Jo-LeneOng is an independent curator with an interest in ‘influence’ and ‘transmission’. She is the De Appel Curatorial Research Fellow 2018-19 and co-curator of visual arts and theory at Other Futures 2020. Her ongoing long-term research, Spectres of Batavia in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam pursues the networks of encounters, influences, and collaborations between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the margins of this museum’s permanent collection exhibition.
She has a background in business management and got her start in the field of curating at the intersection of social activism and the arts in Kuala Lumpur. She has been based in Amsterdam since completing the De Appel Curatorial Programme 2017-18.
Recent exhibitions include Excursus on Faith in Kelantan (2016) at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia from 1980s– Now (2017) at the Mori Art Museum and National Art Centre, Tokyo; Brace For Impact (2018) at De Appel, Amsterdam; and Elsewheres Within Here (2019) at Framer Framed, Amsterdam.
Ong is co-editor of the book Practice Space (2019) on locality and extra-institutional practices published by De Appel and NAME Publications.
