Listening to Clay: Works by Artists Featured in the Latest Book by Alice and Halsey North and Louise Cort, Joan B Mirviss LTD
Concludes August 26, 2022

All sixteen artists showcased in Listening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists (Monacelli Press/release date: June 14, 2022) are participating in this exhibition in honor of the book’s publication, which was authored by Alice and Halsey North, pioneering collectors and museum patrons, together with Louise Allison Cort, Curator Emerita of Ceramics, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution. Works that best embody the inspirations, challenges, and achievements of their distinguished careers have been selected for this special exhibition. Most of the artists have been long represented by Joan B Mirviss LTD, who has witnessed their impressive artistic development over the decades. Accompanied by the rich personal stories found within the book, the clay works on offer in the exhibition Listening to Clay represent these artists’ innovative brilliance and encapsulate the diversity of ceramics in Japan today.

The gallery exhibition features works by all sixteen artists in the book, Listening to Clay (listed in chronological order):
Hayashi Yasuo (b. 1928)
Mishima Kimiyo (b. 1932)
Morino Hiroaki Taimei (b. 1934)
Kohyama Yasuhisa (b. 1936)
Miyashita Zenji (1939-2012)
Miwa Ryūkishō (Kyūsetsu XII/ Ryōsaku) (b. 1940)
Koike Shōko (b. 1943)
Ogawa Machiko (b. 1946)
Fukami Sueharu (b. 1947)
Kakurezaki Ryūichi (b. 1950)
Miwa Kyūsetsu XIII (Kazuhiko) (b. 1951)
Akiyama Yō (b. 1953)
Kaneta Masanao (b. 1953)
Yagi Akira (b. 1955)
Kitamura Junko (b. 1956)
and Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958)

Read more, click here.

To watch a recording of the online panel discussion Listening to Clay: The Artists, Curators, and Collectors who Listen, held on July 26th, click here.

L-R: Kota Arinaga (born 1978), Netz – Indigo, 2021, glass, H. 12 3/4 x W. 10 1/8 x D. 10 1/8 in. and
Kiyoko Morioka (born 1974), Flower Vase, ceramic, H. 10 7/8 x W. 6 7/8 x D. 6 7/8 in.

On the Axis Works by Kota Arinaga and Kiyoko Morioka,
Ippodo Gallery
Last day August 25

Ippodo Gallery's On the Axis is the gallery's first-ever dual exhibition featuring 15 pieces by glass artist Kota Arinaga and 25 by porcelain ceramist Kiyoko Morioka. At first glance, the duality between Arinaga and Morioka is pronounced. Arinaga is a male artist, Morioka female. Arinaga works with the immediacy of glass, while Morioka the patience of kiln firing. And yet, both artists are fascinated by the arcs and axes of time, exploring its dichotomies and the dualities in their work. In the stillness of the exhibition, their explorations complement and challenge one another, so that the viewer can reflect on time’s passages and surprises as it warps or rushes, freezes or evolves. Both glass and clay materials are embedded with the passage of time, requiring expert craftsmanship and patience over an extended period to produce a precious work of art.

To watch a recording of the Artist Talk with Kota Arinaga and Kiyoko Morioka, held by Ippodo Gallery on August 17, click here.

Heeseop Yoon, Still Life with Eiffel Tower, 2022, pen drawing collage on paper, 18 x 24 in., image courtesy of the artist

Heeseop Yoon Agglomeration, Korea Society
Concludes August 25

Although her intricate installations are often so large that they spread over walls onto ceilings and floors, Heeseop Yoon thinks of her work as freehand drawings. All of Yoon’s works are based on real spaces with vast messes, such as basements, workshops, storage spaces, or “places where everything is jumbled and time becomes ambiguous without the presence of people.” Based on photographs, Yoon draws freehand without erasing; based on her own drawings, she creates her enlarged wall drawings using black tapes. In the final installation, her miscalculations and corrections are visible, as Yoon is interested in how memory and perception constantly adjust both for herself and for her viewer, and the paradox that the more she corrects her work, the less legible the drawing becomes. In her solo exhibition at The Korea Society, Yoon will show both her large-scaled line drawing installation and intricate black and white drawings.

Watch the recorded Artist's Talk, which Korea Society posted on July 12th, click here.

Visits to Korea Society require advance appointment. To book a date, click here.

Closing Reception for Artists on Site Series 3,
Asia Society Texas
In-person event, Thursday, August 25th, 6:30-8pm

Join Asia Society Texas's final days of Artists on Site Series 3. Over six weeks, Houston-based artists Luisa Duarte, Ruhee Maknojia, Matt Manalo, and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley have each transformed their respective gallery spaces through artistic exploration. Visit with the artists during this free reception and learn more about their practices while enjoying the results of the artists' time on-site.

L-R: Houston-based artists Luisa Duarte, Ruhee Maknojia, Matt Manalo, and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley, whose works are on view this week at Asia Society Texas.

The Artists on Site project was developed in 2020 as an initiative that transforms the galleries into studio and project spaces for Houston-based artists. The idea was born out of conversations starting in early 2020 with many artists, both in Houston and throughout the country, to develop ways that Asia Society Texas could support them and their practices. Through the gallery presentations and related programs, visitors will have the opportunity to connect with these artists and the critically important insights they contribute.

