Asymmetry is a platform
Asymmetry is a proposition
Asymmetry is a network
Asymmetry is a movement
Asymmetry is an action
Asymmetry is fluid
Asymmetry is non-hierarchical
Asymmetry is global
Asymmetry is accessible
Asymmetry is proactive
Asymmetry is independent
Asymmetry is adaptive
Asymmetry is an advocate
Asymmetry is an approach
Asymmetry is artistic
Asymmetry is an attitude
Asymmetry is collaborative
Asymmetry is aware
Asymmetry is borderless
Asymmetry is conscientious
Asymmetry is contemporary
Asymmetry is cross-regional
Asymmetry is cultural
Asymmetry is an eco-system
Asymmetry is effective
Asymmetry is emerging
Asymmetry is far-reaching
Asymmetry is a hub
Asymmetry is forward-thinking
Asymmetry is impartial
Asymmetry is innovative
Asymmetry is inspiring
Asymmetry is nomadic
Asymmetry is non-conforming
Asymmetry is nurturing
Asymmetry is participatory
Asymmetry is pedagogical
Asymmetry is philosophical
Asymmetry is porous
Asymmetry is radical
Asymmetry is receptive
Asymmetry is responsive
Asymmetry is scholarly
Asymmetry is strategic
Asymmetry is supportive
Asymmetry is transdisciplinary
Asymmetry is transformative
Asymmetry is unconventional

Fellowships

Asymmetry’s Fellowship Programmes embed curators in prominent institutions in the UK and across Europe, sharpening their skills and expanding their networks, whilst enabling the institutions to gain from the Fellows’ specific expertise and perspectives to further contextualise curatorial knowledge about Greater Chinese and Sinophone contemporary art and culture.

Asymmetry offers a range of bespoke professional development programmes with select art spaces and collection-based institutions. In art spaces, curators will apply experimentation and exploration to a variety of curatorial and managerial responsibilities including project research and curatorial writing, planning, commissioning, and audience development.

In collection-based institutions, curators will enhance vital skills such as exhibition research, collection care, documentation, interpretation, loan management and project planning. Additionally, they will contribute to the scholarship of objects within the collections. Asymmetry Fellows form part of Asymmetry’s vital network of curators who guide the foundation’s ongoing work.

Open Call

2025 ASYMMETRY CURATORIAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
Chisenhale Gallery, London

Open Call

2025 ASYMMETRY CURATORIAL FELLOWSHIP
SculptureCenter, New York

Scholarships

Asymmetry’s Scholarship Programmes understand the fundamental importance of higher education and develop a new generation of cultural thinkers to expand how Greater Chinese and Sinophone culture is represented globally. Shaping the future of curatorial, art historical and museum studies and working towards a more inclusive and diverse landscape is an essential and integral goal of Asymmetry’s Scholarship Programmes.

Scholars have access to fully funded academic programmes at select educational institutions, along with strategic support and public programming opportunities with Asymmetry and its partners to translate research into action. Asymmetry Scholars form part of Asymmetry’s vital network of academics who guide the foundation’s ongoing work.

Public Programming

Asymmetry’s Public Programming engages both art professionals and general audiences through specially tailored, thought-provoking projects and events. In partnership with major institutions, Asymmetry hosts and facilitates panel discussions, seminars, and symposia that align with its activities, as well as its mission to promote Greater Chinese and Sinophone contemporary art in a global context. Often these programmes involve current and previous participants in Asymmetry’s Curatorial Fellowship and Scholarship Programmes, alongside global thinkers on art and culture. Asymmetry also produces programming for the digital space that widens perspectives through writing, documentary films and other media.

Asymmetry is a London-based independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to nurturing curatorial practice and disseminating knowledge about Chinese and Sinophone contemporary art.

1/6

Directors

Yan Du, Founding Director

For over a decade, Yan has taken an impassioned and active role in the arts community through her philanthropic initiatives and by continually developing her private collection. The impetus for Asymmetry Art Foundation was borne out of this cultural engagement, as well as her own experience studying art; she recognised a deep need for the advancement of curatorial practices, which to date were under-supported yet essential to the arts ecosystem. Yan envisioned Asymmetry as a hub for curatorial practices in and about Asia, provoking cultural dialogue, facilitating radical intellectual ideas, and supporting the professional development of Chinese and Sinophone curatorial practitioners, scholars, and thinkers at different stages of their careers.

