Folio from a Bhagavata Purana Manuscript: Battle Between Krishna and the Fire-Headed Demon Mura (detail), about 1500-1540. India, Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh; Courtesy Asia Society
Alongside the outstanding exhibitions at our Asia Week New York member galleries and auction houses this Autumn 2025, our member museums are also unveiling dynamic Asian art shows across New York City and surrounding areas. Below is a highlight of their shows and events this month. Click on each museum heading for further information.
ASIA SOCIETY
(Re)Generations: Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and Howardena Pindell amid the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection
March 4, 2025 – January 4, 2026
This exhibition reintroduces key works in Asia Society Museum’s Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of pre-modern Asian art through the lenses of three leading contemporary artists: Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and Howardena Pindell. Each artist has selected a number of works in the collection within which to situate their own new and existing works, approaching historic objects in the collection through their practices and from multiple cultures, heritages, and positions. Creating dialogues across multiple histories and places, these artists offer a range of new insights and entry points into the collection.
BROOKLYN MUSEUM & RUBIN MUSEUM OF HIMALAYAN ART
Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room. (Photo: Dave De Armas, courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art)
Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
June 11, 2025 – April 20, 2031
Experienced by over one million visitors at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art from 2013 to 2024, the beloved Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room now has a new home at the Brooklyn Museum. For the next six years, this immersive installation will welcome guests within the Arts of Asia galleries—offering a lamplit sanctuary amid Brooklyn’s bustle and a place for reflection in uncertain times. Presenting more than 100 artworks and ritual objects as they might appear in an elaborate household shrine, the installation features scroll paintings (thangkas), sculptures, furniture, and musical instruments from the 12th–20th centuries. Chanted prayers by monks and nuns evoke ritual practice, reminding visitors that Buddhist devotion engages all the senses.
CHARLES B. WANG CENTER AT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
Courtesy Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University
Through the Light: Contemporary Jogakbo by Wonju Seo
September 8 – December 31, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept 26, from 5-7pm (kindly RSVP)
Workshop: Saturday, Sept 27 at 1pm (kindly register))
Melding tradition with innovation, Through the Light showcases the contemporary jogakbo (Korean wrapping cloth) art of Wonju Seo. Rooted in centuries-old Korean textile practices, Seo’s translucent compositions transform humble fabric into luminous abstractions. Her works echo the geometry of modernist paintings while inviting viewers to experience light as a living element—passing through seams, shifting with space, and casting ephemeral shadows. With a minimalist sensibility and a reverence for craftsmanship, Seo translates the once utilitarian Korean craft of jogakbo into a contemporary language of transparency, balance, and spiritual reflection.
CHINA INSTITUTE GALLERY
Fiona Lai Ching Wong, Gold Orchid, 2008, terracotta with copper plate..© Courtesy of the artist and Alisan Fine Arts
Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation
September 10, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Curator’s Conversation with Artists: Wednesday, Sept 10 from 6:30-8pm (kindly RSVP)
Metamorphosis highlights works by over 25 contemporary artists of Chinese descent who explore themes of personal, cultural, historical and material metamorphosis and transformation in dynamic and innovative ways. Created by both established and emerging artists of different generations, these works span media including painting, sculpture, photography, animation, and installation. Artists include Xu Bing, Zheng Chongbin, Lu Yang, Yun-Fei Ji, Irene Chou, Zheng Lu, Yin Xiuzhen and Fiona Lai Ching Wong. Many of these works will be seen in the U.S. for the first time. Important works commissioned especially for the exhibition include new paintings by Sun Xun and an immersive Dream Chamber by Bingyi.
JAPAN SOCIETY
Courtesy Japan Society
Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries
September 12, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept 11 at 9pm (Members Only)
This is the first New York solo museum exhibition of contemporary artist Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972). Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with a newly commissioned, site-specific installation exploring wartime memory, personal identity, and the intersection of collective and individual experience. The exhibition also highlights Shiota’s stage design for Japan Society’s theater commission KINKAKUJI (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), premiering on opening night. Based on the novel by legendary Japanese author Yukio Mishima (1925–1970), the performance celebrates the centennial year of his birth. This new work brings Shiota’s innovative and deeply intimate stage design to American audiences for the first time.
KOREA SOCIETY
Courtesy the Artist
Hong Seon Jang | Minor Landscaping
September 10 – December 5, 2025
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept 10 from 5-7pm (kindly RSVP)
With his installations, Hong Seon Jang transforms industrial products and found objects in order to explore the usually recognizable surroundings. As their conventional function and values are reinterpreted, distorted, and subverted, Jang investigates opposing concepts and contrasting ideas, such as authority and subordination, internal and external dynamics, and the interplay between security and threat. Through his art, Jang invites viewers to re-examine how symbols acquire cultural and ideological significance, and how their meanings transform in displacement.
KOREAN CULTURAL CENTER NY
Ik-Joong Kang, Hangeul Wall: Things I Love to Talk About, 2024, 20,000 Hangeul tiles (mixed media on wood: 3×3 inches each), approximately 26 x 72 ft (8 x 22 meters), courtesy KCCNY
Hangeul Wall: Things I Love to Talk About
Ongoing
The Hangeul Wall, measuring 26 x 72 feet (8 x 22 meters) and composed of 20,000 Hangeul tiles, connects the wisdom and experiences of global citizens. Developed in collaboration with LG CNS, KCCNY launched a website in May 2024, enabling people worldwide to create their own artworks using the site’s translation and coloring functions under the theme “Things I Love to Talk About.” From these, 1,000 pieces were selected through public online voting and artist review, culminating in this monumental installation. The Hangeul Wall stands as a symbol of the rich cultural heritage of Hangeul and the universal freedom of expression, serving as a testament to our shared human narratives.
