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Sunday, May 16, 2021
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New Resound: Ancient Bells of China
Place: Freer Gallery of Art / Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution - Washington, D.C., 1050 Independence Ave SW, USA
Date: Oct 14, 2019 to Jul 05, 2021
Detail: Bells were among the first metal objects created in China. Beginning over 3,500 years ago, small, primitive noisemakers grew into gongs and further evolved into sets of hand bells for playing melodies. Further, centuries of technological experimentation resulted in more sophisticated bells that produced two pitches when struck in different spots.

Variations in size, shape, decoration, and sound also reveal regional differences across north and south China. By the late Bronze Age large sets of tuned bells were played in ensemble performances in both areas. Cast from bronze, these durable bells preserve valuable information about the character of early Chinese music.

Today we can use technology to explore these ancient instruments and to explain their acoustical properties, but we know little about the sound of this early music. To bring the bells to life, we commissioned three composers to create soundscapes using the recorded tones of a 2,500-year-old bell set on display. Each of them also produced a video projection to interpret his composition with moving images that allow us to “see sound.”


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New Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection
Place: Harvard Art Museums - Cambridge, 32 Quincy Street, Massachusetts, USA
Date: Feb 14, 2020 to Jun 06, 2021
Detail: Painting Edo — the largest exhibition ever presented at the Harvard Art Museums — offers a window onto the supremely rich visual culture of Japan’s early modern era. Selected from the unparalleled collection of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg, the more than 120 works in the exhibition connect visitors with a seminal moment in the history of Japan, as the country settled into an era of peace under the warrior government of the shoguns and opened its doors to greater engagement with the outside world. The dizzying array of artistic lineages and studios active during the Edo period (1615–1868) fueled an immense expansion of Japanese pictorial culture that reverberated not only at home, but subsequently in the history of painting in the West.


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New The Elephant in the Room: Indian Paintings from the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
Place: The San Diego Museum of Art - Balboa Park, San Diego, 1450 El Prado, California, USA
Date: Feb 28, 2020 to Jul 18, 2021
Detail: Inspired by this inherent reverence for the elephant, an appreciation rooted in India’s rich literary traditions and folklore, artists at the courts of Muslim and Hindu rulers produced splendid paintings and studies of elephants, many of which were admired in albums, and others conceived as independent compositions or as designs for transfer to other media. With the exception of a portrait of an African elephant, this selection of works from the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection features paintings and drawings of Asian elephants completed in India between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Representing a range of regional styles, skill, and subject matter, they share a cultural affinity and empathy for the massive yet graceful, powerful but noble elephant.


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New Objects of Contact
Place: Portland Art Museum - Portland, 1219 SW Park Avenue, Oregon, USA
Date: Feb 29, 2020 to Jun 13, 2021
Detail: In theory, Japan was a “closed” country to foreign contact from the 1630s until the 1850s, by shogunal edict. In reality, trade prospered through authorized channels. As commerce flourished, so too did cultural exchanges with not only East and Southeast Asia, but also the West. Motivated by the demands of patrons, the availability of new art-making materials and models of inspiration, and their own imaginations, artists created new and sometimes surprising works of art that reflected and engaged their world. These objects reveal a fascinating history of transnational encounter between Japan and the western world over more than three centuries.

The stories told by the several dozen works in Objects of Contact range widely, in media and in subject matter. A pair of gold screens painted in brilliant mineral pigments heralds the earliest arrivals of Portuguese merchants by ship in the late 16th and early 17th century. The patronage of a high-ranking officer in the Dutch East India Company is divulged on the base of an apothecary jar made in Kyushu. Woodblock prints experiment with the conventions of one-point perspective, absorbed by artists looking at European engravings.

This spring and summer, explore how stunning works of Japanese art from the permanent collection embody, and even trouble, points of contact in the cultural dialogue between Japan and the West.


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New Charged with Buddha’s Blessings Relics from an Ancient Stupa
Place: The Rubin Museum of Art - New York, 150 West 17th St., USA
Date: May 30, 2020 to May 30, 2021
Detail: See it to believe whether Buddhist relics and their stories have power. In 1898, excavation of a site in Piprahwa, northern India, revealed an ancient stupa with five intact reliquaries, one of which had an inscription claiming it contained the remains of the Buddha. This installation tells the story of this remarkable discovery and features the offerings of gems and gold foil ornaments that were enshrined together with the reliquaries. In essence, these items can be considered “contact relics,” imbued with the blessings of the Buddha’s corporeal remains, objects with the power to increase merit.

Curated by Elena Pakhoutova.


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New Gateway to Himalayan Art
Place: The Rubin Museum of Art - New York, 150 West 17th St., USA
Date: May 31, 2020 to May 30, 2021
Detail: Gateway to Himalayan Art introduces visitors to the main forms, concepts, and meanings of Himalayan art represented in our collection. A large multimedia map orients the visitors and highlights cultural regions of a diverse Himalayan cultural sphere that includes parts of present day India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia. Visitors are invited to explore exemplary objects from the Museum’s collection, organized and presented in thematic sections: Figures and Symbols, Materials and Techniques, and Purpose and Function.

The exhibition employs a concise and informative approach to convey the principal notions inherent in the rich traditions of Himalayan art to first-time visitors and specialists alike. In addition to sculptures and paintings, objects such as a stupa, prayer wheel, and ritual implements demonstrate that their patrons sought the accumulation of merit and hoped for wealth, long life, and spiritual gains, all to be fulfilled through the ritual use of these objects and commissioning works of art.

Among the featured installations are a display that explains the process of Nepalese lost-wax metal casting and a presentation of the stages of Tibetan hanging scroll painting (thangka). Visitors will also encounter life-size reproductions of murals from Tibet’s Lukhang Temple, photographed by Thomas Laird and Clint Clemens.

Curated by Elena Pakhoutova


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New The Enchantment of the Everyday: East Asian Decorative Arts from the Permanent Collection
Place: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College - Oberlin, 87 North Main Street, USA
Date: Jul 09, 2020 to Sep 03, 2021
Detail: Glimpse into a different world, where the everyday object became something magical in the hands of artisans working in ivory, jade, cloisonné, and other luxurious materials.

Table settings, combs and hairpins, belt toggles, boxes for documents—all are potentially unremarkable, utilitarian, and overlooked artifacts of daily life. This exhibition provides a glimpse into a different world, where the everyday object—enhanced by the creativity and skills of East Asian master artisans—became something magical.

Highlighted here are spectacular examples of East Asian decorative arts from the permanent collection, largely dating to the 19th century, that complement the ceramics, jades, and ivory netsuke on view in other museum galleries. Included are both very recent additions to the collection and works that came to Oberlin College as part of the bequest of Charles Olney in 1904, as well as many acquisitions from the intervening years—all testaments to the Allen’s abiding interest in Asian decorative arts.

The Enchantment of the Everyday presents objects made with luxurious materials: gold lacquerware, delicately carved ivory, colorful enamelware, glass, metalwork, and complex tapestries and embroideries. The works showcase the inspiration, ingenuity, and technical accomplishments of generations of artists specializing in these diverse mediums.


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New Text, Paratext, and Images
Place: RISD Museum - Providence, 20 N Main St., Rhode Island, USA
Date: Sep 01, 2020 to Jul 17, 2021
Detail: As a form of communication, text conveys information and meaning. It also presents an opportunity for interpretation and artistic engagement. Paratext—literally “beside text”—includes the more subtle associations a text carries, including reference notes, inscriptions, and the style of lettering chosen. When artists combine image, text, and paratext, new layers of interpretation are introduced, and new spaces of discourse are created. Featuring examples from Qur’an manuscripts to historical Japanese prints to contemporary works, this exhibition explores the relationships between text, paratext, and image, examining how choice of material influences texts; how different manipulations of texts and images signal social class, education, and other cultural hierarchies and norms; and how intercultural exchange can take place through circulation and interpretation.


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New Joryū Hanga Kyōkai, 1956–1965: Japan’s Women Printmakers
Place: Portland Art Museum - Portland, 1219 SW Park Avenue, Oregon, USA
Date: Sep 24, 2020 to Jun 13, 2021
Detail: In October 1956, a vibrant group of contemporary etchings, relief prints, and lithographs went on display in a Tokyo gallery. This was the debut exhibition of Japan’s first printmaking society for women artists, the Joryū Hanga Kyōkai, or the Women’s Print Association. It provided a crucial vehicle for talented female printmakers working in a crowded field of male maestros. For the next decade, the nine professional women artists who founded the society would continue to stage exhibitions of their work—culminating in a triumphant show in New York City in 1965—before going on to pursue successful solo careers. Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection and important private collections, this exhibition unearths a critical, dynamic, and understudied episode of modern printmaking history.

This exhibition presents a timely look at the careers of the group’s founding members and others who joined in successive years. Many of the works by these female printmakers are now extremely rare. Only a few of the artists, mostly in their 90s, are alive today. Yet their collective body of work is as diverse as it is visually captivating. In Joryū Hanga Kyōkai, 1956–1965, works by artists like Iwami Reika (1927-2020), Kobayashi Donge (b. 1926), Shima Tamami (1937-1999), Uchima Toshiko (1918–2000), and Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017) demonstrate the expansive and fiercely creative vision of Japan’s first women printmakers association.


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New Hokusai's Mount Fuji
Place: The Honolulu Museum of Art - Honolulu, 900 South Beretania Street, Hawaii, USA
Date: Oct 01, 2020 to Sep 30, 2021
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New Shrine Room Projects: Shiva Ahmadi /Genesis Breyer P-Orridge / Tsherin Sherpa
Place: The Rubin Museum of Art - New York, 150 West 17th St., USA
Date: Oct 11, 2020 to Jun 06, 2021
Detail: In dialogue with the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room at the center of the gallery, artists Shiva Ahmadi, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and Tsherin Sherpa each reinterpret traditional and religious iconography and practices through sculptural installation, painting, and video.


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New The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
Place: The Rubin Museum of Art - New York, 150 West 17th St., USA
Date: Oct 11, 2020 to Sep 27, 2021
Detail: Since it first opened, the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room has been one of the most popular installations at the Rubin Museum, providing an immersive experience inspired by a traditional shrine.

Art and ritual objects are displayed as they would in an elaborate private household shrine, a space used for offerings, devotional prayer, rituals, and contemplation. The design of the Shrine Room showcases these objects while incorporating elements of traditional Tibetan architecture and the color schemes of Tibetan homes.

For Museum visitors, this richly detailed, immersive installation provides an oasis for peaceful contemplation at the heart of the Rubin Museum.


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New Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice across Asia
Place: Freer Gallery of Art / Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution - Washington, D.C., 1050 Independence Ave SW, USA
Date: Oct 14, 2020 to Jan 17, 2022
Detail: Encounter Buddhist art through the lens of spiritual practice and the perspectives of practitioners. Drawing on the Freer|Sackler’s collections from across Asia, this exhibition expands the understanding of Buddhism in Asian art through both beautiful objects and immersive spaces. Visitors can step into a Tibetan Buddhist shrine, travel the Buddhist world with an eighth-century Korean monk, visit a Sri Lankan stupa, meet teachers and guardians, and discover multiple Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Encountering the Buddha illuminates the ways in which art and place embody and express the teachings of Buddhism.


