Yuk King Tan explores the intersection between culture, work, place, and economics. Her practice has long explored status, control, and power through objects and installations. Designer goods have sat next to fake money as well as toy guns, tanks and other symbols of wealth and power. She’s made use of the analogy of the marketplace, presenting items laid out on tables that invite browsing and thoughtful reflection. Tan subverts tradition and materials to become another kind of values trader, assigning interest and significance to objects and situations in a way that suggests a realignment of ideas.
Currently based in Hong Kong, Yuk King Tan has had major solo and group exhibitions, most importantly at the Camden Art Centre in London, Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Museum Fredericianum in Kassel, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and Wellington City Gallery, New Zealand, Hong Kong Arts Centre, and Artists Space in New York. She has held residencies in Dunedin, New Plymouth, Queensland, Aachen, Sydney and London snd has participated in international biennales/triennials in Queensland, Vilnius, Auckland and Sao Paulo.
Yuk King Tan graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, New Zealand.