Empty Gallery – Jes Fan

Jes Fan (b. Scarborough, Canada) lives and works in Hong Kong and Brooklyn, USA. Fan originally trained in glass making, but has expanded his practice to encompass diverse mediums and approaches. From videos to sculptures, his trans-disciplinary practice speculates on the intersection of biology and identity in relation to the materiality of the gendered and racialised body. Fan is the recipient of various fellowships and residencies, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2022), Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2017), as well as the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019-2020). Recent exhibitions include MIT List Visual Arts Center, UCCA Dune (2022); Kunsthall Trondheim (2021); X Museum (2020); Rockbund Art Museum, China (2019); Hayward Gallery, UK (2019); Empty Gallery, Hong Kong (2018); and Museum of Arts and Design, USA (2017). Fan has also participated in numerous artist residencies with institutions including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Recess Art, Smack Mellon and Pioneer Works. He also participated in the Venice Biennale (2022), New Museum Triennial (2021), Liverpool Biennale (2021), Sydney Biennale (2020), Socrates Annual (2019). In 2023, he will present a second solo show with Empty Gallery, titled Sites of Wounding: Part 1.

Education

2014

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) BFA in Glass

Awards

2022

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant

2021

Gold Art Prize

2020

NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship (Sculpture/Craft)

BMW Art Journey Award, Finalist

2019

Devra Freelander Fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park

Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Jerome Foundation

2017

Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant Recipient

Edward and Sally Van Lier Fellowship, Museum of Arts and Design

Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts

2016

Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship, Wheaton Arts

2014

Award of Excellence, RISD Glass Department

2013

John A. Chironna Fellowship, RISD

Selected Collections

Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France

Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA

Sunpride Foundation, Hong Kong

X Museum, Beijing

Solo Exhibitions

Upcoming

Sites of Wounding: Part 1, Empty Gallery, HK

2018

Mother is a Woman, Empty Gallery, HK

2017

Disposed to Add, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

No Clearance in Niche, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY

2016

Ot(her), Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI

Biennials and Triennials

2022

The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Cecilia Alemani, Venice

2021

Soft Water Hard Stone, The Fifth New Museum Triennial, New Museum, New York

The Stomach and the Port, 11th Liverpool Biennale, United Kingdom

2020

NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia

Where do we begin?, X Museum Triennial

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022

Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere, MIT List Visual Arts Center

Liquid Ground, UCCA Dune

from the underwater mountains fire makes islands, Pivô, Brazil

Transactions with Eternity, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

The odds are good, the goods are odd, Lisson Gallery, NYC

Retrograde, Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong

Breaking Water, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

A Través, James Cohan Gallery, NYC

2021 -2022

Sex Ecologies, Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway

2021

CAMP FIRES THE BODY AS A QUEER STAGE, Last Tango, Zurich

2020-2021

The Body Electric, Museum of Art and Design, Miami

2019

✧Slow Hand Movements ✧* Gentle Whispers * Water * Salt * Tingles *, Boers-li Gallery, NYC

Forget Sorrow Grass: An Archaeology of Feminine Time, Times Museum, Guangzhou

The Socrates Annual 2019, Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC

CAMP FIRES THE BODY AS A QUEER STAGE, UV Estudios, Argentina

Kiss My Genders, Hayward Gallery, London

An Opera for Animals, Rockbound Art Museum, Shanghai

An Opera for Animals, Para Site, Hong Kong

In my room, Antenna Space, Shanghai

no body to talk to, Invisible Exports, NYC

SportCult, Team Gallery, NYC

2018

Paradox: Haptic Body in the Age of AI, Carnegie Mellon University

Raw Design, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, USA,

2017

Uproot, Smack Mellon, New York, NY

Glass Ceiling, UrbanGlass, New York, NY

Timeshare, Zaha Hadid Building, NY

Set on Freedom, Queens Museum, NY

In Search of Miss Ruthless, Para Site, Hong Kong

From Dada to Tada, Fisher and Parrish, Brooklyn, NY

Threshold, Underdonk Gallery, New York, NY

Stranger Things, Outpost Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2016

Whereabouts, Glazenhuis Museum, Belgium

2014

Material Location, UrbanGlass, New York, NY

Residency

2019-2020

Smack Mellon, NYC, USA

2019

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, NE, USA

Recess Art, NYC, USA

2018

Alfred University, NY, USA

2017

Tyler School of Art, PA, USA

Spring Workshop, Hong Kong

Pioneer Works, NYC, USA

Bibliography

2021

“Best! Letters from Asian Americans in the arts”, Edited by Christopher K. Ho and Daisy Nam, Paper Monument

