Asia Art Archive appoints Ozge Ersoy as new Executive Director

Asia Art Archive (AAA) announced the appointment of Özge Ersoy as its new Executive Director, coinciding with the organisation’s 25th anniversary. Ersoy will assume her role in September 2025, succeeding Christopher K. Ho, who has served in the position for four years.

Christopher K. Ho will conclude his tenure in September 2025 and rejoin AAA’s Board of Directors. During his time as Executive Director, Ho achieved numerous milestones, including the renovation and expansion of AAA’s CCG Library and the establishment of a premier digitisation lab. Under his leadership, key projects were introduced to enhance AAA’s Hong Kong collections, including the two-year research project Recalling Disappearance: Hong Kong Contemporary Art and an upcoming publication on Hong Kong art history. The AAA Collections have experienced an impressive thirty percent growth, reflecting Ho’s commitment to enriching access to the history of contemporary art in Asia. Additionally, he has spearheaded the development of the organisation’s strategic vision for the next five years, laying a strong foundation for AAA’s future.

After conducting an extensive international search lasting four months and reviewing over thirty applications, AAA’s Board of Directors has confirmed the appointment of Özge Ersoy, who is currently serving as the Mimi Brown & Alp Erçil Senior Curator at AAA.

Claire Hsu, Co-founder of AAA and Chair of the Board of Directors, expressed, “We are delighted to welcome Özge Ersoy into her new role. Özge embodies AAA’s values of generosity, responsibility, humility, and collaboration—qualities that we feel to be at the core of exemplary leadership today. Over the last eight years, Özge has continuously demonstrated her deep commitment to the vision of AAA, and to the field at large, in the numerous projects she has spearheaded with great care. It’s been a privilege to watch her grow into the position of Executive Director, and we are excited to see the organisation continue to evolve and be responsive to the needs of our community under her leadership.”

Christopher K. Ho stated, “My greatest privilege and achievement at Asia Art Archive is working alongside an incredible, dedicated, vibrant, poised, and ambitious team, the senior members of which have devoted over 115 years of service to the organisation. At AAA, people and values are paramount, and no one embodies these ideals more fully than Özge Ersoy. Her unwavering integrity, deep empathy, and steadfast commitment to collaboration will propel Asia Art Archive into a new era. I cannot imagine a better successor.”

Ersoy joined the Asia Art Archive team in 2017 as Public Programmes Lead and later became Senior Curator. Her recent projects include co-curating In Our Own Backyard (2025) and Countering Time (2024) at AAA’s library. Ersory’s research focuses on innovative approaches to collecting, exhibition-making, and publishing in contemporary art. Her experience spans various non-profit organisations, including art centres, biennials, and grant-making foundations in Hong Kong, Gwangju, Venice, New York, Cairo, and her hometown, Istanbul. Her articles have been featured in How to Pin Down Smoke: ruangrupa since 2000 (Afterall, 2025, forthcoming), Curating Under Pressure (Routledge, 2020), and The Constituent Museum (Valiz and L’Internationale, 2018). She holds an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Centre for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.

Upon her appointment, Ersoy reaffirmed her dedication to advancing AAA’s mission, “Asia Art Archive embodies generosity, collaboration, and a community-centred approach to art history. As I step into this new role, I am honoured and excited to build upon the visionary leadership of Claire Hsu and Christopher K. Ho, alongside our Board of Directors, as well as the achievements of our team over the past twenty-five years. With our renovated library and new digitisation lab, we are more committed than ever to amplifying underrepresented voices, making archives accessible, and nurturing connections with artistic sensibility.”

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Asia Art Archive. Founded in 2000, AAA has documented diverse histories of contemporary art in Asia while serving the community through knowledge sharing. What began as a single bookshelf has expanded into a comprehensive archive of over 140,000 records, activated by research, publications, exhibitions, residencies, and educational programmes. In July, AAA opened a new digitisation lab, enhancing its operational capabilities and benefiting the local art scene by providing affordable archiving and digitisation services.

To celebrate twenty-five years, AAA will launch Archive for All: Growing with Communities in fall 2025. This series will feature a year-long exhibition, educational programmes on archiving, and a publication on Hong Kong art history—all aimed at strengthening the cultural landscape and engaging local communities in preserving their artistic legacies.

Photo: Image: Özge Ersoy, new Executive Director of Asia Art Archive. Photo: Moving Image Studio.