Patrick Sun

If you’d like to learn more about Patrick you can visit the Sunpride Instagram page or website.

Patrick Sun founded Sunpride Foundation in 2014, with a goal to raise awareness for the LGBTQ community and to nurture a more equitable world through art. 

In 2017, Sunpride Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA) co-hosted Spectrosynthesis - Asian LGBTQ Issues and Art Now, the first LGBTQ-themed exhibition staged in an art museum in Asia. Two years later, the foundation and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) presented Spectrosynthesis II – Exposure of Tolerance: LGBTQ in Southeast Asia, marking the largest-ever survey of regional contemporary art exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer creative history in Southeast Asia and beyond. 

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Patrick graduated from McGill University in Canada with a degree in business. Patrick started his career in the real estate development business in Hong Kong and founded his own company Kinwick Holdings Limited. Since, 2002, he has been active in promoting equal rights for the LGBTQ community in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Patrick has developed his own art collection since 1988, starting from his earlier interest in modern Chinese paintings to his recent focus on contemporary art. With an aim to support the LGBTQ community, Patrick’s collection comprises works from artists in the community or works that examine this theme. His collection includes works by Shu Lea Cheang, Sunil Gupta, David Medalla, Arin Rungjang, Ming Wong, Wu Tsang, Danh Vō and Samson Young, among others. 

Patrick is a member of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Circle and Tate’s Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee. Most recently, Patrick was included in the 2020 edition of ArtReview’s Power 100 list, an annual ranking of the most influential figures in the contemporary art world, for his leading role in LGBTQ activism in Asia. 

Joseph Awuah-Darko

You can learn more about Joseph by following him on Twitter and Instagram and by checking out the Noldor Residency website.

Joseph Awuah-Darko is an African contemporary art connoisseur, collector and thought leader. He has continuously looked to his Ghanaian upbringing and extensive travels to cultivate the ties between an established European art scene and Africa’s emerging cultural industries. Awuah-Darko founded the Noldor Artist Residency, an annual 4-week program that invites emerging African artists to work in a dedicated studio space and retreat in Accra, Ghana. Awuah-Darko received an undergraduate degree from Ashesi University, studied global art market dynamics at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and has worked at Sulger-Buel Gallery in London. He currently lives between Accra, Ghana and London, England.

Larry Ossei-Mensah

You can learn more about Larry by following him on Instagram at @larry.ossei.mensah or by checking out www.artnoir.co

Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Modou Dieng, Glenn Kaino, Joiri Minaya and Stanley Whitney to name a few. Moreover, Ossei-Mensah has actively documented cultural happenings featuring the most dynamic visual artists working today such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Federico Solmi, and Kehinde Wiley.

A native of The Bronx, Ossei-Mensah is also the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a 501(c)(3) and global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class.  ARTNOIR  endeavors to celebrate the artistry and creativity by Black and Brown artists around the world via virtual and in-person experiences.  Ossei-Mensah is a contributor to the first-ever Ghanaian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. He co-curated in 2019 with Dexter Wimberly the critically acclaimed exhibition at MOAD in San Francisco Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox in Spring/Summer 2019.    Ossei-Mensah currently serves as Curator-at-Large at BAM, where he curated the inaugural exhibition When A Pot Finds Its Purpose featuring the work of Glenn Kaino at the Rudin Family Gallery. He will be co-curating with Omsk Social Club 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece in 2021. 

Ossei-Mensah has had recent profiles in such publications as the NY Times, Artsy, and Cultured Magazine, and was recently named to Artnet’s 2020 Innovator List.

Image courtesy of Aaron Ramey