Galerie BAQ is run under the artistic direction of Lê Thiên-Bảo. A native of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, her curatorial practice since 2010 has been focused on raising awareness and connecting artists and their communities in Southeast Asia. In April 2023, with Quinnie Tan, a cultural policy maker from New York, they open Galerie BAQ in Paris to champion and amplify contemporary art from the world's emerging centres of creativity, working directly with artists with ties to Southeast Asia and its diasporic communities around the world. In addition to artists whose work creates a dialogue with Southeast Asia, Galerie BAQ is curious about forms of cultural production and creative expression that engage with complex histories and identities, reimagine traditions, and challenge dominant ideologies.
Using the geo-culture of Southeast Asia as a method, Galerie BAQ usually collaborates with/places its programmes in different locations, a metaphor of islands in an archipelago, geographically separated yet closely connected. Some of their partners include The Factory Contemporary Art Center (Ho Chi Minh City), POUSH (Aubervilliers), A2Z Art Gallery (Paris), Sa Sa Art Project (Phnom Penh), RUBANAH-Underground Hub (Jakarta) and ATTA Gallery (Bangkok).