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New Layers of Meaning: China’s Flora and Fauna in Painting and on Porcelain
Place: Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland, 11150 East Boulevard, USA
Date: Nov 06, 2020 to Jun 06, 2021
Detail: This permanent collection rotation features paintings, porcelain, and textiles with depictions of China’s rich flora and fauna. Artists and craftspeople chose themes to celebrate the beauty of nature, convey auspicious wishes and good fortune, or to express political or philosophical thoughts. While the motifs of flora and fauna have a decorative appearance, their composition and combinations often provided viewers with coded messages or statements about the state and society.


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New Kabuki Modern
Place: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art - Sarasota, 5401 Bay Shore Road, Florida, USA
Date: Nov 10, 2020 to Jun 27, 2021
Detail: Actors of kabuki, Japan’s distinctive form of popular theater, were superstars between the 17th and early 20th centuries, and continue to command cultural and celebrity status today. Their fame was fueled by mass-produced woodblock-printed actor portraits, or yakusha-e, that were sold as affordable mementos of the theater experience, and by bespoke paintings for wealthy patrons.

As Japan modernized from the late 19th century, theaters adapted their repertoire to cater to shifting tastes and social mores. New stories and foreign ideas reinvigorated kabuki and attracted diverse audiences and patronage. In response to these developments and the rise of photography, publishers, print designers and painters updated their stylistic and technical approaches to yakusha-e, thereby propelling the genre into the modern era.

Kabuki Modern presents superb recent acquisitions of kabuki imagery created between 1868 and the 1950s. Visitors will see works by Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900), Yamamura Kōka (Toyonari, 1885–1942), and Natori Shunsen (1886–1960) — the foremost print artists of their time. Also on view is a stunning painting by Murakami Michiho (1899–1938) that recently returned to the Museum following conservation treatment. These works of art capture the dynamic poses, elaborate stage make-up, and sumptuous costumes that have enthralled audiences for over 400 years.


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New Conservation in Action: Japanese Buddhist Sculpture in a New Light
Place: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, Massachusetts, USA
Date: Dec 15, 2020 to Jul 03, 2022
Detail: A rare, behind-the-scenes look at the conservation of seven Buddhist sculptures.

Visitors are invited to watch as objects conservators study and treat seven Japanese Buddhist sculptures in a public conservation studio. The wooden figures—images of worship depicting Buddhas, Guardian Kings, and a Wisdom King—are decorated with polychromy or gilding and date from the 9th to the 12th centuries. The conservation project occupies an entire gallery in the Museum, allowing visitors to observe the techniques employed by objects conservators as they carefully clean the sculptures and secure areas of loose paint, lacquer, and gilding. The sculptures have been relocated from the Museum's beloved Japanese Buddhist Temple Room, where they normally reside, enabling museum-goers to see the objects in a new setting for the first time in decades. Also on exhibit are three sculptures from storage that serve as points of comparison to exemplify different sculptural techniques, styles, and states of preservation.

The public studio also provides a space for conservators and curators to look closely at the sculptures in collaboration with the Museum's research scientists, identifying the original artists' materials, documenting early restorations, and working with wood anatomists in Japan to confirm the wood identifications. When the project is complete, the sculptures will return to the refurbished Japanese Buddhist Temple Room.


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New Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Up Close
Place: The Met Fifth Avenue - New York, 1000 Fifth Avenue, USA
Date: Dec 21, 2020 to Jun 27, 2021
Detail: Close looking is at the heart of Chinese painting and calligraphy. In premodern China, painters and calligraphers learned by copying, a practice that required heightened observation of details. In the process, they also learned how to look—how to detect fine distinctions of ink tone, saturation, and line. Only after years of this type of intense looking could a person be considered a true expert.

This exhibition will encourage such looking by displaying original artworks alongside photographic enlargements of their details. The magnified details draw attention to subtleties of brushwork, texture, and line that may escape a viewer at first glance. Ultimately, the enlargements draw us back to the original, revealing the rewards that close looking can offer.

On view in two rotations will be some of the most celebrated works of Chinese painting and calligraphy from the Museum's collection.


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New Masters and Masterpieces: Chinese Art from the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection
Place: The Met Fifth Avenue - New York, 1000 Fifth Avenue, USA
Date: Jan 29, 2021 to Jun 05, 2022
Detail: An outstanding selection of Chinese art gifted to The Met by Florence and Herbert Irving is the focus of this exhibition. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Irvings built one of the most comprehensive and superb collections of Chinese art in the world. For more than three decades, the couple helped The Met acquire important artworks and provided support for exhibitions, and their passion was a factor in building the current exhibition galleries dedicated to Chinese decorative arts. Their generous gifts of more than five hundred exceptional objects fundamentally transformed the holdings of Chinese art at The Met.

The approximately 120 works on display (in each rotation) cover almost all major categories of Chinese art, with a focus on three-dimensional objects, including lacquer, ceramic, metal work, jade, bamboo, and stone carvings. Created by both famous and unknown masters, these extraordinary works represent the artistic sophistication and technical virtuosity of Chinese decorative arts from the tenth through the early twentieth century. In addition to the Irvings’ well-known assemblage of lacquer ware, the exhibition also showcases their recent gifts of a group of jade and bamboo works from the eighteenth-century imperial workshop that have never before been on display. This presentation reunites important private loans formerly in the Irvings’ collection with comparative pieces from The Met collection.


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New Masterworks: A Journey through Himalayan Art
Place: The Rubin Museum of Art - New York, 150 West 17th St., USA
Date: Jan 29, 2021 to Jan 08, 2024
Detail: Masterworks: A Journey through Himalayan Art explores major strands in the development of art from the Himalayan region covering a period of more than one thousand years, with objects drawn primarily from the Rubin Museum’s collection.

Masterworks is organized geographically and chronologically, showcasing the diverse regional traditions of Tibet in relation to the neighboring areas of Eastern India, Kashmir, Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Mongolia. Juxtaposing the art of Himalayan regions over time sheds light on the geographic, historical, religious, and artistic interrelationships among these cultures.

This ongoing exhibition reflects our evolving understanding of the relatively young field of Himalayan art. Masterworks is regularly updated as new art objects and texts come to light, reflecting the latest developments in the field. The current iteration features several loans from the Zhiguan Museum of Fine Art, which brings further depth to the themes and extraordinary craftsmanship demonstrated throughout the exhibition.

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New Shiki: The Four Seasons in Japanese Art
Place: Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College - Claremont, 251 E. 11th St., California, USA
Date: Jan 30, 2021 to Aug 01, 2021
Detail: This exhibition of Japanese art from the Scripps College collection gathers together works featuring the most common seasonal motifs. Traditionally, these works would have been displayed in the home, used to serve food and drink or worn on the person as a way of deepening the connection between the owner and the particular season. From bamboo in the snow on a gilded folding screen to chrysanthemums on a lacquered hair comb, these seasonal references play an integral role in the cultural and emotional lives of the Japanese people.


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New Celebrating the Year of the Ox
Place: The Met Fifth Avenue - New York, 1000 Fifth Avenue, USA
Date: Jan 30, 2021 to Jan 17, 2022
Detail: The traditional East Asian lunar calendar consists of a repeating 12–year cycle, with each year corresponding to one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. The association of these creatures with the Chinese calendar began in the third century B.C. and became firmly established by the first century A.D. The 12 animals are, in sequence: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each is believed to embody certain traits that are manifested in the personalities of the people born in that year. This Lunar New Year, which begins on February 12, 2021, is the Year of the Ox.

In celebration of the Year of the Ox, this exhibition presents depictions of oxen and water buffalo (considered the same category of animals in China) created by artists in the last 3,000 years. Particularly notable are a massive eighteenth-century jade sculpture of a water buffalo and a remarkable eighth-century set of ceramic Chinese zodiac figures, illustrating the important role that the animals play in the life of humans.


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New Shahidul Alam: Truth to Power
Place: Asia Society Texas Center - Houston, 1370 Southmore Blvd., Texas, USA
Date: Feb 13, 2021 to Jul 11, 2021
Detail: Asia Society Texas Center (ASTC) proudly presents Shahidul Alam: Truth to Power, the first comprehensive U.S. museum survey of Shahidul Alam, the renowned Bangladeshi photographer, writer, activist, and institution builder and a Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018. Through 60+ images and ephemera, the exhibition will show the breadth of Alam’s practice and impact throughout his four-decade career. The exhibition opens on Saturday, February 13, 2021 and runs through Sunday, July 11, 2021 and admission is free.

The exhibition includes portraits, landscapes, and scenes of daily life, strife, and resistance in the "majority world" — a phrase Alam has used since the 1990s to reframe the notion of the "third world" or "global south." The term also confronts the ways in which Western media continues to define how the majority of the world's population — especially Bangladesh — is portrayed in relation to poverty and disaster.

This pioneering exhibition aims to provide visitors with a nuanced view of Bangladesh and South Asia, to explore systems of personal and collective agency, and to underscore the importance of self-representation, empowerment, and truth as embodied in Alam's life and work.

"My introduction into photography was for political reasons,” states Alam. “It was social justice I was after and I recognized that photography was this powerful tool. And if I was going to fight, I would use the most powerful tools available. I took on photography but I'm not married to the medium. It's social justice I'm after and I will use whatever tool that works at any particular time.”

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New Nature/Supernature: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints
Place: Japan House - Los Angeles, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., California, USA
Date: Feb 15, 2021 to May 31, 2021
Detail: This exhibition of over sixty Japanese prints from the Scripps College collection in Claremont, CA features works by some of Japan’s finest artists –Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864), Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), Yōshū Chikanobu (1838-1912), Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889), Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) and Kawase Hasui (1883-1957).* These prints introduce some of Japan’s most beautiful and beloved landscapes and some of the supernatural beings who are believed to inhabit them. We hope that they will encourage a deeper understanding of the Japanese natural environment and some of the ancient beliefs that continue to inform Japanese culture today.


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New Interrogating Beauties
Place: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College - Oberlin, 87 North Main Street, Ohio, USA
Date: Feb 19, 2021 to Aug 13, 2021
Detail: In the genre of Japanese art known today as “pictures of beauties,” or bijinga, the subject seems self-evident: images of beautiful women. The 25 works in this exhibition call that assumption into question, interrogating the origins, reception, and evolution of these pictures from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.

Developed in Japan during the Edo Period (1615–1868), bijinga were created for the vibrant realm of popular entertainment known as the “floating world,” or ukiyo, which included theaters, restaurants, tea houses, brothels, and other attractions. Central to the floating world was the entertainment district known as the Yoshiwara, an area in Edo designated for licensed prostitution.

A place of extremes, the Yoshiwara was home to a rich culture of literature, poetry, and visual and performing arts, and represented a subversive, alternative world of status in a period of rigid social hierarchy. Yet, by today’s standards, the district was also a space for the brutal exploitation of women and young men in a system of indentured sexual servitude. The origin of beauty pictures is similarly conflicted; these works were richly imagined by master artists and craftsmen, but, as advertisements for this floating world, were fully complicit in its harsh realities.

As Japan industrialized and became a global power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists adapted to changing markets both inside and outside of Japan. The newly designated art genre of pictures of beauties seemingly moved from promoting the commodification of women’s bodies to simply objectifying them for visual pleasure. But a more complex role for bijinga—one that reflected both women’s inner lives and their evolving roles in modern Japan—can be found in the frontispieces, or kuchi-e, made for popular novels and literary magazines.


