Professor Ying Kit Chan has been a member of the University of Louisville faculty since 1984, contributing more than four decades to creative practice, teaching, and service to the department, university, and profession. Through his long-term involvement with the Hite Art Institute, he has served as Department Chair and Director of the Hite Art Institute, Head of Studio Programs, Vice-Chair, Coordinator of the Foundation Program, and Head of the Drawing Program.

Creative Practice and Research

Working across multiple media, his creative practice and research explore philosophical approaches to nature, the environment, and sustainability. Since 1975, Professor Chan has participated in more than two hundred solo and group exhibitions in the United States and internationally, including exhibitions at museums and galleries in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Colombia, Germany, Korea, Japan, England, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Taiwan, Mexico, and Portugal.

Professor Chan has received numerous awards, fellowships, and grants, including two Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Visual Arts Fellowships (1994, 2002) and a National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Fellowship (1992). He has also received two Great Meadows Foundation professional development travel grants (2017, 2019) and was selected as a Bingham Faculty Fellow (2024–2025). In 2024, he completed an artist residency at Shiro Oni Studio in Fujioka, Japan.

Teaching and Mentoring

For more than four decades, Professor Chan has taught courses ranging from the foundations level to advanced undergraduate and graduate studio art, integrating critical theory, contemporary art history, and professional practice. At the graduate level, he teaches the MFA Seminar and Graduate Teaching Practicum, mentoring MFA students in artistic development, professional practice, and college-level teaching.

His teaching and mentoring have been recognized with the following awards:

• Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, 2017

• Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Master’s Students Award, Graduate School, 2024

• LVA Art Educator Award, Louisville Visual Art, 2026

Adminstrative and Service Activities

At the Hite Institute, Professor Chan served as Department Chair and Director of the Hite Art Institute from 2011 to 2016 and as Director of Graduate Studies for the MFA Program from 2022 to 2024. He currently serves as Head of the Drawing Program, Vice-Chair, and coordinator of the Foundation Program, and Head of Drawing Area.

At the University of Louisville, Professor Chan is a founding member of the Humanities Ph.D. Program Steering Committee and the Asian Studies Program. He is a faculty affiliate of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research and was a member of the first cohort of Green Threads, a university-wide faculty initiative supporting the integration of sustainability across the curriculum.

Nationally, Professor Chan has contributed to the advancement of foundation-level art and design education. He served as conference chair for the first national FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory and Education) conference in 1986 and as president of FATE from 1995 to 1997. He has also contributed professional service to MACAA and SECAC and served on the College Art Association Professional Practices Committee.

Educational Background

In the 70s, Professor Chan studied art at several colleges and studios in Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Baptist College, Hong Kong Buddhist College, and Hong Kong Polytechnic, studying with artists and designers including Kan Tai Keung, Leung Kui Ting, Ting Yin Yung, and Mak Yu See.

He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Oklahoma in 1981, where was advised by George Bogart. He completed his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Cincinnati under the mentorship of Robert Knipschild, while also studying video art with Jud Yalkut and Tom Baggs at Xavier University.

From 2003 to 2005, Professor Chan pursued further studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Paris, France. There, he attended seminars with leading thinkers, artists, and filmmakers, including Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Donna Haraway, Judith Butler, Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Cornelia Parker, and his advisor, Wolfgang Schirmacher.