In-/Visible Spectrums
不-/可见的光谱

Paul GLADSTON is the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair Professor of Contemporary Art, University of New South Wales, Sydney, a Distinguished Affiliate Fellow of the UK-China Humanities Alliance, Tsinghua University, Beijing and a member of the governing board of the journal Third Text. His book-length publications include Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History (Reaktion 2014), awarded ‘best publication’, Awards of Art China (2015), and Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (Bloomsbury 2019). He is the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Intellect) and the book series Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics (Palgrave) as well as being the editor of numerous collected editions and special journal editions, including Rethinking Displays of Chinese Contemporary Art: Cultural Diversity and Tradition (Palgrave 2024) and Visual Culture Wars at the Borders of Contemporary China: Art, Design, Film, New Media and the Prospects of “Post-West" Contemporaneity (Palgrave 2021). He was the curatorial director of the exhibition ‘Yique’s Way – Mutuality in Extremes’ (Ugly Duck, London 2024), organizer of a scholarly roundtable accompanying the exhibition ‘Strange Wonders: Jizi and Pioneers of Contemporary Ink Art from China’, SOAS Gallery (2024) and an academic advisor to the internationally acclaimed exhibition ‘Art of Change: New Directions from China’ (Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre, London 2012).

Lynne HOWARTH-GLADSTON is an artist, curator, and researcher. She has exhibited her paintings internationally in China, the UK, and Australia, and was co-curator, with Paul Gladston, of numerous scholarly exhibitions, including ‘New China/New Art: Contemporary Video from Shanghai and Hangzhou,’ (Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK 2015), ‘Dis-/Continuing Traditions: Contemporary Video Art from China’ (Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2021) and ‘Rain on the Platform – Tan Lijie, Selected Works’ (National Chen Kung University Gallery, Taiwan 2024). Her Ph.D. thesis is the first to engage critically with the work of the nineteenth-century botanical painter, Marianne North. She is the author of the monograph Marianne North: A Victorian Painter for the 21st Century (Lund Humphries 2024) and was a contributor to the BBC4 documentary, Kew’s Forgotten Queen: The Life of Marianne North (2016). 

Gladston and Howarth-Gladston were resident for five years in mainland China at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo China (2005-2010) and have written extensively about Chinese contemporary art with an attention to the concerns of critical theory.

Kiki Tianqi YU is Reader in Cinematic Art at Queen Mary University of London. She is the PI of AHRC funded project “Meditative Cinema: Daoism, Wellbeing and Film” (2025-28), the author of ‘My’ Self on Camera (2019), the co-editor of Essay Film and Narrative Techniques (2025), China’s iGeneration (2014). Her award-winning films include Memory of Home (2009), China’s van Goghs (2016). Her curation includes “The Spirit of Mountains and Water” (London 2023), “Dancing with Water” (London 2024) and Memory Talks (2019).

Hongwei BAO is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK, where he co-directs the Centre for Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. He is the author of Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China (NIAS Press, 2018), Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture under Postsocialism (Routledge, 2020), Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance (Routledge, 2022) and Queering the Asian Diaspora (Sage, 2024). He coedited Contemporary Queer Chinese Art (Bloomsbury, 2023), Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (Bloomsbury, 2024) and the Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality (Routledge, 2024). As a creative writer, he has published the poetry pamphlet Dream of the Orchid Pavillion (Big White Shed 2024) and the poetry collection The Passion of the Rabbit God (Valley Press 2024).

LIN Zi is an independent critic, curator, and Co-founder of YounGo Cutlure and Art Agency. He is dedicated to fostering international art exchanges, improving the ecology of localized art scenes and integrating psychoanalytic discourse into curatorial and critical practices. In 2017, Lin earned a Master of Arts with honors degree in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, USA. He also holds dual bachelor’s degrees in history and psychology from Acadia University in Canada. Since 2017, he has curated over 80 exhibitions and art events globally. Between 2016 and 2020, Lin organized 15 exhibitions in New York including ‘When Black Swallows Red’ at La Mama Galleria, showcasing emerging New York-based artists (2019). More recently he curated ‘ArtParking’ in the Capital Free Trade Cultural Zone, the ‘Facade 798 Gallery Tour Exhibition’ in Beijing’s 798 Art District and the group exhibition ‘Those Men Came from the Moon’ in association with the ShanghArt Gallery, Shanghai’ (all 2024) in addition to the public art project ‘Artists Without Resumes’ at the Rice Mill Art District, Hangzhou (2025). He also organized and curated the public art festival ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors Art Carnival’ at DHGE and Art Flow Art District, Shanghai (2025). Lin’s practice as a curator and critic bridges interdisciplinary methodologies, global perspectives and experimental public engagement, redefining contemporary art’s role in cultural and social discourse.

Yique is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London and a Hangzhou-based artist and curator. He is known internationally for his art action East London Core Socialist Values (2023) which attracted conflicting high-profile commentary in the press, in situ and online when it was staged at London’s graffiti art quarter on London’s Brick Lane. Yique and Lin Zi recently co-curated a group exhibition in Hangzhou titled ‘No Resume.’ Yique and Lin have strong connections with emerging artists in mainland China specializing in video art. Yique has curated two events related to the SOAS exhibition ‘In/Visible Spectrums’: a three-day closed screening of videos and discussion panels ‘Absent Participation–Moving Images as Art’ at the Creativity and Innovation Center, Longgang District, Shenzhen City, and with Paul Gladston and Lin Zi a public screening of the work of four video artists from mainland China at the Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC), Shenzhen (both 2025).

Frank VIGNERON is Chair Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He holds a Ph.D. in Chinese Art History from the Paris VII University, a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Paris IV Sorbonne University and a Doctor of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the history of Chinese painting from the eighteenth century onwards and aspects of Chinese contemporary art seen in a global context. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics Hong Kong and a Museum Expert Adviser for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR. Professor Vigneron is also a practicing artist. He has held several solo exhibitions in Hong Kong and has taken part in local and international group exhibitions.