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Academic faculty at Sotheby's Institute of Art, Singapore
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ACADEMIC FACULTY



Noted scholars and practitioners in the art world
Programmes are taught by some of the most knowledgeable and highly respected scholars in the field of art.

The combination of academic faculty, visiting tutors,specialist lecturers and Sotheby's experts provides students with a wide breadth of knowledge and experience as well as an opportunity to develop a network of professional relationships.

PHIL WHITTAKER
DIRECTOR, SOTHEBY’S INSTITUTE OF ART - SINGAPORE

Phil Whittaker joined Sotheby’s Institute of Art in February 2007 as the Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art - Singapore.

Prior to joining Sotheby’s Institute of Art he spent 4 years at Ashridge, a UK based management development college, where is was primarily involved in teaching on the MBA course and designing leadership courses.

He also spent 6 years at the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business as a lecturer in Information Systems Strategy, and data management.

Phil holds two psychology degrees from the Open University, an MA in Management Learning from Lancaster University and an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business.

Phil Whittaker, Director
GIL SCHNEIDER
PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, MA ART BUSINESS

PhD in Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest; LL.M., Waseda University, Tokyo; MA in East Asian History of Art, Zurich University; Diplôme, ESCP-EAP, Paris

Gil Schneider studied law and business administration in France, England, Germany, Japan and Hungary. He started his professional career in Europe where he worked in the real estate, hotel and tourism business for over 10 years before moving to Singapore in 2003. Always interested and involved in the arts he obtained a MA in East Asian History of Art from Zurich University, Switzerland.

Schneider brings in his combined extensive business experience and broad knowledge of the arts.
Gil Schneider
TONY GODFREY
PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

Professor of Fine Art, University of Plymouth; MA in Anglo-Irish Literature, University of Leeds

Tony Godfrey has taught at Sotheby’s Institute since 1989 and was one of the co-founders of the MA in Contemporary Art (London). His books include Conceptual Art, Drawing Today and The New Image: Painting in the 1980s. His new book on contemporary painting will be published by Phaidon in 2009. A book of essays on individual art works edited by him is also due to be published then.

He has taught at Yale, New York and Oxford Universities, and many art schools. He is a regular contributor to exhibition catalogues and periodicals including Art in America, Art Monthly, and The Burlington Magazine.

Tony Godfrey
THOMAS J. BERGHUIS
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

PhD, University of Sydney. Thomas Berghuis is currently Senior Project Curator at Casula Powerhouse - International Centre for Cultural Diversity, and the Postdoctoral Research Associate and primary Research Coordinator in the CCAP’s Linkage Project.

He was a visiting scholar at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2003-2004); the Associate Curator for the 6th Sharjah International Biennale, U.A.E (2003); curator for the 1st Dashanzi International Arts Festival at 798 Factory, Beijing (2004); and the Associate Curator for the 3rd Israel Video Art Biennial, Tel Aviv (2006).

His book, Performance Art in China, was published in 2006. In recent years he has become actively involved with the contemporary art scene in Southeast Asia, with special attention on Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
LEE WENG CHOY
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

MA in English Literature from Mills College, California, USA.

Lee Weng Choy is an art critic and the artistic co-director of The Substation arts centre in Singapore. He has lectured on art and cultural studies, convened a number of international conferences, and written widely on contemporary art, including the essays: “The future was when: art criticism and the comparative tenses of Hong Kong and Singapore” in Journal of Visual Culture (2007); “Authenticity, Reflexivity & Spectacle; or, the Rise of New Asia is not the End of the World” in Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985 (Blackwell, 2005); “Just What Is it that Makes the Term Global-Local So Widely Cited, Yet So Annoying?” in Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture (New Museum & MIT Press, 2004); “Biennale Time and the Spectres of Exhibition” in Forum On Contemporary Art & Society (2002).

He is currently President of the Singapore Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA Singapore), and also serves on the academic advisory board of the Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong).
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JOHN CLARK
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

PhD, University of Sheffield.