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New The Goddess Shield: Recent Acquisitions in South Asian Art
Place: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College - Oberlin, 87 North Main Street, Ohio, USA
Date: Feb 19, 2021 to Sep 10, 2021
Detail: This small installation introduces the Goddess Shield, an important addition to the AMAM Asian art collection. The shield and another recent acquisition, the small painting Raja Prithi Singh Meeting Zabardast Kahn, are shown with related works from the collection that highlight the dynamic synthesis of Indian and Persian culture that arose in South Asia during the Mughal Empire of the 16th to 19th centuries.

This vast and powerful state ruled much of what is today India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The Mughals, who originated in Central Asia, had close ties with the Safavid rulers of Persia, today’s Iran. Persian art and culture were revered at the Mughal court, and Persian was its official language. Equally influential, however, were the Rajput kingdoms of northern India, with whom the Mughals had close political and cultural ties.

The harmonious blending of Persian and Indian traditions resulted, on a grand scale, in the Taj Mahal, one of the world’s most recognized buildings, and, on a smaller scale, in works like the paintings and decorative arts seen in this show.


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New Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon
Place: New Orleans Museum of Art - New Orleans, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, City Park, Louisiana, USA
Date: Mar 06, 2021 to May 30, 2021
Detail:
Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society

Presenting nearly seventy of the finest examples of Asian art in the United States, the exhibition showcases the extraordinary range of bronzes, ceramics, and metalwork thoughtfully assembled by John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1906–1978) and his wife Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller (1909–1992) between the 1940s and the 1970s.

With highlights including spectacular Chinese vases, dynamic Indian Chola bronzes, and exquisite Southeast Asian sculptures, "Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society" reveals great achievements in Asian art spanning more than two millennia. This selection of masterpieces drawn from Asia Society’s permanent collection is a visually stunning presentation that will illuminate social and artistic histories from across Asia and underscore the visual arts’ capacity to encourage cross-cultural dialogue.

When John D. Rockefeller 3rd and his wife Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller began collecting Asian art in the years after World War II, they chose to prioritize classical masterpieces that represented the great technical skill and creative breadth of Asian artistic practice. They selected objects from across the continent—Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam. These objects, ranging from everyday food wares to Imperial dining vessels and ceremonial Bodhisattvas to private devotional Hindu sculptures, come from a variety of cultural contexts and reflect the diversity of the region. From the start, the couple believed that sharing this grouping of exceptional artworks with the public could act as a catalyst for increasing understanding between the United States and Asia, and create the foundation for future economic and sociopolitical engagement.

This exhibition represents a special opportunity for museum visitors to experience the unparalleled quality of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection outside of its home at Asia Society Museum in New York City. In addition to investigating themes of Buddhist sculpture, Hindu sculpture, and ceramics and metalwork, the show also examines the Rockefellers’ connoisseurship as well as their collecting and exhibition practices in an age when political and economic circumstances informed the reception and availability of Asian artworks in the United States. With an emphasis on beauty, ingenuity, and tradition, "Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society" manifests the dynamic ideas and philosophies that animate histories of Asian art and renews the Rockefellers’ vision of promoting deep cross-cultural understanding through experiences with astonishing works of art.


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New Japan: A History of Style
Place: The Met Fifth Avenue - New York, 1000 Fifth Avenue, USA
Date: Mar 08, 2021 to Apr 24, 2022
Detail: This exhibition celebrates how gifts and acquisitions of the last decade have transformed The Met’s ability to narrate the story of Japanese art by both expanding and deepening the range of remarkable artworks that can meaningfully elucidate the past. Each of the ten rooms that make up the Arts of Japan Galleries features a distinct genre, school, or style, representing an array of works in nearly every medium, from ancient times to the present. Highlights include the debut of a spectacular group of contemporary metalwork by Living National Treasures and emerging artists, and, in the first rotation, a selection of woodblock prints from the Lee E. Dirks Collection.


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New When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan
Place: Japan Society - New York, 333 East 47th Street, USA
Date: Mar 11, 2021 to Jul 11, 2021
Detail: Opening on the tenth anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the exhibition celebrates the resilient spirit of Japanese architecture and craftsmanship through woodworking tools, architectural patterns, and models. Featuring a variety of hand tools and wooden models reflecting joinery techniques that have been used for hundreds of years to build Japan’s wooden architectural masterpieces (from temples and shrines to bridges), the exhibition unpacks the intangible qualities of craftsmanship, such as consummate experience, expertise, and the honed skills of master carpenters in Japanese architecture.

A diverse array of tools—planes, chisels, saws—have played an important role in the development of architecture in Japan, and this philosophy extends to Japan’s cultural heritage today. Integral to the processes of master carpenters (tōryō) is their extensive knowledge of the local environment and of wood as a material. Using natural resources and learning from their predecessors’ practices, they construct buildings using a refined methodology. Their philosophy of sustainability—for example, joinery can be restored or repaired as needed by future craftspeople—has been handed down over generations. The site-specific exhibition design, conceived by the esteemed architect Sou Fujimoto in collaboration with Brooklyn-based Popular Architecture, introduces major themes from the exhibition and is in dialogue with the gallery’s spaces, highlighting an enduring connection between traditional Japanese wooden construction and modern architecture.


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New Animal Fables of Mughal India
Place: Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland, 11150 East Boulevard, USA
Date: Mar 12, 2021 to Aug 29, 2021
Detail: Moralizing fables involving animal characters traversed the Indo-Iranian world for centuries. At times, they were written down and collected into volumes; when made for a wealthy patron, the manuscripts were illustrated. On view are paintings from five animal fables included in the museum’s nearly complete Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot) manuscript plus one scene from an Anwar-i Suhaili (Lights of Canopus). The stories include the tale of how a leopard and fox endeavored to devour the children of a sharp-witted woman, the justification for why the creatures of the ocean could not deliver a message from their king, and the adventures of a prince who fed a snake a piece of his own flesh to save the life of a frog.

The paintings were produced in the Mughal manuscript atelier of the young emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), who employed Indian artists working under the direction of Persian masters from Iran. Made from a wide palette of costly mineral pigments and gold, the bright colors and evocative scenes were designed to appeal to the royal patron and serve as a source of courtly entertainment.


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New Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment
Place: The Rubin Museum of Art - New York, 150 West 17th St., USA
Date: Mar 12, 2021 to Jan 03, 2022
Detail: Unplug, step away from the chaos, and embark on a journey of self-knowledge and transformation with Awaken.

Awaken presents the Tibetan Buddhist path to enlightenment with 37 artworks from the 7th to the 21st century, drawn largely from the collections of the Rubin Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

As you navigate the exhibition, you’ll learn how powerful artworks, such as sculptures, hanging scroll paintings, illuminated manuscript pages, and ritual items, help practitioners develop awareness and recognize that everything is interconnected. Inspired by the journey to awakening, you may begin to realize that your own perspective is changing and glimpse into what is known as the awakened state of mind.
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New Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening
Place: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art - Sarasota, 5401 Bay Shore Road, Florida, USA
Date: Mar 14, 2021 to Aug 15, 2021
Detail: Saitō Kiyoshi’s (1907–1997) keen sense of design, superb technique and engagement with an appealing variety of themes made him one of the best known and most popular Japanese print artists of the twentieth century.

In the wake of the Second World War, Saitō emerged as a seminal figure of the modernist creative print movement, in which artists claimed complete authorship of their work by carving and printing their own designs. He flourished as the movement attracted patrons among members of the occupying forces and, later, Western travelers for business and pleasure. Honors at the 1951 São Paulo Biennial launched him and the creative print movement to prominence at home and abroad. When new diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Japan provided opportunities for Japanese artists to exhibit, teach, and live abroad, Saitō was among the first to do so, thus further broadening his audience.

Presenting recent donations of artworks by Saitō from Charles and Robyn Citrin to The Ringling and other collections, Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening is the first comprehensive exhibition of this artist’s work in the United States. The exhibition focuses on prints Saitō created in the 1940s and 50s, arguably the most vibrant period of his career, and includes several rare, early designs.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 200-page illustrated catalogue edited by Rhiannon Paget and with essays by Paul Binnie, Noriko Kuwahara, Rhiannon Paget, and Judith A. Stubbs, and published by Scala.


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New Bodhisattvas of Wisdom, Compassion, and Power
Place: The Met Fifth Avenue - New York, 1000 Fifth Avenue, USA
Date: Mar 27, 2021 to Oct 16, 2022
Detail: Within the Buddhist traditions of the Himalayas, three bodhisattvas emerge as personifications of Buddhist ideals. Manjushri, who cuts through ignorance and personifies correct knowledge; Avalokiteshvara, a compassionate protector of the devout that helps reveal the true nature of reality; and Vajrapani as the embodiment of the energy of enlightenment. Focusing on dramatic images, a worshipper could first evoke the subtle knowledge that Manjushri personifies, then with Avalokiteshvara’s aid, it is possible to proceed in a way free from self-imposed delusions, while Vajrapani’s transcendent power aids in destroying jealousy and hatred that stand in the way of enlightenment. Venerating these three bodhisattvas together has a long history, and they play an essential role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. This exhibition draws together a dramatic group of paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, and illustrated manuscripts from the eleventh to eighteenth centuries, made primarily for Nepal and Tibet’s monastic institutions. Beautifully cast sculptures and accessible paintings showing peaceful manifestations of the bodhisattvas intended for the public are juxtaposed with complex tantric images of the highest quality done in portable media made for monastic elites. Vajrayana images offered powerful ways to access these bodhisattvas as a personal path to enlightenment, though often undertaking such rituals was done with a ruler’s sponsorship for the people’s benefit. This exhibition presents some of the sublime representations of these three bodhisattvas at the center of this great devotional tradition embraced across the Himalayas.


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New Yoshitomo Nara
Place: Los Angeles County Museum of Art - Los Angeles, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., USA
Date: Apr 01, 2021 to Jul 05, 2021
Detail: Yoshitomo Nara is among the most beloved Japanese artists of his generation. His widely recognizable portraits of menacing figures reflect the artist’s raw encounters with his inner self. A peripatetic traveler, Nara’s oeuvre takes inspiration from a wide range of resources—memories of his childhood, music, literature, studying and living in Germany (1988–2000), exploring his roots in Japan, Sakhalin, and Asia, and modern art from Europe and Japan. Spanning over 30 years from 1987 to 2020, Yoshitomo Nara views the artist’s work through the lens of his longtime passion—music. Featuring album covers Nara began collecting as an adolescent, paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, an installation that recreates his drawing studio, and never-before-exhibited idea sketches that reflect the artist’s empathic eye, this exhibition shines a light on Nara’s conceptual process. One of the main highlights will be Miss Forest, a 26-foot outdoor painted bronze sculpture that will grace Wilshire Boulevard.


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New Weng Family Collection of Chinese Painting: Travel and Home
Place: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, Massachusetts, USA
Date: Apr 03, 2021 to Mar 06, 2022
Detail: In China, poets and artists often express their passion for places through their art forms. While the generic landscape is a basic theme in Chinese painting, many works also display artists’ emotions about specific locations or longing for their hometowns.

In 2018 and 2019, Wan-go H. C. Weng (1918–2020) made the largest gift of Chinese paintings and calligraphy to the MFA in the institution’s history, comprising more than 230 objects acquired and passed down through six generations of his family. This exhibition features approximately 20 works from the gift that relate to travel and home—concepts that have taken on new depths of meaning since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people all over the world were largely confined to their houses.

