Shigematsu Ayumi 重松あゆみ (b. 1958), Yellow Jomon, 2018, stoneware, H. 12.7 x W. 11.0 x
Dia. 10.4 in. (H. 32.5 × W. 28 × Dia. 26.5 cm.)

Future Forms: Avant-Garde Sculpture in Modern Japanese Ceramics
Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd.
March 1-30, 2022

On the occasion of the spring iteration of Asia Week New York 2022, Dai Ichi Arts will present an exhibition, Future Forms: Avant-Garde Sculpture in Japanese Ceramics, showcasing a group of post-war, avant-garde sculptures that exemplify the creed of Yagi Kazuo, Yamada Hikaru, and Suzuki Osamu’s “Objet-Yaki”, or “Kiln-Fired Objects”. As such, this group of work will showcase the instrumental work of Yamada Hikaru, Suzuki Osamu, Hayashi Yasuo, Yanagihara Mutsuo, and the more contemporary sculptures of Miwa Ryosaku.

Tashima Etsuko 田嶋悦子 (b. 1959), Cornucopia 09-Y12, 2009, stoneware, glass, H. 8.6 x W. 16.5 x
Dia. 14.1 in. (H. 22 x W. 42 x Dia. 36 cm.)

Additionally, this group spotlights the works of several distinguished contemporary women sculptors who are part of a vanguard generation of highly influential post-war artists in Japan. For example, the radical works of Tashima Etsuko, Kishi Eiko, and Sakurai Yasuko, who investigate the use of light and color in their clay. On the other hand, the works of Ayumi Shigematsu and Suhama Tomoko explore form and surface as influenced by Suzuki Osamu and West Coast Minimalism. Meanwhile, Yuriko Matsuda, Shingu Sayaka, Kato Mami & others elaborate and explore surfacescape. The exhibition brings to light how female voices have understood the sculptural visual vocabulary & modernisms of the radical Sodeisha Movement.

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Kibe Seihō (born 1951), Sea Breeze Flower Basket, 1990s, bamboo and rattan, 12½ x 8¾ x 8¾ in.
(31.8 x 22.1 x 22.1 cm.)

NOMAD St. Moritz, Thomsen Gallery
March 1-6, 2022

Thomsen Gallery is currently participating in this year's NOMAD St. Moritz, the international art fair for collectible design and contemporary art. Taking place in the historic mansion Chesa Planta in Samedan by St. Moritz, Switzerland, this exhibition offers a select group of exceptional Japanese bamboo ikebana baskets by the great masters from the first half of the 20th century, along with works by highly accomplished contemporary makers. The baskets will be complemented by sophisticated Japanese contemporary ceramics and precious maki-e gold-lacquer boxes.

Madhvi Parekh (born 1942), Sea God, 1971, oil and pastel on canvas, 48 x 72 in. (121.9 x 182.9 cm.)

A Place in the Sun: Women Artists from 20th Century India, DAG
March 15-May 28

DAG presents A Place in The Sun: Women Artists from 20th Century India, an exhibition exploring the remarkable contribution of women artists in the context of Indian modernism, representing a selection of trailblazers, each of whom crafted a unique identity and practice. This exhibition surveys their artistic journeys while fighting prejudice and patriarchy at a time when women were discouraged from pursuing art, and uncovers the wide breadth of their interests, including early abstract painting, the arduous regimen of making sculptures, and printmaking. Curated by Kishore Singh, Senior VP-Exhibitions and Publications at DAG, the exhibition, which will be exhibited at DAG New York, is planned to coincide with Women's History Month.

The history covered in the exhibition spans the twentieth century–from India’s first art school-trained woman artist, Ambika Dhurandhar, who earned her diploma in Bombay, through later women artists who joined art schools in greater numbers, a time when their visual language stopped being contextualized to their gender only–until the end of the twentieth century when they were equal partners in fashioning a modern and contemporary discourse for Indian art. As some sought to explicitly highlight feminist concerns in their work, addressing questions of gender, class, marginalization, and environments; others responded to folk, abstract, tantra or other aspects of art making. The exhibition’s curation begins with the incredible Devyani Krishna, born five years after Sunayani Devi began painting in 1905 at the age of thirty, and Zarina Hashmi, born a decade before independence in 1947. It features 10 artists, including Madhvi Parekh, Shobha Broota, Anupam Sud, Gogi Saroj Pal, Latika Katt, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Navjot and Rekha Rodwittiya.

