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Mikala Tai, who was appointed director of Sydney’s 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art on June 9, and will assume her new role in September. Courtesy 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
On June 9, Sydney’s 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art announced the appointment of curator and academic Mikala Tai as its incoming director. The new role will see Tai relocate from Melbourne to Sydney to assume her position in September.
“4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art has long played a vital role in strengthening the ties between Australia and the Asia-Pacific,” said Tai in an email to ArtAsiaPacific. “I look forward to extending these ties and collaborating with artists from our shared region as we continue to challenge, debate and celebrate contemporary concerns on a global platform.”
The position comes following the departure of former director Aaron Seeto, who moved to Brisbane to take up the position of curatorial manager of Asian and Pacific Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in April of this year.
Previously, Tai served as director at MiFA (Melbourne Intercultural Fine Art) Gallery and managed the cultural program for the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. She is currently a sessional lecturer and tutor at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne and has been the creative director for Supergraph, a contemporary graphic art fair held annually in Melbourne since its inception in 2013. A specialist in Australian design and contemporary Asian art, Tai recently submitted her doctorate at the University of New South Wales Art & Design where she researched the social and economic influences of global cities on the development of China’s arts infrastructure.
The 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art was established in Sydney in 1997 as an initiative of the non-profit Asian Australia Artists’ Association. The key goals of the institution include supporting cross-cultural dialogues between Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region, and to foster research and development of contemporary Asian and Australian visual art and culture through its exhibitions and events programs.
Denise Tsui is assistant editor at ArtAsiaPacific.