Don Kwan
Artist Profile
What can belonging look like? A third-generation Chinese Canadian, Don Kwan turns to his own experiences and challenges of being a gay, East Asian artist as a way to ground in broader conversations about identity, representations, and intergenerational memory-making in the diaspora.
Don Kwan est un artiste queer sino-canadien de troisième génération dont le travail explore le lieu, l’identité, la représentation et la mémoire familiale au fil du temps.
关日安是一位第三代华裔加拿大同性恋画家。他的作品探索历史长河中的家庭记忆、象征、身份 及地点.
photo credit . William Luk
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
Ontario College of Art 1994
Ottawa School of Art 1997
Ottawa School of Art, Printmaking Workshop 2015
Glass Casting . Loretta Studios . 2023
AWARDS
2024 Helen Frances Gregor Award
2022 Ottawa Arts Council, Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award, Ottawa
2020 Gallerie SAW Gallery, SAW Prize for New Works. Ottawa
2011 Art Flow Gallery, Contemporary Asian Artist Award
2010 Capital Xtra, Hero Award
2008 Council for the Arts Business Award
GRANTS
2024 Canada Council for the Arts, Research and Creation
2024 Professional Artists Fund, City of Ottawa, Ottawa
2024 Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Artists Creation Projects
2023 Heritage Ottawa
2022 Canada Council for the Arts, Research & Creation
2021 Creation & Production, City of Ottawa, Ottawa
JUROR
2023 Ottawa Arts Council
2016 City of Ottawa Direct Art Purchase – Peer Assessment Committee
2015 Chinatown Mural Project
2015 Chinatown Craft Market-Chinatown BIA
2014 City of Ottawa, Underpass Mural Project
ART COLLECTIONS
2023 Fortune, Illumination Series, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa
2022 It’s Been A Long Year, Tom Thomson Gallery, Owen Sound
2021 Chinese Take Out Mask - ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2021 Veneration for Mother and Father - ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2021 Transmission – Covid 19 Series – City of Ottawa – Public Art Collection
2020 Community Quilt - Centretown Community Health Centre - Ottawa
2019 Invisible Identities-Vest- City of Ottawa – Public Art Collection
2017 Longevity – mixed media on paper - City of Ottawa – Public Art Collection
PERFORMANCE ART
2023, After Exclusion, Bonavista Biennale, Newfoundland
2022 Altering Exclusion, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver
2021 Altering the Flow of Exclusion, AXENEO7, PERF, Fait Maison - Hull Quebec
PUBLIC ART
2023 Quiet Resistance, Reclaiming Space, Public Art Ottawa, Sparks St. Ottawa
2022 Quiet Resistance, Reclaiming Space, durational mural, The Varley Art Gallery, Markham
RESIDENCIES
2024 Creatives in Residence, Ontario Culture Days
2024 Diefenbunker, Canada's Cold War Museum, AIR, Artist-in-Residence, Ontario
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Art + Spring. MAC-CAM. Arts Court, Ottawa
2024 Community Healers: Portraits and Practices Beyond the Hospital Walls. Trinity Art Gallery, Ottawa
2024 Material Memories, Craft Ontario Gallery, Toronto
2023 Seams and Strata, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Ontario
2023, Bonavista Biennale, Mockbeggar Plantation Yard, Newfoundland
2023, Bonavista Biennale, Union House Arts, Port Rexton, Newfoundland
2023 Reflections On Exclusion, Senate of Canada - Senat du Canada, Ottawa
2023 After Exclusion, Happy Fruit. Gallery 101. Ottawa
2023 Textile Museum of Canada. Toronto
2022 Capital Pride, We Demand, Disco Chandelier, Ottawa City Hall
2022 Beyond Exclusion, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Gardens, Vancouver
2022 Fibreworks 2022, Cambridge Art Gallery, Idea Exchange, Ontario
2022 SAW Prize for New Works, Prix SAW de creation, Ottawa
2022 Landscape, Loss & Legacy, OAG, Ottawa Art Gallery, Firestone Reverb Series, Ottawa
2022 Breathe, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Northwest Territories
2021 Clothing the Pandemic, ICOM, International Council Of Museums
2021 Breathe, Galt Museum & Archives, Lethbridge (Sikóóhkotok)
2021 Facing It, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound
2021 Unmasking the Pandemic - ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2021 See Me Now, Lalonde & Doyle Gallery, Shenkman Art Centre, Orleans, Ottawa
2021 Breathe - Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta
2021 Breathe, Art Gallery of Guelph, Guelph Ontario
2020 Myseum of Toronto. Tea Base, Quarantine Qapsule, Toronto
2020 To be Continued – CUAG- Carleton University Art Gallery - Ottawa
2020 Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies – Banff Alberta
2020 Luck- Ottawa University, Human Rights Resource and Education Centre
2020 Signal, Karsh-Masson Gallery, City of Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa
2019 Weaving the Web, Chinese Experience in Canada - Gallery 112- Ottawa
2018 Asian Heritage Month – Chinese Wallpaper Series, Ottawa
2017 Longevity Exhibit- Karsh Masson- City of Ottawa, Direct Art Purchase
2017 Art House Cafe Ottawa, Ontario
2014 Nuit Blanche Ottawa
2012 FestivAsia Chinatown, Ottawa
2011 1904 China Revolution Art Flow Gallery, Ottawa
2010 Wrath Gallery 101 Frames, Ottawa
2010 Chinatown Remixed Café Orient Gallery, Ottawa
2009 Chinatown Remixed Oriental Bakery Gallery, Ottawa
BACKGROUND, ARTIST TALKS, EVENTS
Queer Asian Heritage Showcase, Artist Talk, NAC. Ottawa (2024)
Conversations in Practice II: Design Studio, Carleton University Architecture (2024)
Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris, France (2023)
Riddle Fence Magazine, Newfoundland and Labrador (2023)
Espace Magazine, Edition 133, Montreal, Quebec (2023)
Emergence, Canadian Education through Art Symposium, Artist Talk, Ottawa Art Gallery, (2022)
PAL Ottawa / CARFAC artist talk with Don Kwan, Barry Ace, Jason Samilski, Ottawa (2021)
Pace Magazine (2021)
Chinese Canadian Collective, Coping Through a Year of Covid 19 (2020)
Workers History Museum, The Wong Family, Graphic Novel Illustration (2018)
Finding General Tsao, Presentation & Discussion (2017)
Diasopra & Dialogue, King of the Yees, NAC (2017)
Ottawa Heritage Walks, Walking Tour Guide of Chinatown (2017)
Rethinking Canada 150, Networks and Nodes in Asian Canadian Culture (2017)
Lets Eat Cake, Enriched Bread Artist, Canada 150 (2017)
OLIP, Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership, WOW Week Walking Tours of Chinatown (2016-2019)
Shiraz Mural Project (2015)
Canadian Museum of Nature, Nature Nocturne, Event Programming (2015)
Artistic Director for Chinatown BIA & OSA Mural Project (2014)
Nuite Blanche Ottawa
FestivAsia – Artistic Director / Program Management (2013-2014)
City of Ottawa Cultural Planning Group (2011)
Saw Gallery, Board of Directors (2006-2008)
Asian Heritage Month Society
MEMBERSHIPS & COLLECTIVES
CARFAC
DAIMON
DARC
Chinese Canadian Perspectives
Ottawa Art Gallery . Board of Directors (2024)
Chinatown Remixed Art Festival, Collective . Founder (2008 – 2021)