Asia Art Archive (AAA) is a nonprofit organisation based in Hong Kong that documents the recent history of contemporary art in Asia within an international context. AAA incorporates material that members of local art communities find relevant to the field, and provides educational and public programming. AAA is one of the most comprehensive publicly accessible collections of research materials in the field. In activating its collections, AAA initiates public, educational, and residency programmes. AAA also offers research grants and publishes art and cultural criticism on its online platform 'Like a Fever'. AAA is a registered charity in Hong Kong governed by a board of directors and guided by a rotating Advisory Board. The collection is accessible free of charge at AAA in Hong Kong's Sheung Wan District at 233 Hollywood Road, and searchable via an online catalog. Asia Art Archive's library was renovated in 2022, increasing its shelving capacity by fifty percent. International locations are based in New York (Asia Art Archive in America) and New Delhi (Asia Art Archive in India).

History

Asia Art Archive was founded in 2000 by Claire Hsu, Johnson Chang Tsong-zung, and Ronald Arculli with a mandate to document and secure the multiple recent histories of contemporary art in the region. Hsu became its first Executive Director. In September 2021, Christopher K. Ho was appointed as the Executive Director of Asia Art Archive, after Hsu stepped down and moved to co-chair the board of the organisation. In over 20 years, AAA has collected over 120,000 records related to contemporary art. The Archive has organised more than 500 programmes and projects beyond its library and archival activities. These range from research-driven projects and discursive gatherings to residencies and youth and community projects. Speakers at public talks and symposia have included Ai Weiwei, Xu Bing, Luke Ching Chin Wai, David Elliott, Guerilla Girls, Huang Yongping, Yuko Hasegawa, Htein Lin, Mariko Mori, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, ruangrupa, Nilima Sheikh, Mali Wu, Zhang Peili. In 2007, AAA launched a residency programme to encourage new readings of the physical material in the Archive, to offer individuals the chance to work with material outside their usual concentrations, and to support projects around the idea of the ‘archive’. International residents have included Raqs Media Collective and Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries; local residents have included art critic and curator Jasper Lau Kin Wah, and artists Cedric Maridet, Pak Sheung Chuen, and Wong Wai Yin. AAA has also initiated focused research projects that build areas of specialisation in the collection. These include the four-year project ‘Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art 1980-1990’ which focused on the history of contemporary Chinese art in the 1980s, the digitisation of the personal archives of Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram from Delhi, and the digitisation of the archives of Ray Langenbach from Malaysia, Salon Natasha in Hanoi, Ellen Pau in Hong Kong, Mrinalini Mukherjee from India, and Blue Space in Ho Chi Minh City. The chair of the board since 2003 was Jane DeBevoise. In 2021, Christopher K. Ho was named the Executive Director of Asia Art Archive, with Claire Hsu moving to co-chair of the board with Benjamin Cha. DeBevoise remains a board member of AAA in Hong Kong, as well as Board Chair of Asia Art Archive in America.

Archive acquisition

The Archive's collection policy is designed to reflect the priorities of local and regional artists, art organisations, galleries, critics, and academics. In January 2023, there were more than 120,000 records available through the online library catalogue. About 70% of AAA's acquisitions are donations; some are unsolicited but many are gathered by AAA's researchers.

Research collections

The research collections held by AAA include primary source documents such as artists’ writings, sketches, and original visual documentation. As well as personal material donated by individuals, there are rare periodicals and publications. The archive keeps files of individuals, events, and organisations, and produces some of its own material, including images and audio-visual material. Other collections collate original sketches and texts by artists, including Roberto Chabet (Philippines), Ha Bik Chuen (China), Lee Wen (Singapore), Lu Peng (China), Mao Xuhui (China), Wu Shanzhuan (China), Nilima Sheikh (India), and Zhang Xiaogang (China). The archive collaborated with ARTstor to digitise the collection, making the scans available online through the two organisations' websites.

Selected projects

2021 onwards

2011-2020

2000-2010