Will Kwan | Department of Arts, Culture and Media

Biography

Will Kwan is a Hong Kong-born, Tkaronto-based artist and educator. His artistic practice examines the diverse ways that hegemony is produced through economic systems and cultural narratives.

Kwan received his MFA from Columbia University and from 2004-2006 was a research fellow at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, The Netherlands. He has been a full-time faculty member at UofT since 2007, teaching courses in interdisciplinary art practice and time-based media at the University of Toronto Scarborough and serving as a faculty member in the Master of Visual Studies Program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the St. George campus.

Kwan's work is held in the permanent collections of M+ in Hong Kong, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and Canada Council Art Bank. His work has been exhibited at triennial and biennial exhibitions in Folkestone, Liverpool, Montreal, and Venice, and at venues including MoMA PS1, Art in General, and the Cooper Union in New York, the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the MAC VAL in Vitry-sur-Seine, the CAC in Vilnius, the Polish National Museum in Poznan, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and The Power Plant in Toronto, and The Western Front and Centre A in Vancouver. Kwan has been an artist-in-residence at the Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, the Duolun Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester, and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito.

"Tour of Terra Economicus With Artist Will Kwan." Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2021

Education

M.F.A., Columbia University, School of Arts, New York, United States

B.A., University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Teaching Interests

Contemporary art practice; Globalization and art; Contemporary art in Asia; Art, politics, and activism; Art in the public realm

Research Interests

Globalization and contemporary art; Asian contemporary art; Critical art practices; Multiculturalism and diaspora; War and visual culture)

Awards and Grants

Artist-in-residence, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, CA
Artist-in-residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, US
Chancellor Jackman Research Fellow in the Humanities, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto, CA
Artist-in-residence, ZKM Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, DE
Snider Visiting Artist Fellowship, University of Toronto Scarborough, CA
Visual Arts Fellowship, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL

Exhibitions

Exclusion Acts (solo exhibition)
March 10, 2021 – June 12, 2021
Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver, Canada
https://centrea.org/2021/01/will-kwan-exclusion-acts/
Image caption: Installation views of Exclusion Acts at Centre A, Vancouver.
Photo credit: Rachel Topham

Terra Economicus (solo exhibition)
October 2, 2020 – August 22, 2021
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Canada
https://rmg.on.ca/exhibitions/terra-economicus/
Image caption: Installation view of Terra Economicus at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
Image credit: Toni Hafkenscheid

A Park For All (public art commission)
September 2018
Evergreen/Don River Valley Park public art program, Toronto, Canada
https://www.evergreen.ca/whats-on/event/will-kwan-a-park-for-all/
Image caption: installation views of A Park for All, Wonscotonach Parklands, Toronto
Image credit: Claire Harvie

The Forest (commissioned performance)
September 30, 2017
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
https://ago.ca/events/nuit-blanche-toronto-2017
Image caption: Performance views, The Forest, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Image credit: Tom Hicken

Tous, des sang-mêlés (All, Mixed Blood) (group exhibition)
April 22, 2017 – September 3, 2017
MAC VAL (Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne), Val-de-Marne, France
http://www.macval.fr/Tous-des-sang-meles
Image caption: Installation view of Flame Test, 2009, in Tous, des sang-mêlés, MAC VAL, Val-de-Marne
Image credit: Aurelian Mole

Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto (group exhibition)
September 6, 2016 – December 10, 2016
Art Museum @ the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/form-follows-fiction-art-artist...
Image caption: Reading, 2002, in Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto, Art Museum @ UofT, Toronto
Image credit: Will Kwan

Lookout (public art commission and group exhibition)
January 21, 2014 - March 5, 2014
2014 Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone, United Kingdom
https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/artists/will-kwan/
Image caption: Installation view of Apparatus #9 (The China Watchers: Oxford, MI-6, HSBC) in Lookout, 2014 Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone
Image credit: Rebecca Farley

The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989 (Kunstwelten nach 1989) (group exhibition)
September 02, 2013 - November 25, 2013
ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art (Museum für Neue Kunst), Karlsruhe, Germany
http://www.global-contemporary.de/
Image caption: Installation view of Two Signs Articulated, 2013, in The Global Contemporary, ZKM, Karlsruhe
Image credit: ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art

flags of countries on side of a building

Touched (group exhibition)
September 18, 2010 - November 28, 2010
2010 Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, United Kingdom
https://www.biennial.com/2010/exhibition/artists/will-kwan
Image caption: Installation view of Flame Test, 2009, in Touched, 2010 Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool
Image credit: Julian Stallabrass