Doryun Chong Named Chief Curator of M+

On July 15, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority announced Doryun Chong as chief curator of M+, Hong Kong’s future visual art museum, which is due to open in 2017. The current associate curator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in New York, Chong will assume his new role heading the M+ curatorial team in September.

As part of the painting and sculpture department at MoMA, Chong organized important solo and group shows, including the major exhibition “Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde,” which was selected by the New York Times as one of the best museum exhibitions of 2012. Prior to joining MoMA, Chong acted as a curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis from 2003 to 2009 and coordinated the Korea Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001. Chong is also a contributing editor for ArtAsiaPacific, and is fluent in English, Korean and Japanese, and has a working knowledge of Chinese. His career has been committed to incorporating narratives from East Asia into the broader history of Modernism and contemporary art.

“Organizations like M+, Istanbul’s Salt or the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates, to me, have reached a level of maturity and are now crucial places where we need to know what’s going on,” Chong told AAP in a recent phone interview. “It is clear to me that over the last few years, Hong Kong’s art scene has grown exponentially. I want to be part of shaping the place and the discourse,” continued Chong, who has been visiting Hong Kong for curatorial research since 2001.

Lars Nittve, executive director of M+, said in a statement yesterday that “with his extensive knowledge and understanding of the contemporary art scene, not the least in Asia, Doryun is an extraordinary addition to our growing team.”