Aki Hassan (b. 1995, Singapore) is a multidisciplinary visual artist and independent art researcher who works through expanded sculpture, experimental comics and writing. Aki is known for producing non-representational forms and objects as a way to disentangle normative modes of visualising and reading trans* embodiment in relation to notions of embodied knowledge, fictive kinship, and queer futures.
Recent residencies include Cutes / ظِراف with Samandal and Nino Bulling as part of Documenta 15 (2022) and SAM Art Residencies at Singapore Art Museum (2021/22). Recent exhibitions include Entangled Attachments (Yeo Workshop, 2023), Like Letters (Starch, 2022), RSA New Contemporaries 2022 (Royal Scottish Academy, 2022), An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season (National Gallery Singapore, 2020) and Pig Rock Bothy Residency & Exhibition (Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, 2019).
They currently exist between Glasgow and Singapore.
Education
2016-2020. Glasgow School of Art. Glasgow, UK.
2008-2016. School of The Arts. Singapore.
Residencies
2023 Colorama Clubhouse Residency. Berlin, Germany.
2022 Cutes / ظِراف with Samandal Comics & Nino Bulling. Documenta 15. Kassel, Germany.
2021/22 1st Cycle of SAM Artist Residency. Singapore Art Museum. Singapore.
2019 Pig Rock Bothy Residency. Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. Edinburgh.
2016 Soft/wall/Studs x Bubble Gum Death Metal Residency. Soft/wall/Studs. Singapore.
Selected Exhibitions
2023 Entangled Attachments Solo exhibition at Yeo Workshop, Singapore.
2022 pulses, wriggling restlessly at Like Letters. Starch, Singapore.
2022 Hanging There at The Non Season. Design Orchard, Singapore.
2022 Ten Excerpts of Nonbinaryhood at Three Sketches for a Lost Year. Field Studies, Singapore.
2022 And Across, A Stretching Line, Wrap Around at RSA New Contemporaries. Royal Scottish Academy, Scotland.
2021 lingering thoughts, love at Innate, a group exhibition. Yeo Workshop, Singapore.
2021 Growing a Pair at Between the Living and the Archive. Gillman Barracks, Singapore.
2021 A Tired Holder, Held and Holding at Maybe We Read Too Much Into Things. 72-13, Singapore.
2020 ex—tensions. ISLANDS Peninsula, Singapore.
2020 Weighed Down by An Uplift at An Exercise of Meaning in A Glich Season. National Gallery Singapore.
2020 Being Strong for You at Like A Biennale. Civic House, Glasgow.
2019 Encountering Material & Object. Pig Rock Bothy Residency & Exhibition. Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.
2019 Do You Hear That?, a collaborative performance with Chanelle Brown at Show Me The Difference. Studio Pavillion, House For An Art Lover, Glasgow.
2019 Only Upwards From Here. Deviations: A Group Exhibition. 59 Hackney Road, London.
2018 In Residence by GSA People of Colour Society. 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow.
2017 Borders, collaborative performance with Soorin Shin. The Art School, Glasgow.
2016 While They Trim Trees, We Reshuffle The Leaves, collaboration with Ryan Ben Lee. Mettlework, Singapore.
Publications
Nonbinaryhood published by Good Press.
Forming An Unsettled Whole self-published.
Sleep Paralysis published by O Panda Gordo.
Dysphoria Diarrhea released via Power Couple Press. On Holding Space by Object Lessons Space
Lux by Aber Press
Walk Don’t Walk by Out of the Blueprint
BGDM Zine One: Sharing by Bubble Gum and Death Metal
Online Presentations
2022 Total Eclipse Plumage: Late Bloomer. Curated by Weixin Quek Chong and Kenneth Constance Loe. 2021 Falling into its Thingness. Collaboration with Rifqi Amirul Rosli.
2020 Singapore Memories. BBC Storyworks.
2020 Our Heartlands. Plural Art Mag.
2020 Stay-Home-Sessions. Curated by Liyana Yang.
2020 Recirculations. Organised by Soft/wall/Studs.
Selected Press, Talks & Interviews
2022. Press. Expanding the visual language of the trans* identity with Aki Hassan’s beautiful new comic. Written by Joey Levenson on It’s Nice That.
2022. Press. Good Things Come: RSA New Contemporaries 2022. Written by Adam Benmakhlouf on The Skinny Magazine.
2021. Press. Haunted House: Between the Living and the Archive. Review by Adeline Chia on ArtReview.
2021. Press. Between the Living and the Archive. Review by Louis Ho on ArtAsiaPacific.
2021. Interview. Berny Tan in conversation with Aki Hassan.
2020. Interview. Object Lesson Space. “Aki Hassan on Piecing Things Together, Proposing Transformation through Art and Amplifying Queer Voices.”
2020. Guest Speaker. Artist Talk with Khairullah Rahim, moderated by Samantha Yap. National Gallery Singapore.2020. Guest Speaker. Monzoom Zchool: Art Zchool Feelingz. Oct 2020.
2019. Guest Speaker. Gender Fluidity & Visual Storytelling at Category Is Books. Oct 2019.
[Work: linkedin.com/in/aki-hassan/]