The artist and educator will officially start at AAA in September
Artist and educator Christopher K Ho has been appointed the new executive director of Asia Art Archive (AAA), an independent, non-profit organisation based in Hong Kong that is dedicated to documenting recent art history from around the region. Ho, who currently lives in New York, will move to Hong Kong to take up the role. He officially starts in September.
Ho has big shoes to fill: AAA's outgoing executive director is Claire Hsu, who co-founded the non-profit in 2000 and has led it ever since. Hsu will become co-chair of AAA's board alongside Benjamin Cha, the chief executive of Grosvenor Asia Pacific.
"I couldn’t be more delighted to be handing over the executive director baton to Chris who embodies the values that we hold dear at AAA—that of generosity, openness, intellectual curiosity and professional integrity," says Hsu.
"We have great respect for his vision and experience as an artist and educator, and have no doubt that AAA will thrive under his leadership as one of the leading organisations dedicated to the writing of a more generous art history. I am excited to be able to support Chris and the team alongside the board to herald AAA in to the next decade."
Ho has previously worked as both an artist and an academic. He was on the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design between 2000 and 2018, and has also taught at Cranbrook Art Academy, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Pratt Institute, all in the US.
His art has been exhibited at institutions around the world, including at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Dallas Contemporary, the Asia Society Hong Kong Center and Para Site. As a writer, he has contributed to Yishu, Artforum China and Art Review, among many others.
Ho was also on the boards of Asia Art Archive in America and AAA—from 2015 and 2018 respectively—until 2021.
“Over the past twenty years, AAA has documented, shared, and catalysed the complexities of art, and of Asia, with both care and fearlessness," says Ho. "I relish the opportunity to work alongside the team, and to collaborate with its communities and constituents, in Hong Kong and beyond. I am buoyed by the organisation’s history, and am excited for its near and distant future.”