I am currently working on several exhibitions for the Peabody Essex Museum, including shows by contemporary artists Joni Sternbach and Valérie Belin.
Over time I have worked with all kinds of objects, from Old Master to contemporary, and from Asian to Islamic. I enjoy art from all periods and cultures, but I know British, French and American art best.
My interest in art began as a teenager wandering around the galleries on Wyndham Street and Hollywood Road in Hong Kong. I have admired Chinese ink painting ever since, especially the wonderfully imaginative landscapes of the late Ming Dynasty. I enjoy British Romantic watercolors, for similar reasons. Beautiful and serious landscape photographs by contemporary artists such as Robert Adams, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Simone Nieweg, Mark Ruwedel, and Toshio Shibata are also personal favorites. I am very interested in questions of land use.
Scientific photography is a recurring interest in my work. For several years I have been gathering notes for a history of focus, which was the subject of my research at the National Gallery of Canada from 2007-2008. I am very interested in artists who were influential in their day but who are forgotten now. For example, I am currently preparing an exhibition on the eccentric Victorian artist Oscar Rejlander.
In my spare time I run an animal welfare organization called the Zoo Visitors Association. Our web site currently averages about 50,000 hits a month!