ABOUT LUISE
I am an independent writer, researcher, curator and art educator with a focus on the contemporary art of China.
Formerly an art educator for many years, in 2010 I was awarded the NSW Premiers Kingold Creative Arts Travelling Scholarship, which gave me the extraordinary opportunity to travel to China for the first time. My research project was focused on interviewing artists in their studios, and designing teaching resources that would provide opportunities for students to hear artists speak about their practice. On that first trip I met more than 20 artists in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. I began to write - and found that I could not stop. My blog 'An Art Teacher in China' began then, and continues. My belief in the importance of art education has underpinned my life and work, and I delight in encounters with teachers and students (at all levels).
Since then, until the pandemic closed international borders, I have travelled to China every year, publishing articles about contemporary art in various online and print journals. My question on that very first research trip - "But where are the women?" - led to the publication of my first book, 'Half the Sky: Conversations with Women Artists in China‘ in 2016. A three-month writer's residency through Beijing's Red Gate Gallery in 2013 gave me the wonderful experience of living and working in the local neighbourhood of Tuanjiehu, followed by two more residencies after that, in April and October of 2014, and a 6 week trip in October of 2015 to research new artists, finalise the interviews and try to improve my Chinese .
A role as Manager of Research for the White Rabbit Collection, from November 2015 to March 2020 was focused on researching the artists and works in the collection, recording interviews with artists in China and in Sydney, establishing a research library, an archive of artists' donated materials, and ensuring that every artist and every work in the collection is searchable online.
As an independent writer and scholar I continue to focus on the artists whose work fascinates me. Unsurprisingly, they are often women - feminism has been at the centre of my professional and writing life for as long as I can remember.
My PhD at UNSW examined gender and Chinese identity in Chinese contemporary art through case studies of four female artists who subvert the conventions of ink and calligraphy. I'm now working on a book that expands and develops that research.
Formerly an art educator for many years, in 2010 I was awarded the NSW Premiers Kingold Creative Arts Travelling Scholarship, which gave me the extraordinary opportunity to travel to China for the first time. My research project was focused on interviewing artists in their studios, and designing teaching resources that would provide opportunities for students to hear artists speak about their practice. On that first trip I met more than 20 artists in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. I began to write - and found that I could not stop. My blog 'An Art Teacher in China' began then, and continues. My belief in the importance of art education has underpinned my life and work, and I delight in encounters with teachers and students (at all levels).
Since then, until the pandemic closed international borders, I have travelled to China every year, publishing articles about contemporary art in various online and print journals. My question on that very first research trip - "But where are the women?" - led to the publication of my first book, 'Half the Sky: Conversations with Women Artists in China‘ in 2016. A three-month writer's residency through Beijing's Red Gate Gallery in 2013 gave me the wonderful experience of living and working in the local neighbourhood of Tuanjiehu, followed by two more residencies after that, in April and October of 2014, and a 6 week trip in October of 2015 to research new artists, finalise the interviews and try to improve my Chinese .
A role as Manager of Research for the White Rabbit Collection, from November 2015 to March 2020 was focused on researching the artists and works in the collection, recording interviews with artists in China and in Sydney, establishing a research library, an archive of artists' donated materials, and ensuring that every artist and every work in the collection is searchable online.
As an independent writer and scholar I continue to focus on the artists whose work fascinates me. Unsurprisingly, they are often women - feminism has been at the centre of my professional and writing life for as long as I can remember.
My PhD at UNSW examined gender and Chinese identity in Chinese contemporary art through case studies of four female artists who subvert the conventions of ink and calligraphy. I'm now working on a book that expands and develops that research.