Zoë Chan

Zoë Chan is an independent curator and critic with over a decade of experience working in the Canadian contemporary art milieu. In her research, she has focused on youth, food, documentary, primitivism, and discourse around representation and identity. Her past curatorial projects have been presented at MSVU Art Gallery (Halifax), Articule (Montréal), Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University (Sherbrooke, Quebec), the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), and Kamloops Art Gallery (British-Columbia). She has an upcoming show entitled Performing Lives to be held in the winter 2018 at Optica (Montreal). 

In 2014, she was one of twelve international curators selected to participate in ICI’s Curatorial Intensive program in New York. She has contributed to Canadian Art, C Magazine, esse arts + opinions, and Momus, among other publications. She is a two-time recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts' Project Grant to Curators and Critics, and in 2015, received its Joan Lowndes Award in recognition of excellence in critical or curatorial writing. She has a Master’s degree in art history from Concordia University (Montréal). 

Recent exhibitions

2018

Performing Lives, Optica, Montréal, January 20-March 17, with artists Bertille Bak, Lisa Jackson, Yoshua Okón, Helen Reed, May Truong

2017

superyoung, Kamloops Art Gallery, April 8-July 1, with artists Cooper Battersby & Emily Vey Duke, Mark Clintberg, Sarah Gotowka, Emily Gove, Terrance Houle, Roselina Hung, Jenny Lin, Hazel Meyer, Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf, Walter Scott

Vivre ensemble - The Connections, co-curated with Gentiane Bélanger, Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, January 19-March 11, with artists Caroline Boileau, Lucie Chan, Aleesa Cohene, Pierre Durette, Shié Kasai, Leisure, Marc Ngui, Sam Taylor Johnson, and Caroline Monnet (as part of Videotank)

Kids these days, Kamloops Art Gallery, April 8-July 2017; MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax, January 16-March 13, 2016; Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, September 10-December 6 2014, with artists Jo-Anne Balcaen, Sarah Febbraro, Kerri Flannigan, Emmanuelle Léonard, Kyla Mallett, Helen Reed, Guillaume Simoneau, Althea Thauberger

2014

Everyday Cooking, Cooking Every Day, co-curated with Mark Clintberg, Articule, Montréal, August 12-27, with guests Dean Baldwin, Gentiane Bélanger, Claudia Fancello, Emeren Garcia, k.g. Guttman, Leisure, Shié Kasai, Kelly Keenan, Jeff Kulak, John Latour, Pierre-François Ouellette, Marina Polosa, Pablo Rodriguez, David K. Ross, Theresa Rowat, Cheryl Sim, Johanne Sloan, Mary Sui Yee Wong

2012

Mythologies personnelles/Personal Mythologies, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), January 14-February18, with artists Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo & Marigold Santos