Friday, March 19, 2021

01:00 PM - 02:00 PM ITALY

07:00 PM - 08:00 PM MALAYSIA

Fragility Talks 03 - Fondazione ICA Milano

Welcome to Fragility Talks series:

• Q&A interviews focusing on fragility & resilience, the program explores economy, art & cultural and science 
• Moderators: Chiara Nuzzi, Curator and Editorial Manager at Fondazione ICA Milano, with curator contributions by Luigi Fassi and Alberto Salvadori 
• A series of 5 interviews, 30-minute each, guests are free to speak openly in a guided conversation to explore the topic 

 

FRAGILITY TALKS 03: Francesca Minini, Director of Francesca Minini Gallery in Milan, and Zanita Anuar, curator and deputy director of the National Art Gallery Kuala Lumpur

ABOUT FRANCESCA MININI

Francesca Minini was born in Brescia and she now lives and works in Milan. 

Her love for art started very soon. At 14 years she proposed her father, Massimo Minini, to go to Art Basel with him. Since then she never missed an edition. She studied at Cattolica University History of Art. Then she worked for 5 years with Massimo where she curated shows with new artists of her generation.

She also did some work experience at Lisson Gallery in London and at Barbara Gladstone in New York and in 2006 she decided to open her own gallery in Milan together with her sister Alessandra Minini. 

Since the opening of the gallery Francesca Minini is developing a research on Italian and international artists of a young generation. The research towards architecture, space and environment is well represented since the beginning with site-specific project by two artists of a different generation (Jan De Cock and Daniel Buren) and a project on the facade of the gallery by Francesco Simeti. From that moment Francesca Minini, while working on new projects with the artists of the gallery, also looked at the artistic scene coming from East with Ghada Amer and Ali Kazma, and from South America, starting from two group shows (in 2013 and 2014) that investigated the emerging artists of this area. 

In 2016 Francesca Minini celebrated her 10th anniversary and showed a renovated program with artist such as Landon Metz, Runo Lagomarsino, Armando Andrade Tudela, Elena Damiani and Riccardo Beretta. 

In fall 2018, the gallery presented new collaborations: in September a double project in our gallery in Milan and at Galleria Massimo Minini in Brescia with both historical and more recent works by Carla Accardi. In the same research area, two personal exhibitions by Robert Barry and Dan Graham were presented in the following months. Finally, starting from the same year, the gallery started representing Jacopo Benassi.

The relationship between established and young artists goes on and develops year by year. 

At the end of 2019 this research led the gallery to start representing Brazilian artist Daniel de Paula while 2020 opened with the solo show by Yona Friedman.

 

ABOUT ZANITA ANUAR

Returning from the United States with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and an M.A in Material Culture Studies from the University of Pennsylvania,this goverment scholar began her career in 1992 as a lecturer in Art History, Anthropology and Sociology  at  the Inti College and later in LimKokWing Institute of Creative Technology. It was in the Nanyang Gallery of Art , a subsidiary of Hong Leong Group, that she first practised  art management and curatorial works alongside Joseph Tan, assisting Southeast Asian art historian ,TK Sabapathy in the Syed Ahmad Jamal Overview exhibition in 1994. 

She has a keen interest in the Bakat Muda Sezaman ( Young Contemporary Award), the longest running national award program initiated by the Balai Seni Lukis Negara since 1974 and had researched and reported her findings in a much referenced catalog entitled Review of the Young Contemporaries Award 1974-1997.

Today she holds  over twenty years of experience in curatorial work in public and private museums and galleries, she has curated and written  for artists, exhibitions and shared her ideas in seminars for public and private institutions locally and abroad  including the V & A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal  Green, the Department of Ethnography of the British Museum known as The Museum of Mankind of the British Museum, U.K., The Art Gallery of New South Wales Australia, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) Osaka Japan, Guangdong Museum of ArtChina  and the National University of Singapore Museum.

In her capacity as Director of Innovations at the Department of Museums Malaysia from 2011 to 2013 , she conceptualised, named and  advised  the University Malaya Library and museum team on the creation of the University Malaya Art Gallery ( UMAG) and led the Department of Museums Malaysia ‘s Kumpulan Inovasi dan Kreatif or KIK ( Creativity and innovation team) to win the Ministry of Culture Information and Heritage Innovation awards for 2011 and 2012.

She has also served  as jury in state galleries in Penang, Johor  and Selangor  in their  art competitions, various organisations like Esso, PNB, MRCB, RADO, Genting Berhad and YTL (Starhill Galleries) , Petronas and Bank Negara Malaysia had also sought her expertise. In  2015 and 2018 , she juried  the UOB Painting of the Year Award. 

Advocating the ArtScience ethos via  Antara Langit dan Bumi or ALAMI programs alongside Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman, since 1997 , she had designed and created the CREA NOVA workshop for Malaysia Productivity Centre in 2010 and continues to chart  some future trends in art making in the art and science exhibition entitled the Future of Making presented alongside the Academy of Sciences during the Mega Science 3.0 in November 2016.

In December 2016 she curated the first overview of Biennales , RETRO BIENNALE She curated a ‘retrospective’  exhibition showcasing over 50 iconic Malaysian artists including HH Lim , Simryn Gill , Ise and architects who represented the nation in the  various Biennales across the world  since the 1960s. 

 

In 2017 she had shorlisted for the Polar ICE challenge organised by The Antartica Research Foundation under the  Ministry Of Science Technology and Innovation . This year  alongside Hijjaz Kasturi , and Prof Emeritus Dato Mazlan Othman , she advised on the panel of the inaugural ASM ARTSCIENCE Award 2019/2020.

She has researched, written and edited several art and culture publications, catalogs produced in her capacity as Curator at the National Art Gallery, and artzines namely the SENIKINI since 2008; the SENIKINI 10th Anniversary special edition had recently been launched by the Honourable Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Mahathir Mohamad as part of the National Art Gallery 60 th Anniversary launch in 2018.

In 2019 she collaborated with The Italian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur  to curate an Art Science symposium entitled Leonardologics  involving multi-disciplinary experts from five local and international universities, alongside the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition presented to commemorate the  500th anniversary of his passing. In 2021 she leads the National Art Gallery s curatorial team in  archiving the collective memory of Ibrahim Hussein , namely that of the Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation in Langkawi.

She is currently Acting Deputy Director General  of Operations at the National Art Gallery.