Join us for an evening with Sophia Cai as she discusses her new book, Loop, Hook, Loom with Soo-Min Shim.

6pm arrivals for 6:30pm start.

Free to attend, but RSVP essential to secure your spot.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From artists knitting giant sweaters to those creating rooms bursting with imagined sea creatures, Loop, Hook, Loom brings together some of today’s most creative textile practices in a celebration of contemporary exploration and play. Broken down into three chapters – Weaving, Crochet, and Knitting – Sophia Cai dips into the history of these artforms and the creative ways they’re currently being expanded. An accessible entry point into the world of yarn-based art, Loop, Hook, Loom features both working artists and hobbyists, highlighting the endless possibilities of textiles.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sophia Cai is a curator and arts writer based in Kamberri/Canberra. From 2023 to 2024, she was the Artistic Director of Bus Projects, one of Australia’s longest running independent artist-run organizations. Since 2025, she has served as the Artistic Director + CEO of Canberra Contemporary.

Sophia’s ongoing research interests include Asian art histories, the intersections between contemporary art and craft, and building communities of practice rooted in feminist and anti-racist work. She completed her Masters in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

As an independent curator Sophia has worked on a number of exhibitions at artist-run spaces, public galleries, and independent organizations across Australia and online. Sophia’s writing on art and culture has been widely published in international and national publications including The Guardian, Hyperallergic, Frieze, and Overland. She has delivered public programs, lectures and talks at National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, ACCA, Craft Victoria, Monash Gallery of Art, RMIT, and more.

Soo-Min Shim (she/her) is a sessional lecturer at the National Art School and the University of New South Wales lecturing on Contemporary Australian and Contemporary Asian Art. She received her PhD in Art History at the Australian National University and her Bachelor of Art History (First Class Honours) from the University of Sydney. She has written for several academic publications including World Art, Art & The Public Sphere, Southeast of Now, Refract: An Open Access Visual Studies Journal published by the University of California, and more. She is currently on the editorial board of Palgrave Macmillan’s book series on Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies, and Politics and is a 2026 Research Fellow at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea.