Shinji Ohmaki
A prominent figure in contemporary Japanese art, born in Gifu, Japan in 1971. He graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1995. Shinji has been invited to create dreamlike fashion shows for LV and fashion spaces in Paris for Hermès. He specializes in sculpture and dynamic installation art. Shinji’s works are highly poetic and public, perfectly embodying the dialogue between space and artwork. His creations reveal a profound understanding of the passage of time and disappearance, as well as warm concern for society. He often integrates traditional Japanese materials and techniques into his works. Shinji’s works have been presented in several internationally renowned exhibitions and are included in public collections, enjoying a high reputation in the field of contemporary Asian art.
Nanjo Fumio
Born in Tokyo in 1949, Nanjo Fumio graduated from Keio University’s Faculty of Economics in 1972 and its Faculty of Literature (Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Science) in 1977. He currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Mori Art Museum (since 2020), as well as General Advisor to the Tawada Art Center (since 2020) and Senior Advisor to the Hirosaki Museum of Modern Art (since 2020). He is also a former Director of the Maebashi Museum (since May 2023), Director-Advisor of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in the Philippines (since 2016), and Director of the Singapore Art Museum (since 2020). Previously, he served as Deputy Director (2002-2006) and Director (November 2006-2019) of the Mori Art Museum, and worked at renowned cultural institutions such as the Japan Foundation (1978-1986).
Jie Chen
Jie Chen, a writer, graduated from the Chinese Department of Sichuan Normal University and has held various positions including cultural reporter, supplement editor, and editor at a publishing house. Currently residing in Chengdu, she is engaged in professional writing. Her publications include essay collections such as “Broken Dance,” “Gorgeous Turn,” “Aging with Pen,” “The Observable Path,” “Caramel,” “Once Again into Red,” and “Into the Deepest Water.” She has also authored over thirty collections of novels, including “Wine Red Ice Blue,” “Poison,” and “Unbidden Zither.”
Li Jie
Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the A4 Art Museum. Li Jie focuses on empowering children, social aesthetic education, and the co-creative educational ecology. Over the past decade, through the iSTART Children’s Art Festival initiated by the A4 Art Museum, Li Jie has built a mutually supportive and diverse network of educational activities among museums, schools, communities, families, and the internet. This network differs from the traditional closed education systems in families, schools, and museums, evolving into a more socially supported open educational ecosystem. Children from urban and rural areas, as well as those with special needs, are free to express themselves, co-create projects with supportive adult partners, and gradually build a decentralized creative environment that can thrive in different regional cultures. Li Jie is committed to deconstructing the unidirectional education power relations, using the authentic thoughts and actions of children and addressing real social issues, to construct a better future with the openness and artistic thinking of art. In 2016, Li Jie received the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) grant, and in 2017, he won the inaugural “Hyundai Blue Prize for Innovative Future Curators.” In 2021, his work “Childhood Art Museum” was recommended as the “2021 New Beijing Daily Annual Reading.”