“Weng Family Collection of Chinese Painting: Travel and Home” includes paintings and calligraphy by some of the greatest masters from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. Luo Pin’s Sites of Su Shi’s Travels (1780) traces the route of the 11th-century poet and scholar Su Shi. Multiple works represent the art and regional culture of Changshu, the Weng family’s hometown. A masterpiece among them is Ten Thousand Miles along the Yangzi River (1699), a 53-foot-long scroll by Wang Hui, one of the Qing dynasty’s most prominent artists and a native of Changshu. The most recent work in the exhibition, a short color film by Wan-go Weng himself titled A Town by the Yangtze (1948), presents a pre-modern Chinese cityscape—including scenes of daily life and architecture—recorded in Changshu in 1948.

This is the second in a series of three exhibitions celebrating the landmark donation made by Wan-go H. C. Weng, a longtime supporter of the MFA who, until he passed away in 2020 at the age of 102, devoted his life to the preservation, study, and promotion of China’s cultural heritage.


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New Trial and Success: Variant Color Schemes in the Prints of Utagawa Hiroshige
Place: The Honolulu Museum of Art - Honolulu, 900 South Beretania Street, Hawaii, USA
Date: Apr 22, 2021 to Jul 18, 2021
Detail: HoMA has the largest collection of prints in the world by the iconic designer Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858). Hiroshige was prolific, and collectors of his work craved novelty. His publishers would sometimes issue the same design in a variety of different color schemes—one version of a landscape print might be a night scene rendered in dark tones, another might be a daytime scene depicted in pastels.

While the market forces behind these variants are clear, the creative vision that inspired them is less so. Traditional Japanese woodblock printing was a collaborative process that involved several steps and participants. The designer would sketch a composition; the carver would transfer the sketch onto a slab of cherry wood and make blocks from it; the printer produced the finished print. The publisher would finance the project and handle the distribution. We don’t know for sure which of these individuals was most responsible for selecting the color schemes. Regardless, the works displayed here reveal that Japanese woodblock prints could include a surprising degree of artistic experimentation.


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New Rinpa (琳派)
Place: Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland, 11150 East Boulevard, USA
Date: Apr 23, 2021 to Oct 03, 2021
Detail: Rinpa is a style of Japanese art focused on abstracted natural motifs and allusions to classical literature. Coined in the early 1900s, Rinpa means “Rin School,” after painter Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716), whose work was critical to the later transmission of the tradition. Three techniques associated with Rinpa are tarashikomi, horinuri, and mokkotsu. In tarashikomi (dripping-in), the artist drips ink or color on wet surfaces, creating pooling effects. Horinuri (painting-by-carving) leaves initial ink outlines uncovered after shapes are filled with ink or color, so the surface looks carved. Mokkotsu (boneless) entails creating shapes without contours or lines defining edges and boundaries.

This rotation tells the story of later Rinpa style, introducing works by important artists active in the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s, including Kōrin and his brother Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743); Sakai Hōitsu (1761–1828), the Edo-based (present-day Tokyo) dynamo who revolutionized Rinpa painting; and Kamisaka Sekka (1866–1942), the Kyoto-based master of graphic design who delighted with his prints and drawings. (Gallery 235A)

Also, on view for the first time since 2014 are treasures of early Japanese Buddhist sculpture in bronze and wood, as well as an indigo-dyed sacred Buddhist sutra scroll written in gold and silver. A gorgeously woven silk Buddhist monk’s garment called a kesa is also on display. (Gallery 235B)


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New The Gates of Hope: Connecting Cultures
Place: Portland Japanese Garden - Portland, 611 SW Kingston Ave., Oregon, USA
Date: Apr 24, 2021 to May 31, 2021
Detail: From April 24 through May 31, Portland Japanese Garden is showing a documentary exhibition, “The Gates of Hope: Connecting Cultures.” This retrospective exhibition commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the devastating nuclear disaster that followed in its wake.

Journey through Portland Japanese Garden’s efforts in returning two lost artifacts –kasagi, or beams of a sacred Shinto gate – that had been swept away by the tsunami. These kasagi traveled across the Pacific Ocean for nearly two years, eventually washing ashore on the Oregon coast.

Returning the kasagi to their hometown of Hachinohe, Japan, required two years of transpacific coordination, community detective work, and a few strokes of luck. This exhibition will bring the story to life through exposing the magic in the details – from the photos documenting each step of the journey to the heartfelt letters from city officials and students at the local school in Hachinohe – sharing the lesson of what connects us as humans: empathy, perseverance, and compassion.


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New Clay and Paper: Japanese Ceramics and Screens
Place: Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, 1625 North Central Ave., Arizona, USA
Date: Apr 24, 2021 to Apr 24, 2022
Detail: Clay and Paper: Japanese Ceramics and Screens presents an array of functional and decorative modern ceramics and traditional screens from the island nation.

In traditional Japan, palaces and castles were designed with large interior spaces that could be divided as needed with large, movable, folding screens. Made with wooden framework covered with paper, screens were both functional and decorative. Artists from different schools of painting were commissioned to paint subtle landscapes or colorful processional and festive scenes that flowed across both screens in a pair. These images often evoked a particular season or celebration.


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New Splendid Visions: Gifts from the Robert and Amy Clague Collections
Place: Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, 1625 North Central Ave., Arizona, USA
Date: Apr 24, 2021 to Apr 24, 2022
Detail: Splendid Visions: Gifts from the Robert and Amy Clague Collections features examples of Chinese cloisonné and bronzes, Chinese textiles, Hindu and Buddhist manuscript covers, and more donated to Phoenix Art Museum by the Clague family.

Throughout its 60-year history, Phoenix Art Museum has developed a distinctive collection of Asian art through gifts from local collectors, whose legacy of generosity benefits visitors of all ages and will do so for generations to come. This spirit of visionary philanthropy characterized Robert and Amy Clague, both of whom passed away in 1995 and 2020, respectively. Although their individual interests varied, the Clagues each assembled collections that earned international acclaim for the Museum. Robert Clague collected Chinese cloisonné and, later, Chinese bronzes, while Amy Clague collected Chinese and Southeast Asian textiles, as well as Hindu and Buddhist manuscript covers. Through their unique interests, the Clagues inspired each other to seek works of art that depict life experiences different from their own, with compositions rich in cultural meaning and religious symbolism. Most importantly, they shared a vision of Phoenix Art Museum as a place in which all people might learn about the peoples and cultures of Asia.


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New The Golden Temple: Center of Sikh Faith
Place: Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, 1625 North Central Ave., Arizona, USA
Date: Apr 24, 2021 to Apr 24, 2022
Detail: Featuring watercolor paintings, photographs, prints, and more, The Golden Temple: Center of Sikh Faith showcases the enduring splendor of Sikhism’s central spiritual monument. Located in what is today the city of Amritsar, in the Punjab state of northwestern India, the Harmandir Sahib (the Punjabi term for “The Golden Temple”) is the centralized place of worship for all Sikhs. The idea for the temple was conceived by Guru Arjan Sahib (1563-1606), the fifth Sikh Guru. In 1577, a town and water tank were built on the site where the temple would be erected, and construction on the building began in 1588, with a Muslim saint laying the cornerstone. The Guru’s design for The Golden Temple placed the monument at the center of the water tank. A causeway connected the sacred structure to a circumambulatory path, and doors on the temple’s four sides symbolized the accessibility of the Sikh faith, which makes no distinction between the four Hindu castes. Builders completed construction in 1601, but through the decades, The Golden Temple was destroyed several times. The present structure dates to 1764, and renovations over the centuries introduced various design elements. The temple’s upper floors, for example, are now covered in 750 kilos of pure gold, an addition made by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire of India (1799-1849).

Spanning the 19th century through the 21th century, The Golden Temple: Center of Sikh Faith presents historical and contemporary works depicting the renowned site, which harmoniously blends art and architectural elements from the Hindu and Muslim traditions. Featured works include images by Felice Beato, one of the first photographers to capture images of Asia, and watercolors, prints, and paintings by Indian and American artists who have visited the temple in the past two centuries. The exhibition culminates with works by both Sikh and non-Sikh contemporary artists whose visual narratives draw inspiration from The Golden Temple and its intricate, extraordinary design.

The Golden Temple: Center of Sikh Faith is presented in the Khanuja Family Sikh Heritage Gallery, the second gallery space in the United States dedicated exclusively to the exhibition of Sikh art. The exhibition continues the Museum’s initiative to showcase artwork and objects that explore themes of Sikh history and visual culture.


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New Interpretation of Materiality: Gold
Place: Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland, 11150 East Boulevard, USA
Date: Apr 30, 2021 to Oct 24, 2021
Detail: Due to its remarkable malleability and durability, gold has been widely used in artifacts for the wealthy and for royalty since the fifth millennium BC. In Korean art, this precious mineral was the main material for luxury goods during the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC−668). In The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands, the author Muhammad al-Idrisi (1099−1166) writes: “Gold is too common in the Silla kingdom. Even the dog’s leash and the monkey’s collar are made of gold.”

This exhibition illuminates how Korean artists from ancient times to the present day creatively used and interpreted gold and its distinctive materiality. One highlight is the 13th-century Buddhist text Avatamsaka Sutra No. 78. Mixed with ink and glue, refined gold powder was applied on the smooth surface of the dark blue, indigo-dyed mulberry paper. In the practice of copying a Buddhist sutra, gold served as the perfect medium to visualize the splendid world of Buddhas and their awakening teachings.


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New Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song dynasty
Place: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution - Washington, D.C., 1050 Independence Ave SW, USA
Date: May 01, 2021 to Jul 31, 2021
Detail: @ Gallery 15

China’s Song dynasty established many prototypes in government, society, and the arts. A system of schools and examinations for entering public office led to an efficient, centralized government headed by the emperor but staffed by well-educated commoners. Emerging as a class of scholar-officials, who were both artists themselves and consumers of art, these men looked to ancient tradition as a source for moral principle and creative inspiration.

At the same time, a spirit of inquiry and close examination of nature led to advances in art and science. Widespread gains in literacy and disposable income also stimulated growth in the arts.

Elegance and refinement in form, line, and color characterize the visual arts of China during the Song dynasty. As new technology enhanced ceramic production and the number of kilns rose, fresh approaches to decoration developed. The rise of ink painting paralleled a taste for monochrome ceramic glazes. A multitude of other painting styles and techniques emerged as well, with a strong preference for realistic detail, modulated colors, and individualized faces and postures.


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New Cosmoscapes: Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou
Place: The Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Illinois, USA
Date: May 06, 2021 to Sep 20, 2021
Detail: The monochromatic ink paintings of Chinese artist and scholar Tai Xiangzhou bridge the gulf between ancient traditions and contemporary artistic practice.

Combining elements of Chinese philosophy with modern astronomy, Tai creates landscapes in the realist style of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and semiabstract expanses of rocks and clouds floating in extraterrestrial worlds.


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New Painting Enlightenment: Experiencing Wisdom and Compassion through Art and Science
Place: Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens - Delray Beach, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Florida, USA
Date: May 08, 2021 to Sep 19, 2021
Detail: Painting Enlightenment: Experiencing Wisdom and Compassion through Art and Science features works by Japanese scientist and artist Iwasaki Tsuneo (1917-2002). The paintings create a contemplative journey and meditations on the interconnectedness of the universe. Iwasaki collapses distinctions between image, text and thought with imagery representative of both scientific phenomena and Buddhist principles. He forms the images by using characters from the sacred Buddhist text, the Heart Sutra.


