Art Basel has announced that the curator and art advisor Adeline Ooi will replace Magnus Renfrew as Director Asia for Art Basel, starting in January 2015. Based in Hong Kong, Ooi will lead the development of Art Basel’s Hong Kong show moving forward and ensure a strong presence for Asia throughout Art Basel’s international activities. She will join Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler and Marco Fazzone, Director Resources and Finance, as a member of the Exe cutive&n bsp;Committee, led by Spiegler.
Born in Malaysia in 1976, Adeline Ooi holds a BA (Hons) Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins, London. Ooi has served for the last two years as Art Basel’s VIP Relations Manager for Southeast Asia, covering Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Concurrently, Adeline directed RogueArt, which she co-founded in 2009 as a cultural agency based in Malaysia, where her clients included artists, galleries, institutions, and both corporate and private col lections . From 2006 to 2008, she worked as Curator and Program Director of Valentine Willie Fine Art gallery, Kuala Lumpur.
Specializing in Asian art, she has a strong background in curating, with recent projects including: Lead Curator (Malaysia) for ‘Media/Art Kitchen’, a touring new-media art exhibition featuring artists from Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam supported by Japan Foundation; and co-curating ‘Turning Targets #5 – Dobrak!’, a group show featuring cross-disciplinary projects by Indonesian artists at Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, Indon esia.
‘I am honored to have been selected for the position and look forward to joining the team in Hong Kong,’ says new Director Asia Adeline Ooi. ‘While I have worked with Art Basel for the last two years, this new role will require a lot of learning, and my focus for the initial months as Director Asia will be on supporting the team in delivering the upcoming show in Hong Kong. I am very much looking forward to working closely with the galleries, collectors and institutions to furt her deve lop the show in Hong Kong and support the art scenes across Asia.’
‘I am delighted for Adeline to join the Art Basel team as our Director Asia,’ says Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler. ‘With her wide background in curating and advising, Adeline brings experience and contacts across the diverse art scenes within Asia and the Asia- Pacific region. She also has an extensive network within the Western artworld and experience in dealing with every level of the art market. I look forward to seeing how her energy and personality will shape our future Hong Kon g shows and amplify Asia’s many dynamic art scenes within Art Basel’s activities worldwide.’
