I am a professor of Chinese art and design histories at the University of Alberta. I focus on modern and contemporary China. In recent years I have written about ink paintings of a coal mine in northeastern China, contemporary artworks by women working inside the “feminist gap,” oil paintings of city windows, habitat dioramas, and a hanging scroll depicting kitchen trash. I co-curate regularly with students; these projects, alongside my publications and arts writing, are a form of environmental and social activism. I spend as much time as I can hiking the Canadian Rockies and Edmonton’s river valley.

Painting courtesy of artist Nic Martin.