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New Amano Kazumi: Prints from the Kimm-Grufferman Collection
Place: Minneapolis Institute of Art - Minneapolis, 2400 Third Ave. South, USA
Date: May 30, 2021 to Nov 29, 2021
Detail: In 1964, a young David Hockney won First Prize at the International Exhibition of Drawings and Engravings in Lugano, Switzerland; at the same event, Amano Kazumi received an excellence award for prints of his abstract Moral series. Amano first studied under Munakata Shikō, Japan’s best-known contemporary print artist, who is famous for his roughly executed black-and-white designs. Amano’s early works emulate Munakata’s style but take on subjects of his home, Toyama, such as dances associated with the iron mills. In the early 1960s, Amano radically changed his style and from then on created abstract shapes in strong and bright colors. In 1971, Amano left Japan and moved with his family to New York. This exhibition focuses on Amano’s time in Japan and presents prints from the extensive collection of Sue Y. S. Kimm and Seymour Grufferman.


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New Likeness and Legacy in Korean Portraiture
Place: Asian Art Museum - San Francisco, 200 Larkin St., California, USA
Date: Aug 27, 2021 to Oct 31, 2021
Detail: Rare 18th-century portraits and contemporary works explore the deep history of portraiture in Korean culture.


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New Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles
Place: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - Kansas City, 4525 Oak Street, USA
Date: Sep 25, 2021 to Mar 06, 2022
Detail: For the first time in decades, the Nelson-Atkins will display rarely seen Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Persian clothing, costumes, and textiles. Made with fine materials, exemplary techniques, and artistry, Asian luxury textiles were central to global trade. The sumptuous textiles in this exhibition conveyed the identities, status, and taste of both local and international patrons and consumers. Luxurious costumes of the court performed power, while striking theater robes brought stage characters to life. Sturdy wall hangings and furniture covers transformed palaces, temples, and homes, while shimmering tapestry-woven carpets were created as diplomatic gifts for foreign rulers. The extraordinary stories of these treasures of the collection take visitors on an irreducible journey across continents, from the 1500s to today.


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New Emily Eden: Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India
Place: Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, 1625 North Central Ave., Arizona, USA
Date: Oct 01, 2021 to Nov 07, 2021
Detail: Emily Eden: Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India offers a view of 19th-century India through the eyes of British novelist and artist Emily Eden.

Through more than 20 hand-painted lithographs on loan to the Museum from The Khanuja Family Collection, Emily Eden: Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India offers a view of 19th-century India through the eyes of British novelist and artist Emily Eden. Eden traveled to India in 1836 with her brother, Lord Auckland, who served as Governor-General of India from 1836–42 and whose status provided Eden with unusual access to Indian royalty and the country’s remote regions. She documented her travels through both extensive letters, which she later published as a travel book, and detailed sketches, which she had privately printed as a set of lithographs upon her return to England in 1842. These works depict a range of subjects, from maharajas and servants, to camel drivers and the Sikh rulers of the Punjab, in exquisite detail through the eyes of an outsider.


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New Seeking Immortality: Ancient Artifacts
Place: Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, 1625 North Central Ave., Arizona, USA
Date: Oct 01, 2021 to Nov 07, 2021
Detail: Seeking Immortality: Ancient Artifacts features ceramics and other objects from China, Japan, and Korea meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife.

Across the world, the question of how to bury the deceased is an important issue. Concerns with an afterlife and immortality have resulted in troves of artifacts that verify some of these beliefs in other times and places.

In Asia, deliberate mummification did not occur. The deceased were interred in tombs that reflected their status in this life and provided them with all that they might need in the next life, including protection from malevolent spirits. Some objects were used every day, whereas others were created specifically for burial. Often, pottery figures were substitutes for the burial of living servants and animals.

Seeking Immortality: Ancient Artifacts features objects from China, Japan, and Korea meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife. With ceramic replicas of servants and animals, figures meant to provide protection from harm, and more, this special installation explores how archaeology continues to reveal material culture that offers insight into what life and technology were like in ancient times.


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New Colors of Sky and Clouds: Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain
Place: Phoenix Art Museum - Phoenix, 1625 North Central Ave., Arizona, USA
Date: Oct 01, 2021 to Nov 07, 2021
Detail: Colors of Sky and Clouds: Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain showcases white, hard-bodied porcelain objects featuring cobalt-blue illustrations of flowers and gardens, natural landscapes, and narrative scenes from Chinese literature.

The development of Chinese ceramics reveals an unrivaled history of resources, technique and aesthetics. Between the 1st and 10th centuries, Chinese potters gradually perfected a white vitreous porcelain made from rich deposits of kaolin clay fired at high temperatures at kiln sites in southeastern China. By the 13th and 14th centuries, artists began to paint designs on smooth, white, clay body surfaces in shades of cobalt-blue pigment. From that point, imperial patronage and export markets led to the creation of many forms with diverse and refined floral, landscape, and narrative illustrations. In the 17th century, foreign influences and new motifs derived from folk art and popular literature made these wares appealing to the merchant and scholar classes.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Phoenix Art Museum received many gifts of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain from Dr. and Mrs. Matthew L. Wong. These works served as the genesis of the Museum’s Asian art collection.

Colors of Sky and Clouds: Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain features more than 10 of these white, hard-bodied porcelain objects enhanced with cobalt-blue illustrations. Featured works are presented in pairs and showcase motifs such as flowers and gardens, natural landscapes, and narrative scenes of demons, monsters, and dragons drawn from Chinese literature.
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New Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain
Place: Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland, 11150 East Boulevard, USA
Date: Nov 14, 2021 to Jan 01, 2022
Detail: Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain is the first exhibition dedicated to the art of one of the earliest major Hindu sites in Southeast Asia, Phnom Da (Stone Mountain), established around 1,500 years ago. Through a series of refined and immersive digital experiences, the exhibition presents the Cleveland Museum of Art’s monumental sandstone sculpture Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan in the context of the landscape and sacred space from which it came. In honor of its most recent transformation, the newly restored Cleveland Krishna is showcased with nine related masterworks of stone sculpture on loan from Cambodia and France.

The significance of the mountain-raising episode from India’s myth of the superhuman child-god Krishna reached a high point between the AD 400s and 600s. At the same time, Southeast Asian people were beginning to adopt religious art, texts, and ritual practices from India, reconceived for their own purposes. In the Mekong River delta of southern Cambodia, which was a center of political power until the 700s, control of floodwaters meant economic success. The powerful image of Krishna holding up Mount Govardhan to shield his followers from destructive deluge held special relevance to the population of this region. In the exhibition, cinematic projections of 360-degree video with surround sound transport visitors to the canal ways of the Mekong delta to see how pilgrims journeyed by boat to the site where Krishna and his counterparts were worshiped.

The CMA is proud to collaborate with Microsoft and the Interactive Commons at Case Western Reserve University to offer an unprecedented mixed-reality audiovisual tour, embedded within the exhibition. Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 headsets, visitors are shown and guided through the captivating history of the Cleveland Krishna, from the ruins of an abandoned Cambodian cave temple to a glamorous Art Nouveau mansion in Brussels. The story continues with how the sculpture arrived in multiple pieces at the CMA, where conservators worked intensively for months in 1978 and again from 2017 to 2020 to restore and reconstruct the masterwork. A life-size holographic projection reveals how the Krishna sculpture would have looked completely restored, viewed from both outside and within the space of the ancient cave temple. 

The exhibition also brings the Cleveland Krishna together with the seven other monumental sculptures depicting the gods of Phnom Da, seen together for the first time at true-to-life scale in elegant 3-D projections. Details and multiple views of each sculpture captured through high-resolution photogrammetry and laser scans are activated by visitors who can then see up close the awe-inspiring skill of the unknown master artists of ancient southern Cambodia. Revealing Krishna provides visitors with an entirely new and eye-opening experience in which digital media supports the understanding and appreciation of exceptional works of Cambodian art. 


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Europe & Africa USA & Canada | Asia

New Roots and Changes – Gujarati Influences
Place: The Library at Willesden Green - Willesden, 95 High Rd, United Kingdom
Date: Mar 13, 2021 to Aug 22, 2021
Detail: What have the comedian Parle Patel, the politician Krupesh Hirani, the curator Dr. Sushma Jansari, the choreographer Urja Desai Thakore, the musician Sarathy Korwar and the head of Neasden Temple, Yogvivek Swami got in common?

They all have Gujarati roots which have considerably shaped and influenced the cultural landscape of London. Subrang Arts in collaboration with Brent Museum and Archives presents a multi-dimensional exhibition, with items on loan from the British Museum.


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New Sutapa Biswas
Place: Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge - Cambridge, Castle Street, United Kingdom
Date: Apr 17, 2021 to Jun 27, 2021
Detail: Spanning the artist’s extensive career, this will be the first substantial solo show in 14 years of British Indian artist Sutapa Biswas (b. 1962).

The show will foreground Biswas’s vital contributions to the Black Arts Movement in Britain and to the shifting understanding of post-war British art. Biswas’s works visually disrupt, challenge and reimagine our present time: visual theorist Griselda Pollock said that it was Biswas who ‘forced us all to acknowledge the Eurocentric limits of the discourses within which we practise’. Including the seminal Housewives with Steak-Knives (1985) and Kali (1984), the exhibition will also demonstrate the richness, diversity and conceptual continuity of the artist’s extended practice through the display of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and video.


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New Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe
Place: Gropius Bau - Berlin, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Germany
Date: Apr 23, 2021 to Aug 15, 2021
Detail: Presented across almost 3000 m², Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective will offer an overview of the key periods in her oeuvre, which spans more than 70 years, and feature a number of current works as well as a newly realised Infinity Mirror Room.

The retrospective will focus primarily on tracing the development of Kusama’s creative output from her early paintings and accumulative sculptures to her immersive environments, as well exploring her lesser-known artistic activity in Germany and Europe.

Since the 1960s, the artist has been actively engaged in realising exhibition projects outside the former centre of her life in New York and showing her work in a European context. This has also brought to the fore Kusama’s role as a pioneer of personal branding, who early on in her practice intentionally staged and marketed her own artistic persona and multidisciplinary work.

Within the exhibition framework, reconstructions will allow viewers to experience the pioneering nature of her presentational forms and artistic subjects, making accessible Kusama’s early exhibition projects in Germany and Europe in the 1960s and central solo exhibitions in the USA and Asia from the 1950s to 1980s.


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New Ryoji Ikeda
Place: 180 The Strand - London, Temple, United Kingdom
Date: May 20, 2021 to Aug 01, 2021
Detail: Home to the Vinyl Factory, 180 The Strand — also a hub for London Fashion Week — is turning its labyrinthine subterranean spaces over to sound and light artist Ryoji Ikeda, the largest European exhibition of his disorienting, immersive, data-driven art.


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New Ogata Gekkō and his contemporaries
Place: Japanmuseum SieboldHuis - 2311 GE Leiden, Rapenburg 19, Netherlands
Date: May 26, 2021 to Aug 22, 2021
Detail: Japanese prints are characterized by the use of fixed composition rules, clean lines and clear areas of colour, but how different is in the oeuvre of Ogata Gekkō. His prints are associated with: Shin nishikie (new brocade prints). Gekkō's style is closer to painting, partly because of its very subtle colour transitions.