John Clark is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and Professor in Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney. In 2003 he was also awarded an Australian Centenary Medal. He served as chair of the Department of Art History & Theory from 2000-2002, and acting director of the Power Institute, Foundation for Art & Visual Culture, from 2001-2002.

Ongoing work includes a comparative study of Chinese and Thai art during the 1980s and 1990s, and an examination of the functions of international biennales in Asia.
 
PATRICK D. FLORES
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

PhD in Philippine Studies, University of the Philippines.

Patrick Flores is Professor in the Art Studies Department, University of the Philippines. He holds a PhD in Philippine Studies following an MA in Art History. He has written extensively on art and popular culture for local and international publications. Publications include books on the humanities, colonial art, and cinema.

Flores was also the curator of the Arts Division at Philippine National Museum. Currently, he is researching curators of contemporary art in Southeast Asia.
ARK FONGSMUT
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

MA Art Administration & Curatorship, Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Ark Fongsmut is a curator at Bangkok University Gallery and teaches Visual Art Administrations at several leading universities in Thailand such as Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University, Silpakorn University, and Thammasat University.

He began his career in curatorship in 1996 at Baan Chao Phraya Gallery, a non-profit art space in Thailand. His curatorial practices play with the diverse meanings of art space both inside the gallery and at public spaces.

His previous art projects include among others, The Month of Photography Bangkok 2, and the Thai-Filipino Artists Exchange Project. He is also a feature writer for many magazines, newspapers and art catalogues.
CHARLES MEREWHETHER
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

PhD in Art History, University of Sydney.

Charles Merewether was until recently Deputy Director of the Cultural District (Saadiyat Island) for the Tourism Development & Investment Co. in Abu Dhabi and is currently Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Hong Kong International Art Fair. He was the Artistic Director and Curator of the Biennale of Sydney 2006.

He has taught at the University of Sydney, Universidad Autonoma, the Ibero-Americana, and University of Southern California and had been recipient of various Fellowships.

He has published widely on modernism and contemporary art. His most recent publications include Under Construction: Ai Weiwei (2008), and Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan 1950-1970 (2007).
HO TZU NYEN
LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

MA (by Research) in Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore

An artist and critic, Ho Tzu Nyen writes on art and the cinema for a number of international journals such as Broadsheet (Australia), Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (UK/Taiwan), FOCAS (Singapore), as well as contributes the occasional essay for catalogues. Since 2005, he has been the Singapore Editor for Art Asia Pacific (US).

EMILY PHILIPS
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA ART BUSINESS

MFA, University of California.

Emily is employed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame, USA. She gained an MFA, from University of California at Los Angeles in 1994. She was a Fulbright Fellow; MA Georgetown/Sotheby’s Institute, 2007.

Her previous experience has included:Assistant Professor, Scenic Design, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, In 2003. Visiting Professor/Business and English Language Trainer/ U.S., Europe, 1996-present. Freelance Scenic/Costume/Production Designer, Theater/Opera, U.S., Europe 1990-present. Senior Project Manager, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, 1990-91.
EUGENE TAN
CONSULTANT LECTURER, MA CONTEMPORARY ART

PhD in Art History, University of Manchester, UK.

The first programme director of the MA Contemporary Art (Singapore) he currently works as curator for Osage Gallery (Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing).

An art historian, critic and curator, Eugene Tan was the founding director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE College of the Arts and among exhibitions he has curated include The Last Laugh: Humour in Contemporary Video Art, Painting as Process: Re-evaluating Painting, Jason Salavon: Brainstem Still Life and On Kawara in 2004, A Work by Lim Tzay Chuen and Antony Gormley: Asian Field in 2005, islanded: Contemporary Art from New Zealand Singapore and Taiwan in 2006 and Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves at ZKM¦Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany in 2007.

He was also curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 and co-curator of the inaugural Singapore Biennale in 2006. He is the co-author of the publication Contemporary Art in Singapore and has written for many exhibition catalogues as well as publications such as Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, C-Arts, Contemporary, Contemporary Visual Arts, Flash Art, Metropolis M and Modern Painters.

Eugene Tan