Gogi Saroj Pal (born 1945), Untitled

Announcing the exhibition, Ashish Anand, CEO and Managing Director, DAG, said: “I have noticed that viewers and critics at our New York gallery always make it a point to ask about the representation of women artists in our exhibitions. I am, therefore, delighted to share a complete exhibition on women artists with them. Their contribution to Indian modern art has been seminal and their recognition needs to be acknowledged.”

Added Kishore Singh, “The exhibition looks at a handful of trailblazers who, each in her own way, has crafted a unique identity and practice, thereby contributing to the rich dialogue around the diversity in style, medium, material and context of India’s twentieth century art. Each of these women artists has come up the difficult way to find a well deserved place in the sun.”

A Place in The Sun features a selection of exceptional works, including Untitled compositions by Zarina Hashmi and Gogi Saroj Pal, Sea God by Madhvi Parekh, Persona by Anupam Sud, Surveyor and the Surveyed by Navjot, and Florescence by Mrinalini Mukherjee. Mukherjee was recently chosen as one of the 213 artists to be shown at the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale, the world’s largest and most prestigious art exhibition that has a representation from 58 countries.

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Gobind Singh, Nawab Shuja ud-Daula Writing a Letter, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, circa 1760, ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Delightful Images: Indian Paintings and Courtly Objects, Art Passages
Exhibition: March 16-24
Opening reception March 16, 5-8pm
Exhibiting at 1018 Madison Ave in New York City

Art Passages will offer the special exhibition, Delightful Images: Indian Paintings and Courtly Objects, this Asia Week. Based in San Francisco and founded in 2004, Art Passages specializes in Buddhist paintings and ritual objects from Japan and Korea, Indian paintings and works of art, as well as Islamic art. Artworks from Art Passages are now in significant private collections, as well as in major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the LA County Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Musee du Quai Branly in Paris.

Balarama Diverting the Yamuna and Krishna Fluting, Jammu and Kashmir, Basohli, Pahari, India, c. 1770, ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

For more information about this exhibition, click here

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), Oniwakamaru, the Young Devil Child (Benkei) fighting the Giant Carp in the Bishamon-go-taki Waterfall Essays by Yoshitoshi, 1872, woodblock print

Two Hundred Years of Japanese Prints
March 18-21, 2022
Exhibiting at:
The Mark Hotel
Metropolitan Meeting Room (215)
215 Madison Avenue at 77th Street
New York, NY 10075

This season The Art of Japan, which is based in Medina, Washington, returns to New York with an array of fine Japanese prints that range from classical ukiyo-e to early sosaku hanga (“creative prints”). As in past years, the owners and collectors Richard Waldman and Doug Frazer will be located at the Mark Hotel. Both men bring decades of experience, a wealth of knowledge, and an abundance of enthusiasm to the field, as well as exceptional examples of Japanese woodblock prints.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), Fireworks at Ryogoku (Roygoku Hanabi), August 1858, woodblock print

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Manjit Bawa, Untitled (Sohni), 1992, oil on canvas, Estimate: $300,000-500,000

Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art
Auction: March 21, 11am
Viewing: March 16-20, 10am-5pm
Spanning South Asia across the late-nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the collection of works in the sale is testament to the diverse, idiosyncratic and extraordinary corpus of art from this region. Over 70 artists are represented, including some of the biggest names in the field, along with lesser-known artists who are more recently, and in some cases yet to, receive their due recognition. Highlights include works by Francis Newton Souza, Bhupen Khakhar, Manjit Bawa, Maqbool Fida Husain, Zarina and Meera Mukherjee.

