in the exhibition “ A Little Distillery in Nowgong” at Centre A in January 2009. In the series, “Manga Ormolu” Tang examines the dialogue on contemporary culture, technology, and globalization through a fabricated relationship between ceramic tradition (using the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels) and techno-Pop Art. The futuristic update of the Ming vessels in this series recalls 18th century French gilded ormolu, where historic Chinese vessels were transformed into curiosity pieces for aristocrats. But here, robotic prosthetics inspired by anime and manga subvert elitism with the accessibility of popular culture. Manga Ormolu, through content, form and material, vividly demonstrates the conflicting and complementary forces that shape our perceptions of ourselves and the other. |
 | Steven Tong Artist/curator Steven Tong has been a living legend on the Vancouver art community for the past 10 years. Tong is the co-founder of independent art space 69 Pender (2003-2005) and co-founder of the CSA space (2005-), an independent project space that supports a vital, non-institutionally administered culture. He has been an essential member of the Centre A team since its founding in 1999. A student of Frank Tam, he has worked with numerous artists, such as Antonia Hirsh, Dax Morrison, Kelly Lycan, Rebecca Belmore, Neil Wedman, Derek Brunen, Heidi Nagtegaal, etc. He recently guest-curated Nowhere but Here, a two-person exhibition featuring works by Chen Chieh-jen and Cao Fei at Western Front. His artwork is included in the Emergency Biennale in Chechnya, a project that traveled to Centre A in the summer of 2006. It was conceived and organized by independent Paris and San Francisco-based curator Evelyne Jouanno as an echo to the 1st Moscow Biennial and as a |