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Incense burner in the form of a goose, China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), early 15th century. Bronze. H. 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm); W. 18 3/4 in. (47 6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Vincent Astor Foundation Gift, 2020 (2020.335a, b)nt Astor Foundation Gift, 2020
Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900
Through September 28, 2025
This exhibition presents the first comprehensive study of Chinese bronzes produced from the twelfth to nineteenth century—an overlooked but critical period in Chinese art. Featuring over 200 artworks with loans from over 20 institutions in China, Japan, Korea, Europe, and the United States, the exhibition demonstrates the lasting artistic significance of bronzeware as later artists creatively transformed earlier forms and decorative imagery. The inclusion of paintings, ceramics, jades, and other media demonstrates the broad impact of this new aesthetic across the arts of later Imperial China.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART
Kimura Kōsuke (b. 1936), Present Situation (Framing B) (detail), Japan, Shōwa era, 1971, screenprint and lithograph; ink on paper, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Purchase and partial gift of the Kenneth and Kiyo Hitch Collection from Kiyo Hitch with funds from the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment, S2019.3.982, © Kosuke Kimura
Cut + Paste: Experimental Japanese Prints and Photographs
June 21 – November 30, 2025
Leave your assumptions about prints and photographs behind. In Cut + Paste, flat surfaces expand outward as images are printed, reworked, and layered with unexpected materials—plastic, foam, glue, tape. In an age of endless digital reproduction, these works insist on being seen in person. Showcasing seventeen Japanese artists, the exhibition highlights bold experiments that blur the boundaries between printmaking, photography, fine art, and design. Drawn entirely from their permanent collection, these works span the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART
Krishna Reddy (1925-2018), Two Fishes, 1957, 2024-118-29, courtesy The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Krishna Reddy: The Movement of Life
August 2 – December 8, 2025
Asian Art Tour: Thursday, September 11, 2025 from 1-2pm (free)
This exhibition, timed to coincide with the centenary of Reddy’s birth, explores his abstract images of seeds, flowers, insects, water, and the human figure. Dazzling feats of color and texture, Reddy’s color prints vibrate with the cosmic energy that, according to his personal philosophy, pulses through and connects all elements of nature. Celebrating the gift of 63 prints from the collection of Drs. Umesh and Sunanda Gaur to the PMA, Krishna Reddy: The Movement of Life articulates how Reddy’s iterative working process was an extension of his spiritual beliefs. Also be sure to join their guided tour that brings you into rare architectural spaces and introduces you to fascinating works of Asian art—including some of the oldest treasures in their collection.
THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY
Thomas Couture (1815-1879), Richard Morris Hunt, 1849 (detail). Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light
May 30 – November 2, 2025
Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) was America’s premier Gilded Age architect, but his effort to transform both the built and the cultural landscapes of America is his greatest legacy. This exhibition examines Hunt’s achievements in a new light, presenting his lived experience and how it is reflected in his life’s work: a pursuit of national pride in art and architecture. For the first time, Hunt’s materials from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Vermont Historical Society, Bennington Museum (Vt.) and the Preservation Society’s collection – including architectural and interior drawings, his personal sketchbooks and scrapbooks, and intimate family objects and collections – will be exhibited in one location. Together they provide deep insight into Hunt’s approach to culture, private and public collecting, and architectural practice.
RUBIN MUSEUM OF HIMALAYAN ART
IMAGINE (a.k.a. Sneha Shrestha), Dwarpalika, 2024, installation view from Sneha Shrestha: Ritual and Devotion at the Cantor Art Gallery, photo by Jane Louie Photography, courtesy Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art
About a Living Culture
September 6, 2025 – January 4, 2026
Diversity Plaza, Jackson Heights, NYC
Nepalese artist IMAGINE (a.k.a Sneha Shrestha) presents a new temporary public art installation that celebrates and takes inspiration from the diverse Himalayan cultures of the Jackson Heights, Queens, neighborhood. For her first public art sculpture, IMAGINE is creating an installation in the shape of an arch made of repeating rows of ‘Ka,’ the first letter of the Nepali alphabet. In Nepal, religious and sacred environments feature variations in the form of archways, which encourage passersby to look through and get blessings from the divine. IMAGINE’s sculpture will invite the public to interact and experience a meditation and “send” it out to the universe as they embark upon their pathways through Diversity Plaza.
YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY
Attributed to Woman’s Ceremonial Skirt (Tapis), Indonesia, Sumatra, Lampung, 16th–17th century. Cotton and silk; warp-faced plain weave, warp ikat, and embroidery. Yale University Art Gallery, Robert J. Holmgren and Anita E. Spertus Collection, Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
Nusantara: Six Centuries of Indonesian Textiles
September 12, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Opening Lecture: Living Cloth: Textiles and Society in Indonesia, Friday, Sept 25 from 5:30– 6:30pm (free)
Nusantara: Six Centuries of Indonesian Textiles presents one of Southeast Asia’s most significant artistic accomplishments: woven textiles. Exploring the ancient interisland links found in this culturally diverse maritime region, the exhibition features a wide array of textiles from the 14th to the 20th century drawn from the Yale University Art Gallery’s exceptional holdings—from the batiks of Java to the ikat of Sumba, and from ceremonial cloths and ritual weavings to clothing, shrouds, and architectural hangings. Nusantara—from the original name for the Indonesian archipelago—offers a broad overview of the rich imagery and technical mastery of this remarkable art form. Be sure to join all their related programming, including the opening lecture on Friday, September 25 with Barbara Watson Andaya, Emeritus Professor of Asian Studies, University of Hawai‘i.
