Arts of Asia Calendar

The Met — “Embracing Color: Enamel in Chinese Decorative Arts, 1300–1900”

4 July, 2022 to 4 January, 2026

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, USA

This exhibition reveals the aesthetic, technical, and cultural achievement of Chinese enamel wares by demonstrating the transformative role of enamel. From the late 14th–15th century, porcelain with overglaze enamels was developed along with the introduction of cloisonné enamel from the West, leading to a palette shift from monochromatic to colourful. From the late 17th–18th century, European enamelling techniques were brought to the Qing court and more subtle and varied colour tones were developed on enamels applied over porcelain, metal, glass, and other mediums. In both moments, Chinese artists actively created new colours and styles that reflected their own taste.

HK Palace Museum — “Stories Untold, Figure Paintings of the Ming Dynasty from the Palace Museum”

13 December, 2023 to 30 November, 2024

Hong Kong Palace Museum, 8 Museum Drive, Hong Kong

The exhibition presents 81 sets (97 pieces) of works by around 60 Ming dynasty (1368–1644) painters from the Palace Museum collection, among which 14 sets (16 pieces) are national grade-one cultural relics. Each group will showcase the artistic pursuits and achievements of court painters, literati painters, and professional painters from the early, middle, and late periods of the Ming dynasty. It will unveil fascinating stories about the painters and the painted and show the multifaceted lives and spiritual world of people living during the Ming dynasty.

Rubin Museum of Art — “Masterworks: A Journey through Himalayan Art” 

1 January, 2024 to 6 October, 2024

150 West 17th St., New York, NY 10011, USA

This exhibition 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. The presentation is organised 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. Discover more in the Rubin Museum of Art’s online collection search.

The Met — “Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting”

6 February, 2024 to 9 June, 2024

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, USA

British artist Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) formed a collection of Indian paintings and drawings that is recognised as one of the finest of its kind. A highly regarded painter and printmaker, Hodgkin collected works from the Mughal, Deccani, Rajput, and Pahari courts dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries that reflect his personal passion for Indian art. This exhibition presents over 120 of these works, many of which The Met recently acquired, alongside loans from The Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust.

HKMoA — “Love Letters: Everlasting Sentiments from the Xubaizhai Collection”

9 February, 2024 to 26 June, 2024

Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Over the centuries, Chinese artists have often suffused their painting, calligraphy and poetry with sentiments. Like love letters, their works of art are intimate whispers of affection murmuring eternal emotions. With love letter as the theme, the exhibition features 29 sets of selected collections from the Xubaizhai Collection, inviting the audience to discover the reserved and implicit emotions encapsulated in Chinese painting and calligraphy.

Alisan Fine Arts — “Shifting Landscapes”

27 February, 2024 to 27 April, 2024

120 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065, USA

This solo exhibition, at Alisan Fine Arts’ recently opened New York gallery, celebrates the art of pioneering ink artist Lui Shou-Kwan (1919–1975). Lui’s first exhibition in New York presents transformative works from the artist’s career that bridge tradition and modernity while sparking new dialogue in the international art community. Lui was a vanguard figure of the New Ink Movement in Hong Kong, a movement that reimagined the Chinese Ink tradition and flourished from the 1950s to 1970s. Extremely influential to generations of artists after him, Lui was instrumental in transforming traditional Chinese ink painting into a modern, global art form.

Japan Society — “None Whatsoever: Zen Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection”

8 March, 2024 to 16 June, 2024

333 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017, USA

Often playful, sometimes comical, and always profound, Zen paintings represent one of the world’s most fascinating religious and artistic traditions. This exhibition explores the origins of Zen Buddhism through over four centuries of ink paintings and calligraphies by painter-monks, who expressed Zen Buddhist teachings through their art. Visitors will also be invited to engage with Zen Buddhist practices through wide-ranging public programming, from in-gallery meditation sessions to calligraphy workshops and tea ceremony demonstrations.

Bowers Museum — “Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form”

9 March, 2024 to 8 September, 2024

2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, California, USA

This exhibition presents the largest ever selection of original artworks from Asian comics, displayed alongside their printed, mass-produced forms. This exhibition is a vivid journey through the art of comics and visual storytelling across Asia. From its historical roots to the most recent digital innovations, the exhibition looks to popular Japanese manga and beyond, highlighting key creators, characters, and publications. It features over 400 works—the largest selection of artworks from the continent—including Japanese woodblock prints, Hindu scroll paintings, digital media, printed comics, and contemporary illustrations. 

