Contemporary art and ecological Transformation in East and Southeast Asia

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Friday, February 20, 2026 | 5:30pm to 7pm

Editor Meqin Wang, with contributors Midori Yamamura, Vicki Kwon and Stephanie Benzaquen-Gautier, will present on Contemporary art and ecological Transformation in East and Southeast Asia (Manchester University Press, March 2026), an edited volume that examines how contemporary art in East and Southeast Asia confronts environmental destruction, ecological degradation, and social injustice in the backdrop of global ecological crises. The book explores how contemporary art in the region confronts environmental destruction and social injustice amid global ecological crises. It introduces the concept of artistic remediation, showcasing how artists intervene in and respond to ecological challenges through various creative practices. These methods range from creating thought-provoking artworks and fostering non-human agency to advocating for biodiversity, promoting eco-education, and protesting against capitalist extractivism.

Across eleven chapters, twelve contributors delve into these artistic interventions, examining how artists, curators, and organizations reflect on and inspire action for ecological change. The authors analyze how individual creators and collectives collaborate with activists and local communities to confront ecological injustices and raise broader consciousness. By documenting these diverse forms of remediation, the book not only advances a socially engaged art history but also presents a compelling vision for the future, highlighting art’s power to inspire a more just and sustainable planet.

Purchase Book (Discount Code – EVENT30): https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/

Author Bio

Meiqin Wang is a professor in the Department of Art at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), specializing in modern and contemporary Chinese art. Her research and teaching focus on the cultural and political context of artistic production, with a particular emphasis on the social, political, economic, and institutional implications of recent developments in contemporary Chinese art. She has authored several books, including Socially Engaged Art in Contemporary China: Voices from Below (2019) and Urbanization and Contemporary Chinese Art (2016). She has also published numerous articles and essays in various journals, such as "Pandemic, Censorship and Creative Protests via Grassroots Visual Mobilization" in the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (2021) and "The Socially Engaged Practices of Artists in Contemporary China" in the Journal of Visual Art Practice (2017).


Midori Yamamura is an Associate Professor of Art History at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY and an Alcaly/Bodian Distinguished Scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center. She specializes in feminist studies, eco-criticism, and global contemporary art, with a focus on Asia and its diaspora. She authored Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press, 2015), co-edited Visual Representations of the Cold War and Postcolonial Struggles: Arts in East and Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2021), and contributed to De-Nin Lee's edited volume Mountains and Rivers (without) End: An Anthology of Eco–Art History in Asia (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018).

Yamamura has received several distinctions, including predoctoral fellowships from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the CUNY Graduate Center’s Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, as well as a JSPS postdoctoral fellowship. Since 2024, she has been a participant in the CUNY Climate Hub. Her current work explores the intersection of art, economy, and environmental transformation. In Fall 2025, she will be a fellow at the Cordillera Studies Center at the University of the Philippines, Baguio, where she will research and write about the history and the four founding artists of the Baguio Arts Guild.


Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier, PhD, is a visual historian. She is currently a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden and the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS) in Cambodia. Her work explores the relations between violence, archive and memory in Cambodia. She has conducted research as ERC Fellow at the University of Nottingham, Art Histories Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien and ICI Institute of Cultural Inquiry in Berlin, Leon Milman Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC (2012) and Theory fellow at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (2005-2006). She has contributed to numerous essays collection, exhibition catalogues and journals.


Vicki Sung-yeon Kwon, PhD, is Associate Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History (status-only) at the University of Toronto. Her previous publications examined visual representations of victims of sexual violence, including Korean “comfort women” for the Japanese military and Korean sex workers for the US military. She is currently working on a manuscript about Korean feminist art activism from transnational perspectives and an exhibition exploring the history of Korean fashion that challenged gender and social norms.