Yan is particularly committed to widening the understanding and perspectives about contemporary Asian art through her professional work with Asymmetry and privately through her art collection, the activities of which are wholly separate from the foundation. Yan’s collection focuses on works that spark transnational conversations and embed cultural production within a global context, as well as engaging with broader topics of globalisation, gender, as well as post-feminist and post-internet generations.

In addition to the partnerships Asymmetry holds, Yan herself is an avid yet discreet supporter of numerous institutions internationally and holds positions on the boards/councils of the New Museum (NY), Swiss Institute (NY), M+ (HK), and Tate Gallery (UK).

Across all her endeavours, Yan aspires to create more visibility, shift perspectives, and broaden the historical and contemporary constructs through which art from and about Asia is appreciated.

Michèle Ruo Yi Landolt, Director

Dedicated to creating cutting-edge opportunities through cultural production and community-building, Michèle oversees and develops strategy, programming and partnerships at Asymmetry.

Michèle’s multicultural background (of Chinese/Swiss heritage) has helped fuel her passion for Asymmetry’s mission to work across cultures and join academic and artistic resources and practices in innovative ways.

Michèle leads Asymmetry’s public-facing programme at Asymmetry HQ in East London, and is the co-organiser of Asymmetry’s annual public lecture series in partnership with the Courtauld Institute of Art. Further, Michèle also regularly speaks on panels and delivers lectures, most recently at the WAF Conference in Milan, Mishcon de Reya and Sotheby’s Institue of Art in London.

Before joining Asymmetry, Michèle was Exhibition Director at Gallery Weekend Beijing where she devised and led the artistic and cultural programme, and prior to that worked at Mai 36 Galerie in Zurich with a focus on exhibition projects across Europe and China. Michèle graduated from the University of Zurich in History of Art and English Studies and earned a postgraduate degree in History of Art with a focus on Contemporary Chinese Art and Geopolitics from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Strategic Advisors

Aaron Cezar, Strategic Advisor

Aaron Cezar is the founding Director of Delfina Foundation, where he curates and develops its interrelated programme of residencies, exhibitions and public platforms.

Cezar has curated external exhibitions and performances at Hayward Gallery Project Space, SongEun Artspace, and as part of the official public programme of the 58th Venice Art Biennale. He has written for The Art NewspaperHarper’s Bazaar, and ArtAsiaPacific, among others.

Cezar is a strategic advisor to Asymmetry Art Foundation, SAHA, and Hampi Art Labs, among others. He has also been appointed to numerous boards, committees, and juries including the Korean Art Prize 2023, Turner Prize 2021, Samdani Artist Award, and the Jarman Award.

Cezar graduated from Princeton University with a first degree in Economics and a certificate in Dance and Theatre. His postgraduate degree is from King’s College London in the Creative & Cultural Industries. In June 2017, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Arts, London.

Mark Rappolt, Strategic Advisor

Mark Rappolt is the Editor-in-Chief of ArtReview. He founded its sister publication, ArtReview Asia, in 2013. His writing has appeared in a number of publications, ranging from The Times and Die Zeit to i-D and Citizen K, and includes exhibition catalogues on artists such as Yuko Mohri and Liu Xiaodong. Books include monographs on architects Greg Lynn and Frank Gehry. Recent exhibitions include Now or Never (2018) at Galerie Crone, Vienna; Sometimes You’re the Hammer; Sometimes You’re the Nail (2019) and Zhu Jia: Faraway Friends (2020) both at Modern Art Base, Shanghai; Before the Cockerel Crows(2021), cocurated with Tom Eccles and Liam Gillick at the Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene; the touring show Breaking the Waves (2021) at the chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai and the K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong; and One Tiger or Another (2022) cocurated with Tom Eccles, at Mathaf, Doha.