Dai Ichi Arts — “Ceramic Frontiers: Sodeisha & Shikokai in Post-War Japanese Art”

12 March, 2024 to 28 March, 2024

18 East 64th Street, Suite 1F, New York, NY 10065, USA

In the landscape of mid-20th century Japan, two significant sculptural ceramic movements, Sodeisha and Shikokai, emerged concurrently during the post-war period. This exhibition illuminates the richness of these historical movements, offering a distinctive lens through which to explore “Post-war” ceramics from Japan. It unveils a curated collection of masterpieces by renowned artists integral to the Shikokai and Sodeisha canon in Japanese ceramic art history, including luminaries Hayashi Yasuo, Suzuki Osamu, Kumakura Junkichi, Yagi Kazuo, Yamada Hikaru, Fujimoto Yoshimichi, and others.

Asia Week New York 2024

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

Various locations, New York, USA

This year marks 15 years of international galleries and auction houses displaying Asian art from the many corners of the continent. United by their shared passion for the region’s diverse art and culture, this eagerly awaited annual event has become a must-attend destination for collectors, curators, and Asian art aficionados. From the Upper East Side to Chelsea, 26 international galleries will span across Manhattan presenting their rarest and most spectacular examples from China, India, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Nepal, Japan, and Korea of Asian porcelain, textiles, paintings, ceramics, sculpture, bronzes, and prints, dating from the second millennium BC to the present.

TAI Modern — “A Pause in Time, An Emptiness in Space: Ma in Japanese Bamboo Art”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

Colnaghi, 23 East 67th Street, Fourth Floor, New York, USA

The term Ma encompasses various meanings, including space, pause, rest, time, or opening, all of which contribute to shaping the distinct aesthetics of bamboo art. The Heart Sutra, one of the most famous texts in Buddhism, states that “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” This apparent paradox represents a fundamental philosophy in Japanese design and culture, where the significance of absence is equal to that of presence. This exhibition showcases extraordinary works by some of bamboo art’s most esteemed artists. 

Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch — “Gods, Gardens and Princes: Indian Works on Paper”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

67 East 80 Street, New York, 10075, USA

London and New York based Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd, since 1998, specialises in Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Islamic art, as well as the art of the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayas and South-East Asia, covering works from the Buddhist and Hindu dynasties to the Mughals, with a special emphasis on Indian and Islamic miniature painting and manuscripts. This presentation of Indian works on paper include numerous highlights, including pictured here, Maharana Jagat Singh II (r.1734-51) and Thakur Sirdar Singh stalking deer.

Francesca Galloway — “Indian Painting: Intimacy and Formality”

14 March, 2024 to 21 March, 2024

Les Enluminures gallery, 23 East 73rd Street, 7th Floor, Penthouse, New York, USA

This exhibition of a stellar group of Mughal and Hindu paintings allows viewers to peer into a fantastical world, both intimate and formal. Amongst some of these most intimate scenes is that of a Mughal emperor, not in courtly splendour but tenderly cradling his favourite grandson, a religious gathering of devoted followers and a zenana scene more intimate than formal. By contrast, the formal scenes so often evoked in our imaginings of India can be seen in the grand processions, extraordinary tiger hunts and in formal portraits commissioned by the Emperor Shah Jahan, showing us the courtly world in its stately splendour.

Carlton Rochell Asian Art — Asia Week New York

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

Adam Williams Fine Art, 24 East 80th Street, New York, USA

Carlton Rochell established his gallery in New York in 2002 after a distinguished career at Sotheby’s. He has remained focused on the art of India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia and has staged many important exhibitions since opening his gallery. This presentation includes numerus highlights, including pictured here, this vibrant 14th or 15th century Tibetan mandala which represents an unusual four-armed aspect of Vajrapani, identified by the vajra he wields in his upper right hand. On the reverse, the inscriptions are in vertical alignment for OM AH HUM in very ornate and elegant lantsa alphabet (ornamental Indic script for writing Sanskrit mantra syllables). 