“Water-Tea-Pee-Mold-Web”, Liverpool Biennial Reader

2017

“The Artist’s Artists: Lee Relvas”, Artforum, December Issue, print

Teaching/ Lectures

2021

Visiting Artist, Columbia University

Visiting Artist, UCLA

2020

Visiting Artist, University of Wisconsin Madison

Visiting Artist, The New School

Visiting Artist, Yale University, Art History Department

Visiting Artist, Mead Museum at Amherst College

Visiting Artist, RISD Glass

Visiting Artist, ACE Open

Visiting Artist, Parsons School of Design

2019

Visiting Artist, ICA Virginia

2018

Visiting Artist, Literature Department, University of California San Diego

2017

“Feminine Essence: Estrogenic Facial”, Spring Workshop, Hong Kong

“Feminine Presence: Biology as Craft”, Museum of Arts and Design, NYC

Visiting Critic, Sculpture Department, RISD, RI

2016

Visiting Critic, Sculpture Department, Pratt Institute, NYC

Visiting Artist, Academy of Visual Arts, Baptist University, Hong Kong

2015

Visiting Critic, Glass Department, RISD, RI

JF_ArchivesPress_2022Nov
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2023-02-07	Jes Fan in Symbionts Reviewed in Artforum
	Cassie Packard reviews “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere” at the MIT List Visual Arts Center for the February 2023 issue of Artforum. “In Jes Fan’s Systems II, 2018, blown-glass sacs droop over a fleshy resin-and-wood armature reminiscent of both medical gas piping and petrified intestines. The deflated globes are clouded or streaked with synthesized biological materials of social significance, such as eumelanin, which is responsible for skin pigmentation, as well as pharmaceutically manufactured female and male sex hormones that, among other things, enable gender transition. Nothing is hermetically sealed; the enmeshment of nature and culture is conveyed with a poetic literalism.” Read more …
2023-01-07	Taro Masushio in Dear Alien, Dear Doppelganger at The Clemente Center
	Curated by Michelle Song at the Abrazo Gallery at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, “Dear Alien, Dear Doppelganger” presents photographs, videos and installation works that explore queerness as performances of doubling. The inter-generational group of artists rework archives, popular culture representations, family photos and dominant constructs of race and sexuality through the duality of intimacy and alienation. Featuring artists Jaguar Mary X, Taro Masushio, Luna Luis Ortiz, Lisa Ross. On view: January 15 – February 26, 2023. Read more …
2022-12-27	Jes Fan in Multispecies Clouds at Macalline Arts Center, Beijing
	Curated by Yang Beichen as part of their “Who Owns Nature?” series, Multispecies Clouds is now on view at Macalline Arts Center in Beijing, through April 16, 2023. Artists: Carolina Caycedo & David de Rozas, Sergio Rojas Chaves, Sheryl Cheung, Rometti Costales, Patricia Domínguez, Jes Fan, Fei Yining, Liu Chuang, Long Pan, Uriel Orlow, Rice Brewing Sisters Club, Pamela Rosenkranz, Yi Xin Tong, Wu Chi-Yu, Trevor Yeung, Zhang Wenzhi, Zheng Mahler “Multispecies Clouds” marks the first chapter of a three-part research-based curatorial project, “Who Owns Nature?” forthcoming at the Macalline Art Center. In this exhibition, we seek to present a metaphor for new interspecies relationships, which on the one hand, point to the networked structure of different life forms and, on the other hand, involve a global system of exchange, within which species in the Anthropocene move about through information, material, and energy. Within the “clouds”, the boundaries of species blur, effacing the distinction between the center and the periphery; hence their “identities” constantly intermingle, reshape and transform, and this interweaving process gradually evolves into a sprawling and vast open world.” Read more …
2022-12-23	Jes Fan in Myth Makers - Spectrosynthesis III at Tai Kwun Contemporary
	Co-presented by Sunpride Foundation and Tai Kwun Contemporary, Myth Makers “circles around the core notion of “queer mythologies” and delves into modern and contemporary mythologies along with practices of the body, by gathering a diverse range of artistic idioms related to LGBTQ+ perspectives from over 60 artists from Asia and its diasporas. The exhibition draws inspiration from artists addressing “queer mythologies”, who highlight either same-sex love and desire or gender fluidity as found in ancient belief systems and traditions in Asia. At the same time, the exhibition also highlights the “new traditions” of our times, of spectacle and celebrity, playful and/or transgressive, along with non-normative bodily practices and histories in artworks by contemporary artists.” Jes Fan’s Visible Woman (2018) is on view from the Sunpride Foundation Collection on the third chapter 3/F of the exhibition, Queer Futurities. Curators: Inti Guerrero and Chantal Wong Read more …
