“Wild Card” James Taylor-Foster to Helm Hong Kong’s Para Site
31March 17, 2026
British Swedish curator and writerJames Taylor-Fosterhas been appointed executive director ofPara Sitein Hong Kong. He succeedsBilly Tang, whodeparted the rolelast May after leading the contemporary arts nonprofit for three years. The organization was overseen in the interim by deputy director Junni Chen.
Taylor-Foster arrives to Para Site from ArkDes and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, where he has served as curator of contemporary architecture and design since 2018. He has twice-served as a co-organizer of the Nordic Countries Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2016 and 2023, most recently helping to mount Joar Nango and collaborators’ interdisciplinary research project “Girjegumpi: The Sámi Architecture Library.”
“[Taylor-Foster] brings a rare combination of curatorial imagination and institutional stewardship,” said Para Site board chair Alan Lo in a statement. “His practice is rooted in the contemporary yet firmly focused on the future: how institutions can shift their centers to stay alive and relevant, how culture moves across borders and disciplines. This is precisely the thinking that Para Site needs as it enters its next chapter.”
Taylor-Foster last year curated “WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR” at Hong Kong’s GATE33 Gallery, in collaboration with ArkDes and London’s Design Museum. Still, the South China Morning Post noted that, unlike Para Site’s previous leaders, the thirty-three-year-old was not well known in the local art scene.
“I am what they call a wild card,” Taylor-Foster told the publication. “I have a framework for Para Site that I think will make it more accessible.” He said that he planned to stay at least five years. Asked about how he would reckon with the national security law, which has had a chilling effect on Hong Kong’s artistic community, Taylor-Foster replied that Europe and the US were also seeing increasing censorship and self-censorship. “I think that all around the world right now, especially in culture” he said, “it’s really about picking a battle.”
Taylor-Foster will move to Hong Kong this summer to begin his new role.