Dish with Three Jars. Edo period (1615–1868), 1680–90s. Porcelain with cobalt under and polychrome enamels over a transparent glaze (Hizen ware, Nabeshima type), H. 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm); Diam. 6 in. (15.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975 (1975.268.563). Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In addition to the extraordinary gallery exhibitions and auction house viewings, begin planning your Asia Week New York schedule with this highlighted selection of Asian art museum exhibitions on view throughout New York City and the surrounding region. Many will feature opening receptions or related programs, which are also listed in our Calendar of Events here. Start exploring now and make the most of these upcoming weeks celebrating Asian art across the city!
Shiva as Vinadhara (Player of the Vina). India, Tamil Nadu; Chola period, about 970. Copper alloy. H. 27 3/4 in. (70.5 cm); W. 17 5/8 in. (44.8 cm); D. 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm). Asia Society, New York: Gift of Hope Aldrich, 2024. Courtesy Asia Society
Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy
March 18, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Members-Only Opening: Tuesday, March 17, 5:30-8:45pm
Patrons-Only Preview: Tuesday, March 17, 5:30 – 6:30pm
Displaying seventy of the finest examples of Asian art in the United States drawn from Asia Society’s permanent collection, the exhibition showcases the extraordinary range of bronzes, ceramics, and metalwork thoughtfully assembled between the 1950s and the 1970s by John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1906-1978) and his wife Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller (1909-1992). With highlights including spectacular Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, and rare Chinese, Korean, and Japanese ceramics, this exhibition celebrates historic achievements in Asian art spanning more than two millennia.
Recent Acquisitions from Hope Aldrich and Sandra Ferry Rockefeller
and
Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller and the Rockefeller Collection
Concurrently on view with Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy are two companion displays. The first features recent acquisitions from Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd’s daughters Hope Aldrich and Sandra Ferry Rockefeller, along with five comparative pieces from Asia Society Museum’s permanent collection. In addition, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller and the Rockefeller Collection, on display in the Visitors Center, includes works Mrs. Rockefeller gave to the museum after the foundational bequest in 1979.
Photograph from the opera Farewell, My Concubine, performed in the U.S., 1930, digital image, collection of Chinese National Academy of Arts, ©Chinese National Academy of Arts. Courtesy Chinese Institute Gallery
The Dancing Goddess: Mei Lanfang in America
March 12 – July 12, 2026
Curator’s Talk: Mar. 12, 6:30–8pm
Asia Week New York Open House: March 26, 2026, 10am-8pm (free admission with light refreshments)
Step into the vibrant world of Mei Lanfang, the 20th-century’s greatest performer of Peking Opera, whose sensational 1930 American tour forever changed the landscape of modern theater. In celebration of China Institute’s centennial, this exhibition revisits this milestone of Sino-American cultural exchange, a pivotal moment sponsored by the Institute itself. Featuring an extraordinary collection of his revolutionary stage costumes, rare photographs, original production materials, and artwork that illuminate the breadth of his creative genius.
(From left to right): Vase, probably 19th century, Famille noire porcelain, 27 x 10 1/2 in., Henry Clay Frick Bequest @ The Frick Collection; Dragon Jars with Cover (Pair), Qing Dynasty (1644−1911), Kangxi Period (1662−1722), Hard-paste porcelain with underglaze blue, 3 3/8 x 3 9/16 in. Bequest of Childs Frick in memory of Frances Dixon Frick, 1965 @ The Frick Collection; Vase, Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong Period (1735-1796), Hard-paste porcelain with polychrome overglaze and underglaze blue, 21 x 10 1/2″ @The Frick Pittsburgh. Courtesy The Frick Collection
Looking East from Fifth Avenue: Chinese Porcelain at The Frick Collection
Friday, March 20, 2026 from 6–7pm
Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium
Free with registration
Join Yifu Liu, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, for an illuminating lecture tracing the evolution of Chinese porcelain at The Frick Collection—from Henry Clay Frick’s earliest acquisitions to the museum’s most recent additions. Alongside the famille noire vases, polychrome enameled jars, and mounted wares that Frick cherished, the lecture will introduce lesser-known yet highly valuable imperial porcelain from the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns; blue-and-white wares from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; and Kangxi export dishes produced for European markets. Liu will examine the historical circumstances surrounding the formation of Frick’s porcelain collection, reevaluate its cultural relevance today, and explore its relationship with the European art for which the museum is best known.
