Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida

Asia Week New York is thrilled to welcome the Appleton Museum of Art as our newest cultural member! Founded in 1987 and located in Central Florida, the Appleton Museum of Art houses an extraordinary permanent collection of over 24,000 objects, complemented by outdoor sculptures, temporary exhibitions, and a dynamic calendar of special events throughout the year.

The 81,610-square-foot museum seamlessly blends classical and contemporary architecture, featuring clean lines and stately Italian travertine marble. The original building is centered around a serene interior courtyard and fountain, creating an inviting space for reflection and exploration.

Among its most notable holdings, the Appleton’s Asian art collection spans China, India, Japan, Tibet, and Southeast Asia. Highlights include Buddhist sculptures and textiles from China, Japan, India, Tibet, Thailand, and Burma; Chinese ceramics such as Tang Dynasty horses and guardian figures, rare celadon funerary vases, and examples of Chinese export art; as well as Japanese works ranging from delicate netsuke and Meiji-era bronzes to exquisite kimono.

Visitors shouldn’t miss the Appleton’s current exhibition, Exposition, Empire and Expression: Japanese Global Art 1870s–1970s, showcasing a century of Japanese art shaped by global exchange, from paintings and prints to sculpture and decorative arts.

“Benkei,” 1870s-1880s, Suzuki Chokichi (Japanese, 1848-1919), Japan, Meiji period (1868-1912), Bronze on wood base with gilding, 61 x 31 x 23 ½ in., Gift of Arthur I. Appleton, G12518

Exposition, Empire and Expression: Japanese Global Art 1870s-1970s
Ongoing

Commodore Matthew Perry (1794-1858) led two United States Navy expeditions to Japan in the 1850s to forcibly open global trade ports. Exposition, Empire and Expression showcases the impact over the subsequent century on Japanese artists and global art. Japanese bronze artists were highlighted at various World Fairs and international expositions in Europe and North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Alongside the global appetite for colorful woodblock prints, fairs also sold Japanese bronze masterworks inlaid with silver and gold to many wealthy art patrons and museums. From the early 1900s through 1940s, Japan’s industrial prowess and military forces impacted Japanese formal and everyday fashion. Iconic kimono ensembles adorned with ships, planes, trains and artillery aligned Japan’s citizens with Imperial empire-building goals in East Asia and beyond. In post-World War II Japan, avant-garde artists worked across multiple media styles and techniques to embrace global art trends such as experimental film and painting techniques like abstract expressionism.

To learn more about this exhibition, click here.