NOVEMBER
Owen has been named recipient of the People's Choice Award for his work Justin in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.

"The People's Choice Award is a great chance for the public to have their say in the judging process. Owen's work is a powerful portrait that received a fantastic response from the visitors to the gallery. It's a highly sophisticated portrait that explores some crucial issues relevant to our community and a photograph that instantly struck a chord with the residents of Monash," said Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA.

The Bowness Photography Prize is the nation's most important photographic award, The competition received 2,000 photographs submitted by 450 entrants, which was short-listed to 50 photographs for the recent finalist's exhibition.

OCTOBER
Owen has been selected as a finalist in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. After attracting over 450 entries from across Australia the judges selected 50 works by emerging and established artists, which showcase the vitality and excellence in Australian photography today.

The short listed artists to feature in the 2009 exhibition include:

Donna Bailey, Del Kathryn Barton, Polly Borland, Jane Burton, Elaine Campaner, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Rebecca Dagnall, Stephen David, Tamara Dean, Marion Drew, Rozalind Drummond, Stephen Dupont, Cherine Fahd, Hayden Fowler, Janina Green, Renato Grome, Siri Hayes, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Christopher Holt, Diego Ibanez, Sophie Kahn, Ash Keating, Ingvar Kenne, Paul Knight, Bronek Kozka, Todd Anderson Kunert, Owen Leong, Sean Loughrey, Todd McMillan, Georgia Metaxas, Julie Millowick, Sarah Mosca, Harry Nankin, Conor O'Brien, Simon O'Dwyer, Paul Ogier, Sanja Pahoki, Polixeni Papapetrou, Deborah Phillips, Izabela Pluta, Helen Pynor, Troy Ruffels, Rebecca Shanahan, Glenn Sloggett, Michal Teague, Simon Terrill, Christian Thompson, Stephanie Valentin, Lyndal Walker, Anne Zahalka.

The judging panel comprises:

Helen Ennis
Senior Lecturer Art Theory and Associate Head Undergraduate, Australian National University School of Art

Anne Ferran
Senior Lecturer in Photomedia, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney

Shaune Lakin
Director, Monash Gallery of Art

For more information visit Monash Gallery of Art.

SEPTEMBER
Owen will open his studio to the public as part of his residency at Tokyo Wonder Site.

Tokyo Wonder Site launched the Creator-in-Residence program in 2006, targeting creative leaders from the fields of art, design, music and architecture. International and Japanese artists who participate in this program live and work in Aoyama, a sronghold of fashion and creativity in the centre of Tokyo, Japan. The Open Studio is a monthly program that provides visitors with the opportunity to communicate and exchange ideas about work directly with creators.

Open Studio takes place on 19 September 2009, 2 - 6pm.

For more information visit Tokyo Wonder Site.

AUGUST
Owen Leong has been awarded an Asialink Visual Arts Residency in 2009.

From 4 August - 31 October, Owen will undertake his residency at Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan. Previous residents include Shaun Gladwell, Kate Rohde, James Lynch, and Ben Morieson. Tokyo Wonder Site is a contemporary art centre dedicated to the generation and promotion of new art and culture from the heart of Tokyo.

During his residency at Tokyo Wonder Site, Owen will conduct research on the history of the body and performance in contemporary Japanese art. He will then develop a new series of photographic portraits based on his studies of subcultures in Tokyo.

This is an Asialink Project, supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.

During his residency, Owen can be contacted at the following:

In other news, Look Who's Morphing, by debut author Tom Cho, was recently nominated for The Age Book of the Year Awards 2009. Here’s what the judges, James Ley and Lisa Gorton, said about Look Who’s Morphing:

"A collection of short fictions that appropriates pop culture in a way that is both coolly analytical and irreverent. The funniest and most original book published this year, it teases out the mythical implications of the most innocuous and trashy cultural forms. The central character morphs into TV personalities, works as Whitney Houston’s bodyguard, spends time as a Muppet, and finally transforms into an outsized combination of Godzilla, Lemuel Gulliver and a heavy metal guitarist. Look Who’s Morphing develops a witty and incisive exploration of the role of fantasy in creating identity."

For the latest information on Tom Cho, including reviews, readings, and appearances at writers festivals, visit: www.tomcho.com

JULY
Owen will have work in Surveying the Field, an exhibition showcasing the work of leading contemporary artists living or working in the City of Moreland, Melbourne.

Artists include: Alison Bennett, Angela Cavalieri, Sam Jinks, Sam Leach, Owen Leong, Wilma Tabacco, and Dan Wollmering.

MAY
Über Gallery has been invited to participate in NEXT Art Fair, Chicago, USA. Andrew Battye, Matt Coyle, Johnnie Dady, Bonnie Lane, Owen Leong, Dylan Martorell and Luke Victory will be shown at the fair.

More than an art fair, NEXT is a showcase for the world's talents and an adventure in cutting-edge culture. An opportunity to redefine the relationship between art and its public, NEXT is a portal to seeing contemporary art in new, innovative, eye-opening ways. NEXT will include work from both commercial and non-commercial arts organisations, galleries, project spaces, art publications and key private contemporary collections from around the world.

APRIL
The Australian Commercial Galleries Association (ACGA) launches its new gallery and head office at Federation Square. Its inaugural show NOW 2.0 will feature the work of Lyndell Brown / Charles Green, Sally Gabori, Owen Leong, Song Ling, Tony Lloyd, Simon Strong, Darren Sylvester, Kit Wise and Anne Zahalka.

Curated by Dianne Tanzer, NOW 2.0 approaches advances in communication as a lens of investigation into the current state of contemporary art. Celebrating the openness of exchange, the place of the viewer and the democratisation of creative application, NOW 2.0 reaches to the edges of the present and engages the future.

JANUARY
Owen has been commissioned to create a unique artwork for the cover of Look Who's Morphing by Tom Cho.

"Look Who's Morphing is a collection of funny, playful, often outlandish fictions in which, along with his extended family, the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music and books, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston's bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4x4 - and, as a climax, a fifty-five metre tall guitar-wielding cock rock star, who performs for the people of Tokyo, and an adoring troupe of sexy fans.

Within these fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it is constructed in a world filled with the images of popular culture."

Tom Cho is an award-winning writer, performer and producer. Influenced by the young adult book series Sweet Valley High, Tom Cho began writing fiction in his mid-teens. His stories have appeared in publications in Australia and overseas, and he has performed at events and festivals around the country, including in the award-winning show Hello Kitty, which combined literature with power ballads. He recently completed a doctorate at Deakin University. His website is www.tomcho.com

Look Who's Morphing will be published by Giramondo Publishing in May 2009.



Reading at Art Gallery of New South Wales:

Author Tom Cho reads from his new book Look Who's Morphing in association with Double Take: Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts 2009. The Double Take exhibition considers what it means to transform the self into another persona - doppelganger, karaoke performer, avatar, robot or fantasy alter-ego.