A Journey Through China's History: The Dr Wou Kiuan Collection Part 1
Auction: March 22, 9am EDT
Viewing: March 17-21, 10am-5pm
This March, Sotheby’s will present Part 1 of one of the most comprehensive collections of Chinese Art ever assembled, The Dr Wou Kiuan Collection. Celebrating over 4,000 years of Chinese culture and art history, this distinguished encyclopedic collection ranges from Neolithic utilitarian vessels to paintings, calligraphy, imperial jades and porcelain, and more. The New York auction will be the first of a series of four single-owner sales to be held globally and represent the finest examples of virtually every category of Chinese art. Highlights include an imperial Qianlong period inscribed pale green jade ‘Luohan’ boulder, a magnificent carved cinnabar lacquer ‘hibiscus’ dish from the 14th century, and a rare archaic bronze fangyi from the late Shang dynasty.

An important and rare archaic bronze ritual wine vessel and cover (Fang Yi), Late Shang Dynasty, Anyang, Estimate: US$400,000-600,000

Important Chinese Art
Auction: March 23, 9am EDT

CHINA/5000 YEARS
Online auction, March 16-29
Viewing: March 16-28, 10am-5pm
A global rebranding of online sales for Chinese Works of Art, the CHINA/5000 YEARS is comprised of a selection of over 190 ceramics, bronzes, jades and other works of art. Highlights include a remarkable collection of snuff bottles from an East Coast private collection, a group of ceramics and works of arts deaccessioned by the Speed Art Museum and a selection of pottery and porcelains amassed by a New York private collector through acquisitions from major Chinese art dealers.

LECTURES:
Katharine Butler and Teresa Canepa, Reconsidering the Sir Michael Butler Collection of 17th century Chinese Porcelain , Saturday, March 19 at 4pm
Rose Kerr, Dr Wou Kiuan and the Wou Lien-Pai Collection, Saturday, March 19 at 5pm

Wonju Seo, Contemporary Bojagi, 2020, Korean winter silk, 50 x 50 in. (127 x 127 cm.)

Wonju Seo: Travelogue, Korea Society
March 3 – May 26, 2022
Opening reception, Thursday, March 3, 6-8pm
Artist's Talk: Wonju Seo, Video Release: Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 5pm (EDT)

In Wonju Seo’s hands, the aesthetics, forms, and techniques of bojagi— traditional Korean wrapping cloths—are reconfigured as abstract textile art for a global audience. Seo combines needlework, painting, photography, and other techniques to create contemplative artworks that explore her transcultural identity and life experience.

Read more, including Wonju Seo's biography and Korea Society's Covid-related policies, click here

Fujikasa Satoko (born 1980), Flow, 2011, slip-glazed stoneware, formerly at Joan B Mirviss LTD and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fanning the Flames: Building a Market for Japanese Modern Ceramics:
1950 to the Present
Presented by Joan B. Mirviss
Appraisers Association of America
Online webinar, Monday, March 7, 2022 at 6pm EST

Japan experienced an unparalleled blossoming of ceramics in the 16th and 17th centuries fueled by the development of the tea ceremony, enormous technological advances initially drawn from China and Korea, and the establishment of distinctive glazes and styles for which Japan is still renowned. In the post WWII era, Japan emerged from the ashes to once again lay claim to ceramic greatness that inspires the world today. Across three generations of clay masters, we are witnessing what is a New Golden Age of Japanese ceramics.

Creating an acquisitive market in the West for this seductive material has taken decades of work and perseverance. Today, in addition to savvy Western collectors, museums across the globe are now staging exhibitions and avidly acquiring important works for their permanent collections both through purchase and donation. Understanding this area is becoming increasingly important for both international experts and appraisers.

Joan B. Mirviss, who is one of the founding members of Asia Week New York, has been a renowned expert in Japanese art, specializing in prints, paintings, screens and contemporary ceramics for more than forty years. She is the leading Western dealer in the field of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, and her New York gallery, Joan B Mirviss, Ltd., exclusively represents the top Japanese clay artists. To date she has held over eighty exhibitions on the subject of Japanese ceramics. As a distinguished, widely published, and highly respected specialist in her field, Mirviss has advised and built collections for many museums and major private collectors around the world.

This program is available to both AAA members and the general public. For more information and to register, click here