Dr Wenny Teo, Strategic Advisor

Dr Wenny Teo is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Asian Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy whose research focuses on Chinese and Sinophone art and visual culture in transnational and global contexts. She received a PhD in Art History from University College London (UCL) and has worked on various curatorial projects and commissions at The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Tate Modern, OCAT Shenzhen, Cass Sculpture Foundation and esea contemporary, Manchester. Her current research projects centre on infrastructural imaginaries on the ‘New Silk Road’ and the work of artists of Chinese heritage in Britain from the 1950s to the present day.

Kwanyi Pan, Strategic Advisor

Kwanyi Pan is a Beijing-based art consultant who has extensively worked across the institutional, academic and commercial art sectors. Besides working closely with established Asian art collections, Kwanyi has also co-developed contemporary art collections and private art foundations, including Pond Society and Asymmetry Art Foundation, and coordinates major institutional exhibitions across Asia.

Previously, she has worked as deputy editor-in-chief of Leap art magazine, operations director at Long March Space in Beijing and Northeast Asian art specialist for Artco Monthly magazine. Further, she has assisted during various exhibition developments at MoMA PS1 in NYC and worked at Nanjo and Associates in Tokyo.

Kwanyi received her undergraduate degree in Aesthetics and Art History from Keio University, Tokyo, and her Master’s degree in Creative Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Committee Members

Pi Li, Committee Member

Pi Li is the Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+, a visual culture museum in Hong Kong, and previously served as the deputy executive director of the art administration department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, 2001-2012).

Exhibitions Pi Li curated include Right is Wrong: Four Decades of Chinese Art in M+ Sigg Collection at Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and Bildmuseet in Umea in 2015 and 2014; Under Construction at Tokyo Opera Museum in 2002; Moist: Asia-Pacific Media Art at the Beijing Millennium Monument Art Museum in 2002; Image is Power at He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen in 2002; and Fantasy Zone at Art Museum of DongA Daily in 2001 and Beijing Modern Art Center in 2002. Pi Li was the curator of Media City Seoul in 2006 and has furthermore served as curator for Allôrs la Chine at Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003 and the Shanghai Bienniale in 2002. 

Recent publications include From Action to Concept (2015) and Farewell to Moralism (2018). Pi Li earned his PhD degree in history of art from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Lu Jie, Committee Member

Lu Jie is the initiator and chief curator of Long March Project, and founder of Long March Space. Lu Jie holds a BFA from the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou and an MA from the Creative Curating Program at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Since the late 1980s, Lu Jie has been carrying out his practice on art criticism, editing and curating. He has written and edited various art catalogues and art historical publications and curated a variety of Chinese contemporary art exhibitions throughout his career that spans three decades. From 2002 onwards, Lu Jie has been concentrating his efforts on cultivating the ongoing Long March Project that follows the route of the historic Long March (1934-1935) across China. Later, he founded Long March Space in 798 Art District in Beijing, one of China’s leading art galleries for exhibitions, publications, research and educational programs, playing a vital role in pursuing new avenues of production, discourse and promotion of contemporary art in China.

Trustees

Yi Luo, Trustee

Yi is the co-founder and CEO of Eunice, a risk management platform in the digital asset space. She has a strong background in the technology field. Her previous fintech venture, FreeUp, had a successful exit in 2019. Additionally, she has experience in venture capital funds, and her early career was in the creative industry. Yi was honoured as one of the ‘Most Influential Women in UK Tech’ by Computer Weekly.

Shao Qihao, Trustee

Shao is the Director of VIP relations & Partnerships of Angus Montgomery Arts, which owns and operates more than 10 art fairs and events across the world. With close to 10 years of experience, he was instrumental for the launch of several art fairs, including Art SG, Taipei Dangdai, Tokyo Gendai, Photofairs New York, etc. He has prior experience in Phillips Auction and White Cube gallery.

Shao also gained a wealth of experience in media serving on the board of directors for ArtReview and NOWNESS. He is currently an ambassador and a member of Network of Asia-Pacific Patrons group of Delfina Foundation. He graduated with MA (SocSci) and MLitt degrees from University of Glasgow.

Anne Delventhal, Trustee

This information is coming soon.

Contact

Newsletter

Sign up to our Newsletter