The Team & Advisory Board

JIMMY LEK

Singapore-born founder and organiser of the ArtGemini Prize and PhotoX. Former owner of All Seasons Tours Ltd which he sold in 2004. Jimmy is a fine arts enthusiasts and has worked for many years on various art projects including exhibitions at the AAF Singapore 2015, Singapore Art Fair 2014, AAF London and the  20/21 International Art Fair, London. In 2010, he organised the acclaimed exhibition Animal Kingdom: Paintings by Li Fuyuan, in partnership with the Museum of East Asian Art, UK.

SAJID RIZVI

Chair, ArtGemini Prize Selection Committee and Judges’ Panel, Founder Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, EAPGroup International Media. Owns and publishes Art Criticism Today, Eastern Art Report and East Asia Journal, East Asian Europe and Saffron Books.

CHAN KOK HUA

Chan Kok Hua (SG) Singapore renowned Chinese painting collector, owner of Qiu Zhai Art Studio and founder of Sin Hua Gallery. He has organised many art exhibitions, including the highly acclaimed ‘Qiu Zhai Collection’ featuring 128 pieces spanning 100 years after the 1840 Opium War at the art museum of Poly Auction, Beijing in 2010. A recipient of the Patron of the Arts Awards Singapore in 2017 & 2018 and a keen supporter of the Teochew culture especially music and opera.

Isabel H Langtry, Sculptor, Art Judge and Principal of Hampstead School of Art

Isabel H Langtry was born in Nigeria. Her parents, both scientists, loved the sculpture and bronzes they discovered there and brought many into the home, where they became a part of the family.

Pre-Columbian terracottas were later added to the collection and the sculptor talks fondly about the inspiration they provided; her Galician and wider Spanish heritage, are also clearly evident in her cultural DNA.

Isabel studied at the Faculty of Art and Design at Hull University, Yorkshire, and then at St Martin’s School of Art, London, where her postgraduate studies under Katherine Gili, “probably the most important British sculptor today”, and the great painter Alan Gouk, shaped her sculptural discipline. She likens her time there to working under Pissarro and Julio Gonzalez, in the buzz, creativity and rigour of learning.

Her first major exhibition was held at the Whitechapel Education Gallery, Whitechapel High Street, London. 

She has worked with architects as well as scientists and is acclaimed for her series of recent commissions with Studio E Architects’ new building, Larmenier School in Brook Green, and Chameleon International Headquarters, Ealing.

Isabel is a busy Art Judge and the Principal of Hampstead School of Art, London. www.hampstead-school-of-art.org

DR MICHAEL PRITCHARD (UK)

Director of Education & Public Affairs at The Royal Photographic Society. He is a photographic historian and was a photography specialist at Christie’s, with a PhD in history of photography. Michael has been a selector on a number of international competitions, including the ArtGemini Prize, HIPA Awards, Travel Photography of the Year, Spider Awards, Terry O’Neill Award, and several student photography competitions. He lectures internationally and publishes regularly on photography. Michael is a member of the ArtGemini Prize and PhotoX judging panel.