2022-11-25	Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, Tishan Hsu in Memory of Rib at N/A, Seoul
	Curated by Jeppe Ugelvig, Memory of Rib is now on view at N/A, Seoul. Featuring Rinella Alfonso, Jess Beige, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, Tishan Hsu, Eusung Lee, Jack O’Brien, Jordan Strafer, Reina Sugihara and Sun Woo. Read more …
2022-11-17	Tishan Hsu interviewed by Dean Kissick
	Tishan Hsu was recently interviewed by Dean Kissick for Highsnobiety magazine. See more of the interview at the link below. “Tishan Hsu’s compositions are disorientating. They are screens you could lose yourself in. Everything is warped, or melting into something else. Bodies are disassembled. Eyes, noses, and ears are scattered Picasso-like about the place. They might seem cold and impersonal, dehumanizing even, but they come from his very personal experience of living through momentous and ongoing changes we have yet to understand. They seem to embody some of the keenest questions of the 21st century: like how has digital technology transformed our experience of reality? How has it affected our sense of selfhood? What level of agency are we able to retain as the tools we create spiral out of control, and where is art in all of this?” Read more …
2022-11-17	Tishan Hsu on Artists in the World Podcast
	“Artists in the World uplifts artistic voices and explores multiple histories, geographies, and current events while creating space for new ideas and possibilities. Hosted by Carnegie Museum of Art’s director of education and public programs, Dana Bishop-Root, and WQED-FM’s artistic director, Jim Cunningham, the new podcast series features cross-disciplinary conversations, artist talks, readings, and performances that position artists in conversation with individuals across disciplines, practice, and place.” Listen to episode 2, with Tishan Hsu and Ryan Inouye, here. “Episode two explores the cognitive and physical effects of technology. Tishan Hsu, an artist whose work examines the implications of the accelerated use of technology and artificial intelligence, and Ryan Inouye, associate curator for the 58th Carnegie International, discuss transformative technological advances on our lives.” Read more …
2022-11-15	Ari Larissa Heinrich's "Erecta", Andy Warhol Foundation Writers Grant Pamphlet
	“Ari Larissa Heinrich’s “Ejecta” takes as its subject Jes Fan’s melanin sculptures and the geology of metaphoric language.” “Ejecta” is one of five pamphlets forthcoming from The Andy Warhol Foundation Writers Grant’s new pamphlet series, titled Cookie Jar. Volume 1, Home is a Foreign Place, which includes “Ejecta”, will be published on November 15, 2022. Read more …
2022-11-10	Garage Exchange: Maruša Sagadin & Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork at MAK Center for Art and Architecture
	Exhibition dates: Thursday, November 10 — Sunday, January 29, 2023 “The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is pleased to present the twentieth iteration of Vienna — Los Angeles Garage Exchange: Maruša Sagadin & Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork. Vienna-based artist Maruša Sagadin collaborates with Los Angeles artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork. The artists respond to each other’s work to develop an exhibition for the Mackey Apartments’ Garage Top gallery. Sagadin and Kiyomi Gork both present sculptural works— Kiyomi Gork continues their attenuator series of soft sculptures, designed to absorb unwanted sound in a space, but with an architectural focus that interacts with a newly produced series of architectural paper works by Sagadin. A sound element by Kiyomi Gork will also be created in response to the shared environment with Sagadin— fabricated on site and further testing the spatial and symbolic relationship between two- and three-dimensional urbanism. Sagadin and Kiyomi Gork will engage in a collaborative-method of work-creation and installation. Their shared Garage Exchange project intends to evolve over-time in response to each other’s work and the Mackey Apartments Garage Top space.” Read more …
2022-11-09	Jes Fan UCLA Department of Art Lecture
	[Live event] At 7:30 PM PST on November 10, Jes Fan will present as part of the UCLA Department of Art Lecture series at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. On November 11, 2022, at 2:00-4:00PM GMT +8, Ari Heinrich will give a talk on ‘Melanin in the Art of Jes Fan’ at National Chengchi University Taipei. Registration: https://linktr.ee/queer_taiwan Heinrich’s new pamphlet on Jes Fan, titled Ejecta, will be published by the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers grant on November 15. Read more …