Gekkō is a self-taught artist who grew to become one of the leading artists of his time. His reputation rose not only because of his excellent technique, but also because of his versatility: in addition to prints, he also designed book illustrations, covers and impressive paintings on paper and silk. His popularity resulted in a large group of students, including the important 20th-century printmaker, Yamamura Kōka. Just before his death, Gekkō was referred to as one of the 'grand old men' of Japanese printmaking.


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New Zheng Bo: Wanwu Council 萬物社
Place: Gropius Bau - Berlin, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Germany
Date: Jun 21, 2021 to Aug 23, 2021
Detail: As In House: Artist in Residence 2020, the artist and theoretician Zheng Bo embarked on the question of how plants practice politics. In 2021, his exhibition Wanwu Council 萬物社 will expand upon themes that Zheng Bo worked on during his one-year residency at the Gropius Bau.

The Daoist term wanwu translates as “ten thousand things” or “myriad happenings” and embraces the infinite possibilities of life in all its forms. The exhibition premiers the first chapter of Zheng Bo’s film The Political Life of Plants 植物的政治生活 (2021), which has been filmed in Berlin and Brandenburg. It documents conversations with ecologists interspersed with experimental scenes. The series Drawing Life 寫生 (2020–21) brings together drawings of trees and weeds that Zheng Bo encountered over the 24 Solar Terms of one year. This daily drawing practice is a way of persistently staying close to these fellow beings. Wanwu Council 萬物社 takes this approach further: the exhibition will grow out of the Gropius Bau into the “Gropius Wood”, as Zheng Bo calls the community of plane trees that can be found to the west of the building.


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New Modern Japanese Lacquer
Place: Rijksmuseum - Amsterdam, Museumstraat 1, Netherlands
Date: Jul 01, 2021 to Sep 04, 2021
Detail: There’s something magical about Japanese lacquer art. The decorations are made with exceptional care and skill using dozens of layers of lacquer in a process that takes months if not years.

In this exhibition, traditional depictions in gold, silver and black form the departure point for a journey into modernity, creativity and exuberant colours. The almost seventy objects on display trace this development in the early 20th century.


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Asia USA & Canada | Europe & Africa

New Ancient Religions
Place: Asian Civilisations Museum - Singapore, 1 Empress Place, Singapore
Date: Dec 12, 2017 to Dec 31, 2021
Detail: The ACM permanent galleries on Level 2 explore how artists have masterfully expressed complex ideas about life and existence with religions in sculpture and paintings. Beginning with the Ancient Religions exhibition, which explores early styles and motifs of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism in India and how they spread to China and the larger Southeast Asia, the story continues in the following galleries as the art developed and evolved through the centuries.

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New Pictorial Silks: Chinese Textiles from the UMAG Collection
Place: University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU - Pokfulam, 90 Bonham Road, Hong Kong
Date: Dec 02, 2020 to Jul 25, 2021
Detail: Prized by Chinese and foreign merchants as an essential commodity along a vast trade network, silk served multiple roles throughout the ancient world: as fabric for garments, as a form of currency and method of tax payment, and as a medium and subject matter for professional artists and the literati class. Over the centuries, silk fabrics have remained synonymous with beauty and are entwined throughout the history of Chinese art and literature.

Beginning in the Song dynasty (960-1279) and flourishing into the Qing (1644-1911), craftsmen took up shuttles and needles as their brushes and silk threads as their pigments, creating exquisitely woven and embroidered pictorial and calligraphic works. In the hands of the weavers and embroiderers, weft-woven silk tapestry (kesi) and embroidery (cixiu) evolved into an art form—a fusion of painting, calligraphy and hand weaving or embroidering for aesthetic appreciation. When viewed together, the interdisciplinary nature of these vivid depictions of images and text occupy a unique and unbroken place within the history of Chinese visual culture.

Extending from the Qing dynasty to the mid-20th century, UMAG’s silk textile collection encompasses a diverse range of subjects and formats that include hanging scrolls, framed panels, banners and robes. Each artwork exemplifies the sophisticated craftsmanship of the artisans and the collective stories of the Qing dynasty’s textile industry.


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New New Horizons: Ways of Seeing Hong Kong Art in the 80s and 90s
Place: Hong Kong Museum of Art - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, 10 Salisbury Road, Hong Kong
Date: Mar 05, 2021 to Apr 24, 2022
Detail: This exhibition examines the crucial turning points, new trends and sensibilities in contemporary art in Hong Kong during the 1980s and 1990s. Taking the curator's experiences as a point of departure, the exhibition sheds light on the creative breakthroughs of young local artists in different mediums including installation art, new media and photography, which ushered in the rise of new artistic experimentation and formats. In addition to the showcase of artworks by seven representative artists and artist collectives, the exhibition features a restaging of iconic art spaces of the time, as well as an archival section, re-presenting the significant shifts in Hong Kong's art scene during the era.


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New Painting Across The Threshold: Ng Lung Wai
Place: University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU - Pokfulam, 90 Bonham Road, Hong Kong
Date: Mar 12, 2021 to Jun 27, 2021
Detail: Drawing inspiration from the traditional art of paper folding, this exhibition presents Ng Lung Wai’s ‘folding paint’ technique. Creating works of great sophistication from seemingly naive and childlike experiences, these vessels made from folded paint transform the artist’s childhood practice of folding paper boats into a highly personal visual language. More than an investigation into his own heritage and cultural roots, his works eloquently speak to our existential experiences, while simultaneously inviting us to delve into our respective memories and feelings.

The colours and visual elements incorporated by Ng contain the entirety of his lived experience. Similar to the message of Odysseus' seafaring expedition, Ng’s boats in All the Best depict our collective voyage through life’s ups and downs. As the title implies, Chang Ming is inspired by Laozi’s Daodejing, which opens with the famous line ‘a way that can be followed is not a constant way, a name that can be named is not a constant name’. The knots in Chang Ming represent unanswered questions about human existence and our never-ending pursuit of the truth. An unanswered question is often more intriguing than an answered one, as the former never stops producing possibilities.


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New A Taste for Life: The Collection and Connoisseurship of Mr Low Chuck-tiew
Place: Hong Kong Museum of Art - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, 10 Salisbury Road, Hong Kong
Date: Apr 02, 2021 to Jul 31, 2021
Detail: Xubaizhai houses a highly acclaimed collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy compiled by the late connoisseur Mr Low Chuck-tiew. Showcasing more than 40 representative works, this exhibition takes a look at the aesthetic tastes and expertise of the collector, and shares the personal stories behind his acquisition of these outstanding works, taking us on his journey of art connoisseurship.


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New The Way We Eat
Place: Art Gallery of NSW - Sydney, Art Gallery Road, Australia
Date: Apr 03, 2021 to Apr 03, 2022
Detail: The Way We Eat brings together works of art related to food – that ancient source of inspiration, pleasure and anxiety. It considers what we eat; how food is made, stored and consumed; the evolution of culinary wares; cultural exchange; and the ritual and symbolic meanings associated with food.

Combining historical treasures with dramatic contemporary artworks, the exhibition is drawn from the Gallery’s extensive Asian art collection and loans from private collections.


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New Watching the Clouds Roll By: Koon Wai Bong Solo Exhibition
Place: Asia Art Center - Shanghai, Room 106, Bldg. 7, 50 Moganshan Road, People's Republic Of China
Date: Apr 10, 2021 to Jun 06, 2021
Detail: Asia Art Center (Shanghai) is honoured to announce that a new exhibition entitled Watching the Clouds Roll By: Koon Wai Bong Solo Exhibition will be held from 10 April to 6 June 2021. It is the third time held by Asia Art Center, after the In the Breeze: Koon Wai Bong Solo Exhibition held by Asia Art Center (Taipei II) in 2017 and Shén Yóu: Koon Wai Bong Solo Exhibition held by Asia Art Center (Beijing) in 2019. As the first time Koon's artworks are gathered in Shanghai in the form of a solo exhibition, it consists of more than twenty ink works completed in recent years, presenting his new creation and thinking in a rich and comprehensive manner.

The title of the exhibition entitled Watching the Clouds Roll By: Koon Wai Bong Solo Exhibition is quoted from My Retreat in the Zhongnan Mountains by Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. As Wang wrote, 'I'd stroll to seek the fountainhead, and there take a seat to admire the sky and watch clouds grow.' The Eastern Jin poet Tao Yuanming also wrote that 'there clouds idle away from their mountain recesses without any intent or purpose, and birds, when tired of their wandering flights, will think of home.' At that time, ancient scholar-bureaucrats admired an atmosphere of deep and clear, the romantic under the forest, and pursued the self-awareness of tranquility and otherworldly. Their aesthetic appeal tends to be clear, secluded, cold, quiet and natural. These temperaments are perfectly reflected in Koon Wai Bong's artistic creations.


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New Ink City
Place: JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun - Hong Kong, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
Date: Apr 23, 2021 to Aug 01, 2021
Detail: INK CITY sets out an expanded vision of ink art firmly grounded in current social, political, and aesthetic concerns, featuring artists inspired by immediate encounters with contemporary life. Often caught between an overwhelming urbanism and intimate brushes with everyday life, the artists offer keen observations, commentaries, and sometimes even deconstructions of contemporary culture and society through their artworks.

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New Portals, Stories, and Other Journeys
Place: Tai Kwun Contemporary - Central, 10 Hollywood Rd, Hong Kong
Date: Apr 23, 2021 to Aug 01, 2021
Detail: Portals, Stories, and Other Journeys takes the extensive personal archive of the late Hong Kong artist Ha Bik Chuen as a starting point to explore the archive as a space of creativity and enquiry.

A self-taught sculptor and printmaker, Ha left behind a vast personal archive—his “thinking studio.” He documented exhibitions that he attended from the 1960s till the 2000s, and kept records in the form of ephemera, negatives, contact sheets, and photo albums. He also collected printed matter like illustrated magazines, and created book collages from these publications. As an autodidact, Ha’s library contained books on art and visual culture from far beyond the port city of Hong Kong.


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New Mountain House of Sliced Stones: Artworks of Shen Qin & Chen Qi
Place: Asia Art Center - Beijing, Dashanzi 798 Art Dist., No.2, Jiuxianqiao Rd, People's Republic Of China
Date: Apr 24, 2021 to Jun 20, 2021
Detail: Both artists, Shen Qin and Chen Qi, were born in Nanjing, the ancient capital of the six dynasties. The literati atmosphere and vicissitudes of land in Jinling shape the literary temperament of artists Shen Qin and Chen Qi who are good at expressing historical and humanistic thoughts. The two have been friends for more than 40 years and have encouraged each other on the road of art. Shen Qin is good at ink and wash, and Chen Qi is especially good at water-print woodcut. In this way, two of them are immersed in their respective art fields to study and explore, and form their own systems relying on different media. Shen Qin's paintings are empty and clear, quiet and inactive. The abstract painting contains a kind of internality of Jiangnan culture, and at the same time it creates an ethereal and poetic space. In contrast, the formal language produced by Chen Qi's water-print woodcut is quiet and full of passion, pure in style and rich in cultural connotations.

