Asia Was a Woman

"Asia Was a Woman" is a year-long curatorial research initiative that interrogates the feminization, colonization, and reductive narratives within Asian art history. The title is deliberately provocative, confronting the historical tendency to exoticize, feminize, and essentialize Asia within a binary framework. Rather than simply inserting women into the broader discourse of Asian art history, this project inverts the conventional perspective—reframing Asia itself through the lens of feminist art history.

Using past tense “was,” this title emphasized the progressive outlook where Asia is not merely defined by its historical feminization and exoticization but is actively reclaimed, reinterpreted, and recontextualized through feminist agency and contemporary discourse. It poses the question: If Asia were a woman, what does it mean to reimagine Asia through women’s agency, expression, and authorship? This project resists the erasures and subordinations historically imposed by patriarchal and colonial frameworks. It emphasizes the significant contributions of women artists who have embraced modernization and developed modernist techniques, often influenced by diasporic expeditions. By centering these artists, it challenges long-standing institutional biases that have historically marginalized their voices, highlighting the rich, multifaceted nature of modern Asian art shaped by women. 

Spanning from the late 19th century to the present, “Asia Was a Woman” highlights the evolution of women artists’ roles in art history—tracing their navigation of patriarchal structures, their resistance to gender norms, and their contemporary redefinitions of “Asian” and “woman” identities through intersectionality. This research project aims to capture Asian women’s narratives in expansive, transnational, and culturally nuanced ways, foregrounding the diversity of their experiences and contributions beyond Western institutional frameworks.


Curatorial Approach & Methodology

A strong curatorial approach demands a critical examination of frameworks, methodologies, and their implications. “Asia Was a Woman” prioritizes:

1) Challenging Conventions & Experimenting with Structure

This project does not simply showcase underrepresented voices but interrogates the ways in which representation itself is framed. It experiments with interdisciplinary methodologies, incorporating feminist theory, postcolonial discourse, and linguistic analysis to reframe Asian women’s artistic contributions.

2) Expanding Dialogue & Recontextualizing Narratives

The project highlights overlooked and underrepresented histories, artists, and communities, not as isolated subjects but within broader global art historical narratives.

It explores the ways in which Asian women artists have engaged with modernity, colonialism, nationalism, and diaspora, pushing against monolithic readings of both “Asia” and “woman.”

3) Ensuring Nuance & Avoiding Problematic Framings

Given the historical exotification and feminization of Asian art, this project is committed to decolonial and culturally specific interpretations. It prioritizes language-driven analysis, avoiding the Western curatorial tendency to flatten Asian art into a single, homogenized category.


Research Methods & Resources

1) Archival Research
2) Oral Histories
3) Artist Studio Visits & Field Research
4) Translation
5) Collaborative Convening (workshops, podcasts, panels and roundtables)


This project directly engages with global efforts to decolonize art history, rewrite marginalized narratives, and reassess the role of women in shaping artistic modernity across Asia.

“Asia Was a Woman” builds on the efforts of exhibitions who attempted to fill in the gap of underrepresented women artists in Asia from past to present, while addressing the gaps—foregrounding region-specific histories, indigenous artistic languages, and feminist methodologies.

It challenges the Western institutional tendency to categorize Asian art as a singular entity, instead emphasizing the vast diversity of experiences, geographies, and artistic methodologies across the continent.


A selection of artists, divided into three groups, includes pioneering women who have significantly shaped modern and contemporary art across Asia from 19th century till now. Their contributions span a wide range of media, methodologies, and socio-political contexts, highlighting the complexities of gender, identity, and artistic innovation within their respective regions.

1) The modernist and avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, where Asian women navigated cultural exchanges, leveraged with their gender identity and patriarchal restrictions: Pan Yuliang, Georgette Chen, Fahrenissa Zeid and others.

2) The post-war and late 20th-century innovations, in which women artists across Asia engaged with new materials, abstraction, and challenge gender imbalance in artistic expressions: Irene Chou, Yayoi Kusama, Zarina Hashmi and others.

3) The emergence of digital, conceptual, and feminist art practices in the contemporary era, where Asian women artists challenge globalization, gender constructs, and institutional exclusions: Mona Hatoum, Chatchai Puipia, Ren Light Pan and others.

“Asia Was a Woman,” a project formulated via the narratives of 30 artists, ensures a nuanced, decolonized, and intersectional reexamination of Asian women's contributions to global art history, radically reframing Asian art history through the lens of women’s agency.