{{Short description|Singaporean curator (born 1974)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = June Yap | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = 叶德晶 | native_name_lang = zh | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}} | birth_place = Singapore | baptised = | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | education = | alma_mater = National University of Singapore <br> University of Melbourne | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | movement = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | father = | mother = | relatives = | family = | awards = '''2012–2014:''' Curatorial residency at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City <br>'''2015:''' Best Exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art at the Prudential Eye Awards, Singapore | signature = | signature_type = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = | module = }} '''June Yap''' ({{lang-zh|c=|p=Yè Déjīng|s=叶德晶|t=葉德晶}}; born 1974) is an independent Singaporean curator, art critic, and writer.<ref name="aia">Vine, Richard. [http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/interviews/june-yaps-asia/ "June Yap's Asia"], ''Art in America'', 22 March 2013.</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2012|title=June Yap|url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/staff-profiles/curators/june-yap|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035541/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/staff-profiles/curators/june-yap|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=22 September 2020|website=Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Ang|first=Prisca|date=25 May 2020|title=Singapore Art Museum's new collaborative show looks at potential of art to facilitate understanding|work=The Straits Times|url=https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/singapore-art-museums-new-collaborative-show-looks-at-potential-of-art-to-facilitate|url-status=live|access-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200921162659/https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/singapore-art-museums-new-collaborative-show-looks-at-potential-of-art-to-facilitate|archive-date=21 September 2020}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Cotter|first=Holland|date=21 February 2013|title=Acquired Tastes of Asian Art|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/arts/design/no-country-new-asian-art-at-the-guggenheim.html|url-status=live|access-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200921145622/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/arts/design/no-country-new-asian-art-at-the-guggenheim.html|archive-date=21 September 2020}}</ref> She was previously the Director of Curatorial & Research at the Singapore Art Museum.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Ng|first=Brady|date=22 August 2017|title=June Yap Appointed as Director of Curatorial Programs and Publications at Singapore Art Museum|work=ArtAsiaPacific|url=http://artasiapacific.com/News/JuneYapAppointedAsDirectorOfCuratorialProgramsAndPublicationsAtSingaporeArtMuseum|url-status=live|access-date=21 September 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200921152846/http://artasiapacific.com/News/JuneYapAppointedAsDirectorOfCuratorialProgramsAndPublicationsAtSingaporeArtMuseum|archive-date=21 September 2020}}</ref><ref name=":e-fluxSB">{{cite news |title=Singapore Biennale returns with a team of four Co-Artistic Directors |url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/425152/singapore-biennale-returns-with-a-team-of-four-co-artistic-directors/ |access-date=28 December 2021 |agency=Singapore Art Museum |publisher=e-flux |date=16 December 2021}}</ref>
Yap has worked in the curatorial departments of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, and the Singapore Art Museum.<ref name="yapbio">[http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/staff-profiles/curators/june-yap "June Yap"], Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation</ref> As an independent curator, Yap has further organised shows at the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, at the Osage Gallery, Hong Kong, and the NUS Museum, Singapore.<ref name="yapbio" /> In 2011, Yap curated the Singapore Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, featuring Ho Tzu Nyen's video installation, ''The Cloud of Unknowing''.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=20 May 2011|title=Singapore Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale|url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/35543/singapore-pavilion-at-the-54th-venice-biennale/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811104348/https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/35543/singapore-pavilion-at-the-54th-venice-biennale/|archive-date=11 August 2020|access-date=14 August 2020|website=e-flux}}</ref>
== Education == Yap holds a BA from the National University of Singapore in philosophy and sociology.<ref name=":2" /> She received her MA in Fine Art (Art History) at the University of Melbourne, and her PhD. in Cultural Studies at the National University of Singapore.<ref name="aia" /><ref name=":2" />
== Career == From 2003 to 2004, Yap organised new media art exhibitions as a curator at the Singapore Art Museum, later joining the institution's acquisitions committee.<ref name=":1" /> Her projects at the Singapore Art Museum from this time include ''Interrupt'' (2003), ''Twilight Tomorrow'' (2004), ''Seni: Singapore 2004'', and ''Art & the Contemporary'' (2004).<ref name=":2" />
Prior to 2008, Yap was the deputy director and Curator of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, after which she would continue her curatorial practice as an independent curator.<ref name=":2" /> In 2008, Yap curated ''Bound for Glory'' at the NUS Museum as an independent curator.<ref name=":2" /> In 2010, Yap curated ''You and I, We’ve Never Been so Far Apart: Works From Asia'' for the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv for the International Video Art Biennial.<ref name=":2" />
In 2011, Yap was curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, featuring ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' by Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen, a video installation that drew upon both the titular 14th-century mystical treatise and Hubert Damisch’s semiotic thesis, ''A Theory of /Cloud/: Toward a History of Painting''.<ref name="aia" /><ref>Dickie, Anna. [http://ocula.com/magazine/conversations/june-yap/ "June Yap's Asia"], ''Ocula'', 12 August 2013.</ref><ref name="aptbio">[https://web.archive.org/web/20141012213110/http://www.aptglobal.org/en/Curators/Page/223/Yap-June "June Yap"], Artist Pension Trust</ref>