Mountain House of Sliced Stones: Artworks of Shen Qin & Chen Qi is the third exhibition held by Asia Art Center for two artists, following the Artworks by Shen Qin & Chen Qi (Beijing) in 2015, Shen Qin & Chen Qi: Zero Degree (Taipei) in 2016. More than twenty latest artworks by two artists will be exhibited this time, especially the biggest size ink paintings entitled Mountain House of Sliced Stones by artist Shen Qin and Chen Qi's recent ink works will be displayed for the first time in this exhibition. The source of inspiration for this exhibition emerged since two artists visited the Mountain House of Sliced Stones in Yangzhou, May 2020, which is a classical garden building originally built in the Ming Dynasty. The stacked stones in the garden were passed down by the great painter, Shi Tao of the Qing Dynasty, which is regarded as 'the only precious specimen on earth'. The stacked mountains with single peaks, green mountains and beautiful clear ponds together present an extraordinary temperament. Being touched there, two artists met together to create artistic creations on the theme of Mountain House of Sliced Stones and held an exhibition to pay tribute to Shi Tao.
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New Rediscovering Landscape
Place: Hong Kong Museum of Art - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, 10 Salisbury Road, Hong Kong
Date: May 14, 2021 to Jun 30, 2021
Detail: The exhibition showcased Rediscovering landscape trilogy, a three-chapter outdoor art installation jointly created by Kevin Siu, Bob Pang and Shuyan Chan. By offering a series of spatial experiences, it unveils a scroll of towering peaks amidst the city to reconnect us with nature.


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New 省電模式 ［■□□□］· PHONE DIED
Place: de Sarthe Gallery - Hong Kong, 20/F, Global Trade Square, No. 21 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong
Date: May 15, 2021 to Jul 03, 2021
Detail: de Sarthe is pleased to present its second solo exhibition for Beijing-based contemporary artist Zhong Wei, titled 省電模式［■□□□］· phone died. The exhibition features a new series of works on canvas as well as a large-scale installation that contemplates modes of communication in times of social sterility and 21st century, post-Covid-19 angst. 省電模式［■□□□］· phone died opens May 15 and runs through July 3.

Alien-like organic forms and fragmented compositions are recurring motifs in Zhong Wei’s artworks. Sourcing his imagery from the dynamic and vivid visual language of Internet culture, Zhong Wei digitally collages select elements into complexly layered compositions before transferring his creations onto canvas via acrylic, archival pigment print, and/or silkscreen.

Zhong Wei’s practice draws inspiration from a vast range of subjects, particularly contemporary culture and its ever-changing forms. His most recent body of work incorporates new narratives that reflect upon his own fruitless and exhausted efforts against the pandemic, as well as a lingering uncertainty and anxiety caused by the current state of social standstill.

His large-scale multimedia installation Forget sits in the center of the gallery space. At the core of the installation, a pulsating organ-like sculpture is housed inside a steel structure with transparent PVC curtains. Wire, tubes, and cables extend outwards from underneath the sculpture. Light emanating from their syncronized pulse is revealed through partially removed floorboards, visually reminiscent of circulatory veins and arteries that lie under the surface of our skin.

The cold and sterile aesthetic of Forget is a representation of the mechanical systems that facilitate the exchange of information in our current technological era. The installation’s biomorphic characteristics, however, are the artist’s comment on what these systems signify in a time of social suspense. As civilization is ushered indoors by the fear of infection, the lines of communication that tunnel beneath the city serve as extensions of the body, imbued with vitality amidst the gradually decaying surface.


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New Transgression throughout the Volatile World
Place: Asia Art Center - Taipei, 1F., No.128, Lequn 3rd Road, Zhongshan District, Taiwan
Date: May 22, 2021 to Jul 18, 2021
Detail: Asia Art Center is pleased to announce the completion of its brand-new flagship space in Taipei, together with the opening of the inaugural exhibition Transgression throughout the Volatile World. The exhibition will commence on 22 May 2021, with an opening reception at Asia Art Center (Taipei venue: 1F., No.128, Lequn 3rd Road), and run through 18 July 2021.


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New Wang Tuo: Empty-handed into History
Place: UCCA Center for Contemporary Art - Beijing, 798, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Street, People's Republic Of China
Date: Jun 06, 2021 to Sep 05, 2021
Detail: Wang Tuo’s works grow from an array of filmmaking strategies and methodologies: spatiotemporal and narrative overlap, inventive restructuring of historical texts, and a gloomy, calm visual language. In his first institutional solo exhibition, UCCA presents a systematic overview of his work, including the premiere of “The Northeast Tetralogy,” a major series produced over the past four years. “The Northeast Tetralogy” stems from the artist’s in-depth field research into the history and practice of shamanistic rituals, reflecting on the history of Northeast Asia and the rupture of modernization as it played out in the region.


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New Art of the South Nanling: A Selection of Guangdong Painting from the Hong Kong Museum of Art
Place: Hong Kong Museum of Art - Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, 10 Salisbury Road, Hong Kong
Date: Jun 11, 2021 to Nov 03, 2021
Detail: This exhibition showcases over 80 works from Guangdong dating from the late Ming dynasty to the 20th century that present the historical and artistic development of painting in the Lingnan region. Paying particular attention to showing how artists from Guangdong paved the way towards the modernisation of Chinese painting by adopting both traditional and modern ideas and integrating local and foreign elements during the revolutionary era in China, the exhibition highlights the regional styles of Guangdong painting and the influence it exerted on Hong Kong's early painting movements.


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USA & Canada Europe & Africa | Asia

New Asia Society Triennial: We Do Not Dream Alone
Place: Asia Society - New York, 725 Park Avenue, USA
Date: Oct 27, 2020 to Jun 27, 2021
Detail: This first edition of the Asia Society Triennial, titled We Do Not Dream Alone, is composed of a multi-venue exhibition, interdisciplinary panels, forums, and performances taking place at Asia Society and partner venues across the city. The first Asia Society Triennial reflects the diversity of contemporary art from Asia and the diaspora. It celebrates the rich tapestry of Asian cultures that comprise a significant, yet historically underserved, demographic within New York City.

The Asia Society Triennial takes place at Asia Society Museum, the Park Avenue Malls at East 70th Street, and Times Square Arts. Collateral events are hosted by institutions including the New-York Historical Society and Asia Society Hong Kong. With programs and exhibitions at multiple venues, the Triennial is accessible to broad audiences while providing a unique foundation from which featured artists create site-specific commissioned projects.



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Europe & Africa USA & Canada | Asia

New TEFAF Maastricht
Place: MECC Maastricht - Maastricht, Forum 100, Netherlands
Date: Sep 11, 2021 to Sep 19, 2021
Detail: TEFAF Maastricht is widely regarded as the world’s premier fair for fine art, antiques and design. Featuring over 275 prestigious dealers from 20 countries, TEFAF Maastricht is a showcase for the finest art works currently on the market.

Alongside the traditional areas of Old Master paintings, antiques and classical antiquities that cover approximately half of the fair, you can also find modern and contemporary art, photography, jewellery, 20th century design and works on paper.

TEFAF Maastricht 2021 will run from September 11th, 2021 to September 19th, 2021 with an Early Access Day on September 9th and a Preview Day on September 10th.


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Exhibition Private
USA & Canada Europe & Africa | Asia

New Jade: The Stone of Heaven. Seven Thousand Years of Chinese Carvings
Place: Throckmorton Fine Art - New York, 145 East 57th Street, 3rd Floor, USA
Date: Mar 18, 2021 to Jun 12, 2021
Detail: Throckmorton Fine Art is pleased to offer an exhibit of some eighty-five Chinese jade carvings. The works span nearly seven thousand years of Chinese civilization, the early, formative history of the world’s most populous nation-state.
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Conference/Symposium
USA & Canada Europe & Africa | Asia

New Sou Fujimoto: Between Nature and Architecture (Online)
Place: Japan Society - New York, 333 East 47th Street, USA
Date: Jun 24, 2021
Detail: This keynote lecture by the acclaimed Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, who supervised the exhibition design of When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan, discusses his work and connections between contemporary architectural practice and traditional craftsmanship.


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Asia USA & Canada | Europe & Africa

New Bewitched, bewildered, bothered
Place: Tai Kwun Contemporary - Central, 10 Hollywood Rd, Hong Kong
Date: Jun 15, 2021 to Jun 17, 2021
Detail: bewitched, bewildered, bothered is Banu Cennetoğlu’s artistic intervention for AAA’s exhibition Portals, Stories, and Other Journeys on view at Tai Kwun Contemporary from 23 April to 1 August 2021.

bewitched, bewildered, bothered is a three-day public programme and a publication that explore the politics of posthumous archives. Taking AAA’s temporary custodianship of the late Ha Bik Chuen’s personal archive as a starting point, this programme brings together artists and thinkers to discuss the challenges and inadequacies of archives to recover and represent what is “lost.” Developed as part of an ongoing dialogue with AAA’s Public Programmes Lead Özge Ersoy, the talks, the film screenings, and the publication together investigate art’s contested claims and repeated attempts to recover the lost, to remember the forgotten, to resurrect the dead, or to speak for the silent.


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Auctions
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New Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Part 1)
Place: Dreweatts - Berkshire, Donnington Priory, Newbury, United Kingdom
Date: May 19, 2021
Detail: Viewing dates
May 16, 2021 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM BST
May 17, 2021 10:00 AM - 05:00 PM BST
May 18, 2021 10:00 AM - 05:00 PM BST


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New Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Part 2) and Japanese, Islamic and Indian Ceramics & Works of Art
Place: Dreweatts - Berkshire, Donnington Priory, Newbury, United Kingdom
Date: May 20, 2021
Detail: Viewing dates
May 16, 2021 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM BST
May 17, 2021 10:00 AM - 05:00 PM BST
May 18, 2021 10:00 AM - 05:00 PM BST


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New Chinese Art: 100 Stories
Place: Chiswick Auctions - London, 1 Colville Road, United Kingdom
Date: Jun 01, 2021
Detail: Viewing by appointment only.

Thu 27 May, 10am to 5.30pm
Fri 28 May, 10am to 5.30pm
Sat 29 May, 11am to 4.30pm
Sun 30 May, 11am to 4.30pm
Mon 31 May, 11am to 4.30pm


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New Asian Art I
Place: Chiswick Auctions - London, 1 Colville Road, United Kingdom
Date: Jun 01, 2021
Detail: Viewing by appointment only.

Thu 27 May, 10am to 5.30pm
Fri 28 May, 10am to 5.30pm
Sat 29 May, 11am to 4.30pm
Sun 30 May, 11am to 4.30pm
Mon 31 May, 11am to 4.30pm


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New Asian Art II
Place: Chiswick Auctions - London, 1 Colville Road, United Kingdom
Date: Jun 02, 2021
Detail: Wed, 2nd Jun 2021, 10:00

Viewing by appointment only.

