BIG Curators

Fei Jia 费嘉

原少年儿童出版社资深编辑，国际绘本专家。1956年出生于上海，祖籍江苏江阴。他于上世纪80年代进入出版行业，现在是少年儿童出版社资深编辑及国际绘本专家。他长期从事少儿图书的策划、书籍装帧、插画工作。编辑策划的《三毛大世界》丛书曾获中国图书奖，《动物总动员》曾获冰心儿童图书奖大奖。在近三十年的职业生涯中，他为《上下五千年》《十万个为什么》等一大批儿童图书做过装帧设计，为全国各地许多儿童刊物做过文艺类、科普类的专题版面。费嘉在策划编书的同时，热衷于绘本的研究，并扶持培养了一批有成就有影响力的作者队伍。

Fei Jia, former senior artistic editor at the Juvenile and Children's Publishing House (Shanghai), has been in charge of the planning, drafting and illustration of juvenile and children's books for many years. He directed the publication of The World of Sanmao, which was awarded the China Book Prize. Fei Jia also received the Bing Xin Children's Book Award for his picture book titled The Animals Walkout. In a career that spans over 30 years, he has designed a great number of children's books such as Five Thousand Years of China and I Wonder Why. He has also served as an editor and design consultant for book projects around China, including literature and art books, as well as children’s popular science books. Alongside his publishing career, he remains committed to his research on picture book illustration and has widely contributed to forge a new generation of successful picture book illustrators and artists.

Li Aixia 李艾霞

李艾霞于1987年出生于中国，她毕业于中央美术学院摄影专业，并拥有芬兰阿尔托大学艺术设计与建筑学院的艺术硕士学位。她的作品曾入选中国、芬兰、荷兰和南非等地的多个文化艺术类的群展。她目前在上海出版印刷高等专科学校教授插画课程，并于2018年发起创立了上海童书研究中⼼。她是今年10月举办的第二届中欧绘本与创新论坛的组织者之一，并且是同期展览“中欧当代插图与影像展”的策展人。

Li Aixia was born in China in 1987. She graduated in Photography from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing) and holds a Master of Art from the Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture (Helsinki). Her work was selected in several collective exhibitions in China, Finland, the Netherlands and South Africa, among other countries. In 2018, she founded the Shanghai Children’s Book Research Centre. She currently leads the illustration course at the Shanghai Printing and Publishing College. She is among the organisers of the Sino-European Picture Book Conference—whose second edition took place in October 2019—and is the curator of its accompanying exhibition, “Contemporary Illustrations and Images Exhibition of China and Europe”.

Carolina Ballester 白丽娜

Carolina Ballester was born in Paris in 1982. She holds a MA in Political Science from the Madrid Complutense University and graduated in Chinese and Arabic languages and cultures from the French National Institute of Oriental Studies (INALCO). After a few years working as a translator, she was appointed cultural attaché at the Consulate of Spain in Shanghai, where she was in charge of coordinating the Spanish cultural promotion in Eastern China. Since 2013, she is international programme manager for the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF). She leads the book fair publishers’ fellowship and coordinates the international participation in all the fair’s programmes, including the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition, the CCBF conferences and seminars, the CCBF Illustration Residence etc. In 2018, she collaborated in the organisation of the Bologna Illustration Exhibition tour in China and acts as consultant for the Chen Bochui illustration exhibition and collection. She lives and work between Shanghai and Madrid, Spain.

Canato Jimo

Canato Jimo is a picture book maker from India. He is particularly fond of wordless picture books and also likes to explore the dark and bizarre in picture books. He did his masters in graphic design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. He currently works as an art director at Pratham Books. He finds it fascinating collaborating with artists and watching picture books come alive. His book ‘Snip’ has made it to the TATA Parag Honour List 2020 and has also been shortlisted for the Publishing Next children’s Book of the Year 2020 award (0-8 years).

Maria Christania Winardi

Maria was born and raised in Indonesia. She gained her bachelor’s degree in visual communication design from Bandung Institute of Technology in 2008. Her book, Jerry Giraffe and The Giant Butter Cookie received an Honorary Mention for Publisher in Biennial Illustration Bratislava 2013 and the IBBY Honour List in Illustrator in 2014. Later that year, she moved to the UK, in which she is currently residing. She received her master’s degree in Children’s Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art in 2016.

Ramón C. Sunico

Ramón C. Sunico is an internationally published poet, book publisher, teacher, editor, book designer, and author of 3 children’s picture books (one in print since 1990) and two acclaimed poetry books. He is the recipient of the Gawad Alagad ni Balagtas (a national writers’ honor roll) and other national literary and book prizes.

Paula Pang

Paula Pang is an illustrator based in Singapore. She draws to make new discoveries, to tell a story and to connect with people. She gathers muse from her curiosity about life and weaves it together with her quiet, whimsical and mischievous nature to create a world where the impossibilities are made possible. Her works have been told to be whimsical and witty with a touch of softness. She chanced upon a chance to illustrate her first children’s book Chocolate Bunny in 2011, which led to other publishing opportunities.

Darel Seow

Darel Seow is a visual storyteller who illustrates the tales of the natural world through his unique brand of wry wit and whimsy. He believes in the draw of storytelling as a means of engagement, creating experiences that simultaneously excite and educate. Particularly interested in museums and culture, he has worked with art, cultural and educational institutions to encourage learning through the power of imagination and play.

Ben Lai

Ben Lai is a multidisciplinary designer in the toy, publishing and entertainment industry, a picture bookmaker and an advocate of play. He draws inspiration from things that enable people to appreciate their relationships with our surroundings and people and he is always curious about how play can make a difference.

Rachel Hill

Rachel Hill is the Membership Director at the Association of Illustrators, the professional body for illustration in the UK. Through the AOI, Rachel advises illustrators on self-promotion, portfolios, negotiation and copyright. Having previously worked as an Illustration Agent, Rachel is passionate about championing illustrators at all stages of their careers.