From 2012 to 2014, Yap was selected for a residency at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as part of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> During her two-year stint, she was UBS MAP Curator, South and Southeast Asia, and in 2013 she organised the first exhibition of the initiative, ''No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia'', which later in 2014 traveled to the Asia Society Hong Kong Center and the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, where the show won Best Exhibition of Asian Contemporary Art at the Prudential Eye Awards.<ref name=":1" /> As part of her residency at the Guggenheim, Yap initiated the museum's ''Perspectives'' series, which featured essays, stories, and interviews by international artists, writers, and curators, and she would present about the series at a symposium held at the Queens Museum in 2013.<ref name=":2" />
Published in 2016, Yap is the author of ''Retrospective: A Historiographical Aesthetic in Contemporary Singapore and Malaysia'' (Petaling Jaya: [https://www.gerakbudaya.com/product/retrospective SIRD], 2016). In 2016, she was a member of the advisory committee of the 5th Singapore Biennale, and was meant to curate the Singapore Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 before she left the team in January 2017 due to what the Singapore National Arts Council cited as "differences in the operational approaches."<ref name=":1" /> In August 2017, she was appointed the Director of Curatorial, Collections and Programmes at the Singapore Art Museum.<ref name=":1" />
In 2020, Yap co-curated the exhibition ''They Do Not Understand Each Other'', with Yuka Uematsu, National Museum of Art, Osaka, at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tai Kwun Contemporary – They Do Not Understand Each Other |url=https://www.taikwun.hk/en/programme/detail/they-do-not-understand-each-other/588 |website=Tai Kwun |access-date=28 December 2021}}</ref>
In 2021, Yap curated the exhibition ''The Gift'' that was part of ''Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories'' - a dialogue between the collections of the Singapore Art Museum, Galeri Nasional Indonesia, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, initiated by the Goethe-Institut - with co-curators Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Grace Samboh and Gridthiya Gaweewong.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Gift |url=https://thegift.singaporeartmuseum.sg/ |website=The Gift |publisher=Singapore Art Museum |access-date=28 December 2021}}</ref> She also presented the exhibition ''Nam June Paik: The Future is Now'' as Senior Curator of National Gallery Singapore, a collaborating partner of the touring exhibition with Tate Modern and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gwee |first1=Sheryl |title=Televisionary: The Future is Now with Nam June Paik's Electric, Eclectic Fever Dreams |url=https://pluralartmag.com/2021/12/11/televisionary-the-future-is-now-with-nam-june-paiks-electric-eclectic-fever-dreams/ |access-date=28 December 2021 |publisher=Plural |date=11 December 2021}}</ref>
Also in 2021, Yap was appointed co-Artistic Director of the seventh edition of the Singapore Biennale opening in 2022, together with Binna Choi from South Korea/the Netherlands, Nida Ghouse from India, living in Germany, and Ala Younis from Jordan.<ref name=":e-fluxSB" /> The Biennale was named Natasha in lieu of an exhibition title <ref>{{cite web |title=Singapore Biennale 2022. Natasha |url=https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/Art-Events/Exhibitions/Singapore-Biennale-2022 |website=Singapore Art Museum |access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref>
In 2024, Yap curated the exhibition ''Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau'' <ref>{{cite web |title=Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau |url=https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/art-events/exhibitions/yee-i-lann-mansau-ansau |website=Singapore Art Museum |access-date=30 January 2025}}</ref> and edited ''On the Mat with Yee I-Lann'' (Singapore: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/9819411394 Singapore Art Museum], 2024) which received Honorable Mention at the DNA Paris Design Awards <ref>{{cite web |title=DNA Paris Design Awards |url=https://dna.paris/winner/zoom.php?eid=71-93326-25 |website=On The Mat with Yee I-Lann |publisher=DNA Paris Design Awards |access-date=7 November 2025}}</ref> and Creative Communication Award (C2A) 2025.<ref>{{cite web |title=C2A 2025 Winner - Art & Culture Books |url=https://www.c2award.com/winners/c2a/2025/5942/ |website=Creative Communication Award (C2A) 2025 Winner |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref> In 2025, Yap and Kathleen Ditzig co-curated the exhibition ''Heman Chong: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Heman Chong: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness |url=https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/art-events/exhibitions/heman-chong |website=Singapore Art Museum |access-date=7 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Yusof |first=Helmi |date=15 May 2025 |title=Heman Chong{{`}}'s monuments to memory and forgetting |url=https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/arts-design/heman-chongs-monuments-memory-and-forgetting |work= |location=Singapore |publisher=The Business Times |access-date=7 November 2025}}</ref>. The publication ''Haegue Yang: The Cone of Concern'' (De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Inc. and Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila) where she contributed an essay ''The Motion of Emotion'' was awarded the Alfonso T. Ongpin Prize for Best Book on Art at the 43rd National Book Awards (Philippines).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sarao |first1=Zacarian |title=LIST: Winners of 43rd National Book Awards |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2184186/fwd-list-winners-of-43rd-national-book-awards |access-date=19 March 2026 |publisher=Inquirer.net |date=19 Feb 2026}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/staff-profiles/curators/june-yap Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum biography] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035541/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/staff-profiles/curators/june-yap archived]) * ''[https://sites.google.com/view/retrospectivehistoriographical Retrospective: A Historiographical Aesthetic in Contemporary Singapore and Malaysia]'' [https://sites.google.com/view/retrospectivehistoriographical (Index)]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yap, June}} Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:Museum people Category:Singaporean art curators Category:Singaporean women curators