Sarah Qing Markovitz’s Recent Photo
Hive Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to welcome Ms. Sarah Qing Markovitz to its staff as the Director of International Programming to join the team in Beijing. Having graduated from the University of Chicago, Ms. Markovitz holds a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and a Master’s degree specializing in Contemporary Chinese Art. She has additionally studied Japanese and Korean art history. It was from the very beginning of her art history studies with Professor Wu Hung at The University of Chicago that she became inspired and enthralled by Chinese art. Ms. Markovitz believes that art has an incredible ability to connect different cultures, offering significant pathways for societies to communicate and benefit from each other’s rich traditions and histories.
Assuming the role as Director of International Programming, Ms. Markovitz will facilitate and broaden the engagement of Hive’s collaborating artists with international foundations, art institutions, and other important public art organizations.
Ms. Markovitz joins Hive with a strong professional background in the industry, previously having served as Assistant to the Executive Director at the Sarasota Art Museum (Sarasota, Florida, USA) where she worked closely to coordinate the museum’s various departments and became familiar with art institution operational processes. While at the Sarasota Art Museum, she collaborated with the museum’s curatorial, education, programming, marketing, events, and development departments. In 2021, Ms. Markovitz assisted with a major exhibition organized by University of Chicago’s David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art titled,“Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Program at 40”. Working with curator Dr. Abigail Winograd, this expansive project displayed more than thirty of America’s most celebrated contemporary artists at more than twenty locations spread across the city of Chicago.
The Founder and Director of Hive, Xia Jifeng, remarked: “We are very pleased that Hive’s growth and vision are greatly recognized by Ms. Markovitz, as the addition of Ms. Markovitz to the team creates a more dynamic and international presence. From the beginning, Hive was founded with a commitment to discourse and outreach based in the region, extending to Asia and the rest of the world. Global engagement is a challenging but exciting endeavor, and Ms. Markovitz’s diverse experience and resources in the industry, together with Hive’s dedication to the promotion of Contemporary Chinese Art, will certainly contribute to the development of Hive’s long-term goal. We hope that in the near future, Contemporary Chinese Art, especially the practices of the younger generation, will regularly appear in some of the most important international art institutions. Vice versa, we also look forward to realizing more international art projects within China. The discourse of art has always been a piercing journey of barriers between races, regions, and cultures, and its significance cannot be overstated.”
Markovitz expressed, “I feel very honored to join the Hive team. To my understanding, Hive is one of the most energetic and influential galleries in the field of Contemporary Chinese Art, particularly in discovering and fostering the younger generation of artists, which has transformed the existing perception of Contemporary Chinese Art that my American colleagues and I previously had. This new generation not only inherits and cultivates the marvelous parts of Chinese culture, but they also have a global vision, influenced by a diverse array of cultures and are unrestrained by borders. An indispensable part of the global art ecosystem, Contemporary Chinese Art is distinctive and exceptional, deserving to be more widely understood, recognized, and addressed by the rest of the world. I look forward to a thrilling journey with the Hive team as we immerse in the world of Contemporary Chinese Art.”