Ancestor Spirits and In the Half Light

About

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art presents Andy Ewing: Ancestor Spirits, the first posthumous survey of pioneering queer Vietnamese-Australian artist and curator Andrew (Andy) Hau Ewing (1964–2021), alongside Kirthana Selvaraj: In the Half Light, a newly commissioned body of work by the inaugural recipient of the Andy Ewing Fellowship.

Presented across 4A’s galleries and 4A LAB, the exhibitions explore cultural inheritance, queerness and the body. Artworks, archival material and personal ephemera offer an intimate account of Ewing’s life, while Selvaraj’s paintings respond to his explorations of identity, memory and illness through her own experiences. Together, the exhibitions trace how Ewing’s practice continues to resonate through a new generation of artists.

• Andy Ewing: Ancestor Spirits

A pioneering queer Vietnamese-Australian artist, Ewing challenged who could be seen, desired and represented within Australian visual culture. His works confronted racist stereotypes and the fetishisation of Asian male bodies while examining cultural hybridity and chronic illness. Working primarily on paper, he combined bold linework, expressive figures and surreal imagery with personal candour and wry humour.

Born in Melbourne, Ewing lived and worked across Australia and in Indonesia, maintaining close connections with artists and communities. Ancestor Spirits brings together artworks, sketches, archival material and studio ephemera spanning his career. The exhibition follows three…