Kawai Kanjirō, Dish with motif of hand and flower on white ground, 1951. Collection of Kawai Kanjirō House. Photo courtesy of Kawai Kanjirō House
Kawai Kanjirō: House to House
March 10 – May 10, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 18 at 5pm (kindly RSVP)
Kawai Kanjirō’s Way of Tea Talk & Tea Ceremony: Thursday, March 19 at 10am, 11:30am, 1pm
JASA Annual Lecture: Sunday, March 22 at 11am
This solo exhibition celebrates the remarkable life and career of folk potter, poet, and artist Kawai Kanjirō (1890–1966) for the first time in the United States. Kawai is best known for his influential role in the mingei (folk art) movement in Japan, which he founded in the mid-1920s with his friends, the philosopher Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961) and the potter Hamada Shōji (1894–1978). Showcasing representative works from Kawai’s personal collection that are rarely seen outside his former home (now a museum known as the Kawai Kanjirō House), the exhibit traces the evolution from the artist’s early functional ceramic ware to his late-career modernist wood sculptures.
JAPANESE ART SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Lecture and Annual Meeting: We Do Not Work Alone: Kawai Kanjirō and Ceramics in Modern Kyoto
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Lecture at 11am & Annual Meeting at 12pm
Japan Society, 333 E. 47th St. NYC
Preceding JASA’s annual meeting at noon, Meghen Jones, Professor of Art History at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University will give the talk We Do Not Work Alone: Kawai Kanjirō and Ceramics in Modern Kyoto. Kindly sign-up in advance. If attending in person for the Annual Meeting in person, register here. If attending by Zoom for the Annual Meeting, register here. If attending the 11am lecture via Zoom, register here.
Ran Hwang, Return to Nature #1 (detail), 2025; Image courtesy of the Artist
Ran Hwang | Noble Blossoms
Through April 17, 2026
Artist Talk: Friday, March 20, 2026 at 6pm
In her solo exhibition, Ran Hwang presents large-scale installations that are both intricate and poetic, delicate yet dramatic, as they explore the cyclical patterns of life and the fleeting nature of beauty. Hwang creates her art through a meticulous and repetitive process, utilizing everyday materials such as paper buttons and pins. This requires intense concentration and discipline, reflecting the meditative state of Zen masters and the spiritual values traditionally sought by scholars of the past. Through her work, Hwang evokes a sense of tranquility, inviting the viewer into an experience that seeks fulfillment and peace.
Buhm Hong, Memory Weeds (2016–2025), razor-cut acrylic installation. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy Korean Cultural Center NY
Choong Sup Lim: In Between
February 19 – April 12, 2025
The Korean Cultural Center New York is proud to present 사 잇 In Between, an exhibition celebrating the profound artistic legacy of Choong Sup Lim (b. 1941). Lim’s work transcends the boundaries of nature and civilization, tradition and modernity, Korea and New York, illuminating the transformative potential of the liminal spaces where these realms converge. Central to Lim’s work is the use of found objects, which serve as vessels of memory and time. His recent installations, marked by intricate craftsmanship, merge Korean sensibilities with contemporary relevance, offering a profound meditation on cultural duality and artistic reinvention.
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Subramaniyan with his consorts Valli and Devasena (detail), Ravi Varma Press, c. 1900–1915, Color lithograph, varnish. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of Asian Art, 2021
In addition to their many Asian art exhibitions on view, join their Annual Distinguished Lecture on the Arts of South and Southeast Asia on Friday, March 14!
Gods at the Gate of Modernity—Religious Arts in Colonial Calcutta
Friday, March 20, 2026, 6-7pm
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
In Calcutta, the cosmopolitan colonial capital of 19th-century India, artists and artisans adapted new technologies of mechanical reproduction to render the Hindu gods more accessible and affordable. During this time, they pioneered the chromolithographic religious print, a form of popular devotional imagery that became ubiquitous in twentieth-century India. This lecture explores how this new genre emerged and proliferated into the pervasive visual language of modern India.
Household Gods: Hindu Devotional Prints, 1860–1930
Through June 27, 2027
Household Gods: Hindu Devotional Prints, 1860–1930 presents the first encyclopedic exhibition of these chromolithographic prints from the pioneering studio presses of Calcutta (Kolkata), Poona (Pune), and Bombay (Mumbai). These mass-produced prints became a powerful means of expressing Indian religious identity at a time when the country was experiencing the first stirrings of the Independence movement.
The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics
Through August 8, 2027
This exhibition explores Japan’s extensive and rich history of ceramic art through approximately 350 extraordinary works presented in themes that offer fresh perspectives on the diverse forms and functions, from everyday tableware to vessels created for tea masters and elite households to modern sculptural compositions.