Thu 27 May, 10am to 5.30pm
Fri 28 May, 10am to 5.30pm
Sat 29 May, 11am to 4.30pm
Sun 30 May, 11am to 4.30pm
Mon 31 May, 11am to 4.30pm


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New Asian Works of Art
Place: Lyon & Turnbull - Edinburgh, 33 Broughton Place, United Kingdom
Date: Jun 03, 2021
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New Art d'Asie
Place: Christie's Paris - Paris, 9 Avenue Matignon, France
Date: Jun 09, 2021
Detail: 9 June 10:30 AM CEST | Live auction 19974

Viewing
5 Jun 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
6 Jun 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
7 Jun 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
8 Jun 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Christie’s Art d’Asie auction in Paris features a curated selection of works from private European and Asian collections spanning more than 3000 years of Asian art. The sale showcases important Buddhist art, archaic bronzes, Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, jade carvings, cloisonné enamels, lacquer and classical and modern Chinese paintings. Highlights include an important gilt-bronze figure of Buddha Bhaisajyaguru, Tibet, circa 15th century from a European private collection, an exceptional gilt-bronze bell, Bianzhong from the Qianlong reign (1736-1795), also from a European private collection and a beautiful bronze vessel, Li Ding, Shang Dynasty of a Asian private collector with an old and nice pedigree. A blue and white jar Ming Dynasty, formerly in a Japanese private collection; a remarkable landscape from Fu Baoshi (1904-1965); a nice painting Washing the elephants attributed to Cui Zizhong ( ?-1644), an important white jade ‘crane and lingzhi’ group dating from Qianlong period (1736-1795) and a very fine cloisonné vase and cover, Gui, also from the Qianlong reign, property from a German private collection.


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New Arts d'Asie
Place: Sotheby's Paris - Paris, 76, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, France
Date: Jun 10, 2021
Detail: Sotheby’s Asian art sale on 10 June will include a fine selection of Chinese ceramics, Buddhist sculptures and works of art from French and other European private collections. Highlights include two iconic examples of Chinese ceramics: a beautiful white-glazed Tang dynasty ‘amphora vase’, exhibited at the Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire in 1959, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat (1896-1982); and a rare and exceptionally large guan-type archaistic vase, Hu, seal mark and period of Yongzheng from an old French Estate.


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New Fine Chinese Paintings & Works of Art
Place: Woolley & Wallis - Salisbury, 51-61 Castle Street, United Kingdom
Date: Jul 27, 2021
Detail: Tuesday 27th July 2021. Starts at 10:30am


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Asia USA & Canada | Europe & Africa

New The Numismatic Collectors' Series sale
Place: Spink China - 111 Queen's Road West, Sheung , 4/F and 5/F, Hua Fu Commercial Building, Hong Kong
Date: May 22, 2021
Detail: Saturday 22nd May 2021 - 10:00am


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New Images of Devotion
Place: Bonhams - Hong Kong, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Date: May 24, 2021
Detail: 24 May 2021, starting at 19:00 HKT.

Viewing:
20 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
21 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
22 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
23 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
24 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT


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New 20th and 21st Century Art Morning Session
Place: Christie's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 22nd Floor, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong
Date: May 25, 2021
Detail: 25 May 10:30 AM HKT | Live auction 16898

Viewing:
21 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
22 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
23 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
24 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM

The 20th and 21st Century Art Morning session on 25 May 2021 in Hong Kong brings together a diverse selection of works by modern artists from East and West. Vietnamese modern art will kick off the sale with paintings by celebrated artists Mai Trung Thu, Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam and a rediscovered masterpiece by Joseph Inguimberty. Works by European modern artists will converse with those of Chinese masters: Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Bernard Buffet and Giorgio de Chirico will mingle with Leonard-Tsuguharu Foujita, Yun Gee, Sanyu, Wu Guanzhong, Pang Jiun and Chen Yifei. Highlights also include an exciting selection of Thai, Singaporean, Filipino and Indonesian works. This eclectic ensemble brings forth a remarkable opportunity to acquire exceptional artworks for any distinguished collector’s taste.


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New A Celebration of Enlightenment: Buddhist Metalwork From The Collection of Tuyet Nguyet And Stephen Markbreiter
Place: Sotheby's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 5/F One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong
Date: May 26, 2021
Detail: The selection of Buddhist metalwork sculpture from the collection of Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter takes us on a journey across Asia, celebrating the spectacular creative vision and skill of artisans working throughout the continent. The scope of the sale ranges from the Pala of eastern India, through the Khasa Malla kingdom of Western Nepal, to Tibet and finally China. Highlights of the sale include a powerful silver and copper-inlaid Pala figure of Manjuvajra and a magnificent large gilt sculpture of Shakyamuni Buddha created in Nepal or by Newar craftsmen in Tibet. There is also a superbly cast Yongle mark and period gilt figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, another rare example of which was included in the landmark auction of Ming Imperial Bronzes from the Collection of Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2010.


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New A Connoisseur’s Eye: The Collection of Tuyet Nguyet And Stephen Markbreiter
Place: Sotheby's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 5/F One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong
Date: May 26, 2021
Detail: The collection of Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter, featuring Chinese jade carvings and trade paintings, bears testament to the discerning taste of the two collectors. This fine assemblage encompasses the breath of China’s long history of craftsmanship as well as the fascinating period of early global trade in the Qing dynasty. Highlights in the sale include a yellow jade figure of a deer, a white jade figure of a boy on hobby horse, a Portrait of Howqua by Lamqua, A View of Hong Kong from the Victoria Harbour by Youqua, as well as a fine selection of paintings and drawings by George Chinnery.
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New China / 5000 Years
Place: Sotheby's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 5/F One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong
Date: May 26, 2021
Detail: This season’s ‘CHINA / 5000 YEARS’ auction on 26th and 27th May showcases a diverse range of Chinese works of art including imperial porcelain, jade, lacquer, furniture and paintings. The sale also features a Hong Kong private collection of imperial porcelain and works of art, early ceramic pillows from the Dream Quest Collection, furniture and jade carvings from old Hong Kong family collections. Other highlights include a rare Jiajing wucai ‘fish’ jar from the collection of the renowned Japanese painter Umebara Ryuzaburo (1888-1986), an exquisite famille-rose ‘landscape’ snuff box and a cinnabar lacquer quatrelobed box and cover from the Qianlong period.
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New Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy
Place: Christie's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 22nd Floor, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong
Date: May 26, 2021
Detail: 26 May 02:00 PM HKT | Live auction 19679

Viewing
21 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
22 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
23 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
24 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
25 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
26 May 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Christie’s Hong Kong will feature Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy on 26 May 2021, presenting global collections and timeless masterpieces with historical, aesthetic and cultural significance.

The auction is led by an extremely rare masterpiece,  Wutong Studio in Autumn by the court painter Zhang Zongcang, the favourite of the Emperor Qianlong.  Other highlights include Seven Poems in Running Script by Wen Zhengming, from an important Japanese private collection, Stroll with a Stick in Autumn Mountain by Lan Ying previously in the Syunko Sugiura Collection, and Small-Character Calligraphy in Standard Script by Huang Daozhou, formerly from the collection of Yamamoto Teijiro. With exquisite works of wide-ranging themes and remarkable appeal, the Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy auction is not to be missed.


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New Introducing Beauty and Beyond: Women in Chinese Art
Place: Bonhams - Hong Kong, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Date: May 27, 2021
Detail: 27 May 2021, starting at 14:30 HKT

Viewings:
20 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
21 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
22 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
23 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
24 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
25 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
26 May 2021 10:00 - 18:00 HKT
27 May 2021 10:00 - 12:30 HKT


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New Fine Chinese Modern and Contemporary Ink Paintings
Place: Christie's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 22nd Floor, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong
Date: May 27, 2021
Detail: 27 May 10:00 AM HKT | Live auction 19678

Viewing
21 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
22 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
23 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
24 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
25 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
26 May 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Christie’s Hong Kong will hold the Fine Chinese Modern and Contemporary Ink Paintings auction on 27 May 2021. Meticulously put together for art collectors and enthusiasts, the auctions will feature global collections and timeless masterpieces by artists ranging from modern masters and contemporary ink talents.

This auction is led by Fu Baoshi’s Chess Playing, as well as fine-line (gongbi), blue-and-green, figure-in-landscape work Landscape Hidden in Mist after Bi Hong by the internationally renowned master Zhang Daqian. In addition, there are a series of ink masterpieces by Wu Guanzhong in the prime of his artistic life in the 1980s.

Contemporary Ink section will proudly present "A New Perspective–the 100th Anniversary of Chen Qikuan’s Birth", which contains a series of works by the artist in the 1950s and 1960s. There are several paintings from the Yale University Art Gallery, and the proceeds of the sale will benefit the gallery's acquisition funds.

The sale also brings together masterpieces by modern virtuosos such as Qi Baishi, Li Keran, Lin Fengmian, Pan Tianshou, Pu Ru, Ding Yanyong, Zhao Shao’ang, and Yang Shanshen to name a few, not to mention contemporary ink geniuses including Liu Kuo-Sung, Li Huayi, and Liu Dan. With exquisite works of wide-ranging themes and remarkable appeal, the Fine Chinese Modern and Contemporary Ink Paintings auction is not to be missed.


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New Snuffbottles from the Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter Collection Part I
Place: Sotheby's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 5/F One Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong
Date: May 28, 2021
Detail: Sotheby’s Chinese Art auction presents a fine assemblage of rare porcelain and works of art for discerning collectors, with treasures from distinguished collections worldwide.


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New Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
Place: Christie's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 22nd Floor, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong
Date: May 28, 2021
Detail: 28 May 02:00 PM HKT | Live auction 19677


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New Chinese Jade Carvings From a Distinguished European Collection
Place: Christie's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 22nd Floor, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong
Date: May 28, 2021
Detail: 28 May 10:30 AM HKT | Live auction 20193

Viewing:
21 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
22 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
23 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
24 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
25 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
26 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
27 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM

As part of an exciting series of Chinese Works of Art sales in Hong Kong this May, Christie's presents a distinguished European private collection of jade carvings in a dedicated auction. Purchased through reputable dealers in the 1960's, the sale is led by an imperial finely-carved and reticulated spinach-green jade brush pot from the Qianlong period (1736-95), and showcases an impressive array of materials ranging from jade and jadeite to precious stones including lapis lazuli.


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New Classical Chinese Furniture from Heveningham Hall
Place: Christie's Hong Kong - Hong Kong, 22nd Floor, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road Central, Hong Kong
Date: May 28, 2021
Detail: 28 May 11:00 AM HKT | Live auction 20194

Viewing
21 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
22 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
23 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
24 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
25 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
26 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM
27 May 10:30 AM – 6:30 PM

Christie’s will proudly bring to the market this diverse and exceptional collection of Ming and Qing furniture, in a dedicated standalone sale. Lovingly amassed over the last two decades and housed in Heveningham Hall, one of the most beautiful country houses in England, this is the rarest and most exquisite single-owner collection of Classical Chinese Furniture that Christie’s Hong Kong has had the pleasure of offering in this field in recent years.

With a curious eye, the collector focused on form, functionality and beauty in building the collection, favouring pieces crafted in the much sought-after Huanghuali wood to complemented his 18th and 19th century-inspired décor. Drawn to the clean and almost sensual lines of Chinese furniture, the pieces provided a stark contrast to the interior and exterior of his Palladial home, demonstrating the ability of Chinese furniture to seamlessly combine with an exuberant Western interior.

The collection is comprised of 25 pieces of furniture and one very rare example of Liao metalwork. Each lot was acquired by the present owner at Christie’s over the last two decades, the majority of which hails from illustrious collections. Highlights include a magnificent and exceedingly rare Huanghuali folding horseshoe-back armchair dating to the 17thcentury, which forms the cornerstone of any important Classical Chinese furniture collection, and an example of only 30 chairs in existence, and a magnificent Huanghuali six-poster canopy bed from the Qing dynasty, 18th century. The collection was thoughtfully assembled by the collector and housed in Heveningham Hall, his family home in Suffolk, England, where every piece of furniture served a useful purpose.


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