Joan B. Mirviss — “Eternal Partnership: Japanese Ceramics In Blue/White”

14 March, 2024 to 19 April, 2024

39 East 78th Street, Suite 401, New York, NY 10075, USA

Blue and white, a visually striking colour combination in the finest art across Asia for centuries, is found in all types of Japanese art. This exhibition explores this aesthetic via the Kyoto-based Kondō family, distinguished masters of sometsuke (cobalt blue and white porcelain). Across generations, their mastery culminates in the work of the featured gallery artist, Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958). In addition to the Kondō artists, the presentation will showcase past masters such as Hamada Shōji, Kawai Kanjirō, Kitaōji Rosanjin, Kamoda Shōji, and Kusube Yaichi, and by younger contemporary talents such as Inaba Chikako and Imai Sadamasa.

INKstudio — “Kelly Wang and Ren Light Pan: New Material Practices in INK Art”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

308 East 72nd Street, Apartment 3D, New York, USA

New York-based Kelly Wang (b. 1992) and Ren Light Pan (b. 1990) are redefining the material practices of Ink art. In Brush Rest, Wang uses newspaper twisted into strands and sculpted into two- and three-dimensional landscape forms to transform the normally passive, absorbent ground of ink art, or paper, into an active, material inquiry into society and nature. Ren Light Pan, in Sleep, uses the heat of her body and the physical, material properties of ink and water (diffusion, absorption and evaporation) to record her body in its sleeping state. By appointment only (646-510-28).

Onishi Gallery — “Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett” and “KOGEI and Art”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

521 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001, USA

This two-part exhibition showcases contemporary Japanese artists united in their embrace of tradition in the creative process and their diverse modes of expression. Pictured here is a metalwork vase, Yubae (Sunset’s Glow), 2013, by Living National Treasure Nakagawa Mamoru (b. 1947), which captures the image of a setting sun casting an orange glow on a Manhattan building. The artist is captivated by the city’s skyscrapers for their geometric appearance and for the nature and people who surround and inhabit them.

Ralph M. Chait — “Spring Exhibition of Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

16 East 52nd Street, Suite 1002, New York, USA

The Ralph M. Chait Galleries is the oldest specialist gallery in the United States in the field of fine antique Chinese porcelain and works of art with over one hundred thirteen years in business. In this special exhibition, a rare Chinese Famille Verte porcelain aptly called Piggyback Boys is pictured here. With their elaborately vibrant painted robes, and smiling playful faces from the Kangxi Period (1662-1722), it is one of the many prize examples from the forthcoming Spring Exhibition.

Zetterquist — “Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics from American and Japanese Collections”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

3 East 66th Street #2B New York, NY 10065, USA

Zetterquist galleries was founded in 1992 by Eric J. Zetterquist to present the finest of Asian ceramics throughout the ages. The flow of materials with stylistic and technical influences around the region over the past 2,000 years tells a fascinating story that gets more exciting with time. Pictured here is an example from this exhibition, of a large Vietnamese blue-and-white jar with tigers, horses, birds, and deer, circa 15th-16th century. Porcelain storage jars of this scale and intricate and varied animal decoration are extremely rare.

Thomas Murray — “Recent Acquisitions: Patola, Ainu, Boro”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

The Mark Hotel, Madison Avenue 25 E 77th St, New York, USA

One of the standout offerings for this exhibit is a late 19th/early 20th century exceptionally rare and beautiful white on indigo Kaparamip Robe, a striking geometric pattern rooted in Northern Asiastic Shamanism and an aesthetically compelling example of a classic garment type. It features graphic patterns deeply rooted in Northern Asiatic shamanism and the ten-thousand-year-old Jomon Culture of the islands of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, the Kurils and the Siberian mainland around the mouth of the Amur River. These motifs are visionary, and share affinities with ancient Chinese, Mongol, Eskimo and Pacific Northwest Coast design pools.

Kaikodo — “A Discovery of Dragons”

14 March, 2024 to 18 April, 2024

Online Exhibition

This online exhibition will showcase a Chinese Cizhou-ware Ceramic Pillow with Double-phoenix. This stoneware pillow is a breath-taking example of a technique for producing ceramic decoration perfected by Cizhou potters during the 11th century of the Song dynasty in northern China. The remarkable precision apparent in the production of the rare double-phoenix design on the headrest of the pillow and the density and intricate placement of the stamped rings forming the ground are exemplary, producing an effect that is as close to refined metal ware decoration as a potter could get. Exhibition will be available on www.kaikodo.com.