Read more about the artists, click here

Summer kimono (hito-e) with swirls, Taishō (1912–26)–Shōwa period (1926–89), 1920s–30s, printed gauze-weave (ro) silk with twisted wefts, 60 13/16 × 45 in. (154.5 × 114.3 cm). Promised Gift of John C. Weber. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Paul Lachenauer

Kimono Style: The John C. Weber Collection Webinar,
Japanese Art Society of America
Online program, Wednesday, August 24, 5pm EDT

For those who missed JASA's June 28th in-person tour of the exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on Wednesday, August 24, 5 p.m. EDT, please join the Zoom Webinar Kimono Style: The John C. Weber Collection, with Monika Bincsik, Diane and Arthur Abbey Associate Curator for Japanese Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Dr. Bincsik will share her curatorial perspectives on the transformation of the kimono from the late Edo period (1615–1868) through the early 20th century.

Read more and register, click here

Meisen Kimono with Water Droplets, Shōwa period (1926–89), ca. 1930s, plain-weave silk warps and machine-spun silk wefts in double ikat (heiyō-gasuri), 59 × 49 1/4 in. (149.9 × 125.1 cm).
Promised Gift of John C. Weber

Insider Insights: The Japanese Kimono, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Online program, Saturday, August 20, 2022, 10am-10:30am

Monika Bincsik, Diane and Arthur Abbey Associate Curator of Japanese Decorative Arts, The Met
Marco Leona, David H. Koch Scientist in Charge, Scientific Research, The Met
Join Met experts to explore the history and modernization of the Japanese kimono. Learn about Japan’s famed weaving, dying, and embroidery techniques along with discoveries from new scientific research.

Free. Please note: This program is prerecorded and presented in conjunction with the exhibition Kimono Style: The John C. Weber Collection.
Watch on Facebook or YouTube. Note: No login required. Read more, click here.

Tōshūsai Sharaku (active 1794-95), Arashi Ryūzō II as Ishibe Kinkichi, 1794, color woodblock print, with mica ground: ōban tate-e. Courtesy of Sebastian Izzard Asian Art

Asia Week New York is enthusiastically planning for the upcoming Asia Week, which will take place from September 14-23. During that time we will offer our extremely popular Autumn 2022 online exhibition featuring highlights from our members’ current shows. Twenty-one top Asian art galleries and 6 auction houses are participating in September Asia Week in person and online. Asia Week New York will keep you informed with information about all our members’ gallery openings, exhibitions, and lectures with announcements leading up to Asia Week and Daily Digest emails to help you keep track of all the art you want to see and events you don’t want to miss.

Artist Talk with Kota Arinaga and Kiyoko Morioka, Ippodo Gallery
Online program, Wednesday, August 17, 5-6pm EDT

On Wednesday, August 17th at 5pm, Ippodo Gallery presents an online panel discussion with artists Koto Arinaga and Kiyoko Morioka, whose works are featured in their current exhibition, with Ippodo Gallery New York’s Director Shoko Aono. This program is in conjunction with On the Axis, the gallery’s first-ever dual exhibition featuring 15 pieces by glass artist Kota Arinaga and 25 by porcelain ceramist Kiyoko Morioka.

Both artists are fascinated by the arcs and axes of time, exploring its dichotomies and the dualities in their work. In the stillness of the exhibition, their explorations complement and challenge one another, so that the viewer can reflect on time’s passages and surprises as it warps or rushes, freezes or evolves.

Read more, click here

In this issue, Fredric Schneider tells how and why he formed a collection of cloisonné enamels, now a promised gift to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Tribute is paid to two JASA members, Jacqueline Avant, a Los Angeles lacquer collector, and Kōichi Yanagi, a premier art dealer with a gallery in New York. At the Jewish Museum in New York, Evgeny Steiner considered a display of Edmund De Waal’s netsuke, made famous in The Hare with Amber Eyes. Hollis Goodall describes the world of ghosts and demons exhibited in Santa Fe and New South Wales. Betty Swinton reviews a handy new book on ukiyo-e by Julie Davis, and Rosina Buckland tackles a lavish publication on Japanese screens; even though the book is too heavy to read in bed, it discusses the spatial aspects of screens with a conceptual, often French-focused approach. Samuel Morse introduces an exhibition of pottery in Minneapolis and its catalogue, Kamoda Shōji—The Art of Change. Finally, John Carpenter invokes Shōki, the Demon Queller, called upon in times of epidemic.

Read more and to order copies, click here

Shu Hao (active late 19th century), Zhou Dunyi Admiring Lotus Flowers, fan-shaped album leaf, ink and color on silk. Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986

Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Concludes August 14, 2022

This exhibition explores the twin themes of solitude and togetherness in Chinese art. For more than two thousand years, reclusion—removing oneself from society—has been presented as the ideal condition for mental cultivation and transcending worldly troubles. At the same time, communion with like-minded people has been celebrated as essential to the human experience. This choice, to be alone or to be together, has been central to the lives of thinkers and artists, and Chinese art abounds with images of figures who pursued both paths—as well as those who wove them together in complex and surprising ways. Companions in Solitude brings together more than 120 works of painting, calligraphy, and decorative arts that illuminate this choice—depictions of why and how people have sought space from the world or attempted to bridge the divide between themselves and others. In the wake of 2020, a year that has isolated us physically but connected us virtually in unprecedented ways, this exploration of premodern Chinese reclusion and communion will invite meditation on the fracture and facture of human connection in our own time.