Celebrating the Year of the Horse
Through January 26, 2027
This exhibition brings together works from The Met Collection to explore the horse’s enduring nature and vital place in Chinese civilization. In Chinese popular culture, horses are among the most celebrated animals, and in the spiritual realm they serve as noble mounts for divine guardians believed to bring joy, protection, and prosperity to the household. This presentation, featuring a range of expressive works in ceramics, glass, jade, and metal, and woodblock prints, illuminates these roles while celebrating the horse’s power, vitality, and spirit.
Colorful Korea: The Lea R. Sneider Collection
Through February 16, 2026
Over the course of forty years, Lea R. Sneider (1925–2020) formed a significant collection of Korean art that challenged established norms. This exhibition features a substantial gift and loans from the Lea R. Sneider Collection, featuring approximately 100 works spanning the fifth century to the present. Through paintings, ceramics, furniture, textiles, and funerary and ritual objects, the exhibition explores the enduring presence of auspicious symbolism and the understated dynamism that define Korean art.
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM
Toshiko Takaezu, Sunrise Egg, ca. 2003–4, refired 2006. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of the artist. © Toshiko Takaezu. Photo: Bruce M. White. Courtesy Princeton University Art Museum
Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay
October 31, 2025 – July 5, 2026
David Nasher Haemisegger Gallery
Drawing from the museum’s collection including some recent gifts, the works featured in these galleries span more than five hundred years from 1500 to the present and vary in mediums from painting to ceramics. They showcase the evolution and expansion of artistic expressions of the land in Japan, and offer glimpses into the shifting cultural and social landscapes as well.
Journeys Real and Imagined in East Asian Art
Ongoing
South Asian Art
Ongoing
Trade and the Arts of Islam
Ongoing
Installation view, About a Living Culture at Diversity Plaza, Jackson Heights, NYC. Photo by Nicholas Knight, courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art
About a Living Culture
Through September 13, 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. In her first public art sculpture, IMAGINE’s installation is 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.
CHARLES B. WANG CENTER AT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
Sacred Paper: Korean Ritual Artsnju Seo
March 9 – May 24, 2026
Opening Reception: Monday, Mar 9, 5-7pm (kindly RSVP)
Lecture: Monday, Mar 9 at 4pm
Demonstrations: Monday, Mar 9 at 5:30pm
Korea’s ritual paper arts reveal a remarkably inventive tradition in which humble mulberry paper becomes an expressive material of extraordinary range. Sacred Paper: Korean Ritual Arts highlights two regional practices that transform fragile fibers into complex sculptural forms. \ Shown together, these works celebrate paper’s versatility, regional diversity, and enduring craftsmanship.
omposite image: (top) Vishnu Reclining on the Serpent Ananta (Endless One); Cambodia, Siem Reap province, second half of 11th century; bronze, mercury gilding; National Museum of Cambodia, Phnom Penh; Photograph by Mario Ciampi, © Guicciardini & Magni Architetti / (bottom) Still from the short film Awkun; National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Film by praCh Ly
Vishnu’s Cosmic Ocean
Through September 7, 2026
At the dawn of time, the Hindu god Vishnu slept on a coiled serpent floating in the primordial ocean. There, he dreamed the universe into existence. This magnificent story of creation comes to life through the largest bronze ever cast in Southeast Asia, now on loan from the National Museum of Cambodia. For the first time in centuries, you can experience this sculpture’s full monumental scale: a breathtaking six meters long (nearly twenty feet). Only the head and torso have been displayed since 1936, when the sculpture was found buried in a pit with dozens of loose bronze fragments. A team of international experts has recently conserved and reconnected the body’s remnants after decades of scientific research.
Twin Breezes, 2008, Miyashita Zenji (Japanese, 1939 – 2012), glazed stoneware with colored-clay bands. Purchased with the East Asian Art Revolving Fund and with funds contributed by Maxine de S. Lewis, 2024-9-1. Photography by Richard Goodbody, Courtesy of Joan B Mirviss LTD. Courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art
Visions of the Land in Japan
Through April 20, 2026
Drawing from the museum’s collection including some recent gifts, the works featured in these galleries span more than five hundred years from 1500 to the present and vary in mediums from painting to ceramics. They showcase the evolution and expansion of artistic expressions of the land in Japan, and offer glimpses into the shifting cultural and social landscapes as well.
Fantastical Creatures of Asia
Ongoing
This exhibition brings together works that explore how artists across time and region have imagined the supernatural to express cultural values, spiritual beliefs, and contemporary concerns. Together, they reveal Asia’s enduring fascination with fantastical beings and the powerful stories they convey.