Loewentheil Photography of China Collection — “Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

10 W. 18th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10011, USA

Presenting a rare occasion to view some of the earliest photographs of Chinese women, mostly from the 1860s and 1870s, this exhibition explores women’s place in society in the final decades of imperial China, as well as the representation of Chinese women in photography, exposing female attitudes toward the camera. Also included are rare photographs by the first known Chinese female photographer, Mae Linda Talbot, and works by Hedda Morrison, and Isabella Bird, as well as works by Chinese and international photographers such as Sze Yuan Ming Studio, Pun Lun Studio, A Chan Studio, Lai Fong, and John Thomson, whose Portrait of Three Women in Beijing (circa 1868) is shown here. 

Thomsen Gallery — “Japanese Modern Masterpieces 1910–1950”

14 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

9 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10065, USA

Thomsen gallery offers important Japanese paintings and works of art to collectors and museums worldwide. It specialises in Japanese screens and scrolls; in early Japanese tea ceramics from the medieval through the Edo periods; in masterpieces of ikebana bamboo baskets; and in gold lacquer objects, in addition to post-war ink art and Gutai art as well as contemporary art by select artists. Front and centre in this exhibition is Collie and Myna Bird (In a Peaceful Garden, The First Signs of Autumn), a delightful two-panel folding screen comprised of ink, mineral colours, and gofun (calcified powdered shell) on silk, dated 1926.

Orientations Gallery & Oriental Treasure Box — “The Meiji Aesthetic: Influence from Edo to Now”

14 March, 2024 to 22 February, 2024

Nippon Gallery, 145 W 57th St, 7th floor, New York, NY 10019, USA

This joint exhibition by Orientations Gallery and Oriental Treasure Box showcases high quality objects of accomplished and recognised artists in the fields of cloisonné enamels, metalwork, ceramics, art lacquer, painting, basketry, carving and textiles. An illustrative lecture by Hollis Goodall, Curator Emerita of Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will accompany the exhibition on Monday, March 18th, at 3pm.

Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art — “Japanese Paintings, Prints, and Illustrated Books: 1760‒1810”

15 March, 2024 to 22 March, 2024

17 East 76th Street, 3rd Floor, New York 10021, USA

This exhibition explores the graphic culture of Edo in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The introduction of colour printing in the 1760s led to new techniques which were quickly adopted by the skilled craftsmen employed by the publishers of the period. The exhibition also chronicles changes in fashions and political affairs that affected the world of ukiyo-e, both in representations of the licensed entertainment quarter of the Yoshiwara and the city at large. Suzuki Harunobu (1724–1770) and his contemporaries are represented as are his successors in the following decades such as Torii Kiyonaga and Kitagawa Utamaro.

Rubin Museum of Art — “Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now”

15 March, 2024 to 6 October, 2024

150 West 17th St., New York, NY 10011, USA

Contemplate and celebrate what Himalayan art means now with a Museum-wide exhibition of artworks by over 30 contemporary artists, many from the Himalayan region and diaspora and others inspired by Himalayan art and cultures. The exhibition includes new commissions, some site-specific, and existing works juxtaposed with objects from the Museum’s collection, inviting new ways of encountering traditional Himalayan art through a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, sound, video, installation, performance, and more.

HK Palace Museum — “Yuan Ming Yuan: Art and Culture of an Imperial Garden-Palace”

20 March, 2024 to 12 August, 2024

Hong Kong Palace Museum, 8 Museum Drive, Hong Kong

This exhibition sheds new light on Yuanming yuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness) by featuring over 190 paintings, architectural models, and other works associated with this imperial garden-palace that served as the principal residence of five Qing emperors. The presentation highlights the life and aesthetic tastes of the emperors, festivals, and the relationship between members of the imperial family.

The Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago — “Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan”

21 March, 2024 to 9 June, 2024

5550 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

This exhibition takes a fresh look at the art of Japan’s Meiji era (1868–1912), four decades that propelled the country into the modern era. Comprising nearly 150 artworks—of paintings, prints, photographs, sculptural works, and objects in various media, such as enamel, lacquer, embroidery, and textiles—the show presents some of the finest Meiji artworks in American collections. It emphasises modern Japanese artists’ engagement with both European and Asian trends and the concurrent invention of “classical Japan” as a category.

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