Weekly News Roundup: February 3, 2025
By The Editors
Key visual of the 2025 Okayama Art Summit. Photo (right) by Gautier Deblonde. Courtesy Okayama Art Summit.
Okayama Art Summit 2025 Announces Theme and Participants
The Okayama Art Summit executive committee has revealed the theme and participating guests for the 2025 edition of the Okayama Art Summit. Held triennially in Okayama, western Japan, the international exhibition transforms public spaces around the city into venues for world-class contemporary art. This year’s theme, “The Parks of Aomame,” is inspired by a character named Aomame in Haruki Murakami’s acclaimed novel 1Q84 (2009). The participating guests include 30 individuals from 12 countries and regions—artists, writers, thinkers, musicians, architects, designers, and scientists. Last year, Algerian artist Philippe Parreno was appointed as artistic director of the 2025 edition. In a statement, he said that, “[e]ach [participant was] selected for their unique ability to inspire and provoke new forms,” adding that “this group will transform the city into a laboratory where the organic and synthetic, the biotic and artificial, and the real and virtual merge.” Now in its fourth iteration, the Okayama Art Summit will run from September 26 to November 24. For the first time ever, the event will offer free admission, enabling a broader local and international demographic to access contemporary art in person.
Portrait of CASEY WEI. Photo by Alison Boulier. Courtesy Stir.
Casey Wei Receives the Eighth Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize
The Vancouver-based Polygon Gallery has announced interdisciplinary artist, musician, filmmaker, and writer Casey Wei as the winner of its eighth Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize, Canada’s largest accolade for emerging artists. Wei was selected for her three-channel video installation The Zhang Clan (2024) by an international three-person jury—comprising Grace Deveney, the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg associate curator of photography and media at the Art Institute of Chicago; Aram Moshayedi, the interim chief curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; and renowned Canadian artist Brian Jungen. The jury described her work as “a compelling document of diasporic experience, upending the conventions of documentary filmmaking.” Established in 2015, the biannual Lind Prize is dedicated to the late Canadian media mogul and philanthropist Phil Lind, who harbored a passion for contemporary art and photography. As part of the award, Wei will receive a cash prize of CAD 25,000 (USD 16,980) and the opportunity to develop a project with Polygon Gallery.
Installation view of CHIH-WEI CHIU’s Huge Things by the River, 2024, mixed media, dimensions variable. Photo by Studio Millspace. Courtesy Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts Announces Recipients of Annual Prize
The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts has announced three emerging Taiwanese artists as the first prize winners of the 2025 Kaohsiung Prize, selected from a total of 376 artists who registered for this year’s edition. The recipients include: Chih-Wei Chiu, for his large-scale sculptural and video installation Huge Things by the River (2024); Yi-Hsuan Lin for his painting series entitled Happycore world company (year unknown); and Chung-Ping Wang for his photographic series, The Depth of Flatness (2024). Each artist was selected for their reflection on the contemporary social landscape and the potential for their works to inspire new ways of thinking. As part of the award, the winners will each receive NTD 500,000 (USD 15,150) and exhibit their work in a group show from January 25 to April 2 at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.
Portrait of MARINA TABASSUM. Photo by Soane Medal. Courtesy Dezeen.
Marina Tabassum to Design 2025 Serpentine Pavilion
London’s Serpentine Gallery has announced that its 2025 Serpentine Pavilion will be designed by Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum and her Dhaka-based firm, Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), which is known for its sociopolitically and environmentally engaged designs. Entitled A Capsule in Time (2025), Tabassum’s proposal will comprise four kinetic wooden capsule frames with a translucent facade, inspired by Shamiyana tents or awnings in South Asia. In a press release, Tabassum stated that the design “reflect[s] on the transient nature of the commission which appears . . . as a capsule of memory and time,” adding that the Pavilion “offers a unique platform under the summer sun to unite as people rich in diversity.” Marking the 25th edition of the annual architectural commission, A Capsule in Time will be displayed in the historic Kensington Gardens from June 6 to October 26.
