Hitoshi Fugo (b. 1947), KAMI 1, 2001, gelatin silver print, printed in 2022, 21 3/8 x 16 7/8 in (54.3 x 42.9 cm), edition of 10 plus 2 artist’s proofs, KAMI Series, titled, signed, and numbered on verso

Hitoshi Fugo: KAMI
Closing Saturday, June 1, 2024
24 East 64th Street, Third Floor, NYC

These are the last days to view MIYAKO YOSHINAGA’s final exhibition, Hitoshi Fugo: KAMI, before the gallery closes its location on Saturday, June 1st.

Japanese photographer Hitoshi Fugo (b. 1947)’s still-life studies explore a single subject’s nuanced multi-faceted expressions until the subject becomes detached from its category, meaning, or identity. He commits to an ongoing experimentation in dismantling these boundaries. This exhibition features one of his most ambitious yet long-silenced projects entitled KAMI. Paper in Japanese is kami, a homonym of god. The artist gave the title, KAMI, to this body of work, implying the absence of god in today’s destructive world.

In 2023, he attempted to document the end of that life cycle by burning the paper roll again on the shore, imagining its particles flying into the air like feathers peeling away. But this was not possible due to the weather. This series, in which he tried to capture the paper’s transformation by an irresistible external force, was shown only once in Japan in 2001 and has never been shown overseas until now. This exhibition includes 11 images from the series, two of which were photographed in 2023 of the same paper roll.

While the gallery will go nomadic and continue to work with their artists and clients in different capacities, be sure to visit their Upper East Side space and experience this captivating final show!

To learn more and view the works, click here.

Black Oribe Kutsugata Teabowl “Yama no Ha,” Momoyama – Early Edo Period, Early 17th c., Japan, diameter: 14 cm, courtesy Zetterquist Galleries

We are delighted to shine this week’s Gallery Spotlight on one of our AWNY founding members, Zetterquist Galleries. Well regarded for their collection of the finest Asian ceramics throughout the ages, the gallery was established by Eric J. Zetterquist in 1992 in New York City and is currently located next to Central Park on the Upper East Side.

Their clients include major museums and the most discerning collectors of Asian ceramics from around the world. While most Asian antiquities galleries choose one country and show several different media from that country, Zetterquist chose to show one medium, ceramics, but cover all of East Asia. The flow of materials with stylistic and technical influences around the region over the past 2,000 years tells a fascinating story that gets more exciting with time.

Their current Spring Collection of Ceramics is now on view and includes this Momoyama-early Edo Period (17th century) Black Oribe “Kutsugata” (shoe-shaped) Teabowl covered with a rich, unctuous black glaze. The design of seven circles encasing a geometric hourglass formed of two triangles joined at their points is based on “chikiri” or winding the warp on a loom.  Of particular note is an inscription at the bottom of the unglazed bowl in dark red by the 13th generation Omotesenke tea master Mujin Sousa “Sokuchusai” (1901-1979), who also inscribed the accompanying box “Yama no Ha” meaning Mountain’s Edge.

To view this piece along with their other fine ceramics, schedule an appointment by emailing [email protected]

Long cloth, kain panjang (detail), Jambi, Sumatra, 19th-early 20th c., cotton, hand-drawn batik; Private collection; Courtesy Thomas Murray

Ottoman Influences on Islamic Batik from Indonesia
Thursday, May 30th from 1-3pm PT
Virtual Zoom Lecture Sponsored by the Asian Arts Council
Hosted by The San Diego Museum of Art

Join Thomas Murray for this upcoming lecture on the long relationship between Indonesia and Turkey from the 16th century forward. Murray will consider the role of spice trade economics on European colonialism and Islamic local resistance and survey all forms of calligraphic batik, offering a new interpretation of their purpose, which suggests these cloths may have originated earlier than previously identified, and how this tradition continues in an interesting and unexpected ways.

All participants will be sent the Zoom link via confirmation email with instructions once they sign up, so be sure to secure your spot today!

To learn more and sign up, click here.

Joy Xiao Chen and Arnold Chang, Courtesy Fu Qiumeng Fine Art

Artist Talks | Conversation and Painting Demonstration with Arnold Chang
Sunday, May 26th, 2024
Artist Talk: 10:30-11:20am
Artist Demonstration: 11:30am-12:00pm
Free to Public, In-Person and Online
65 East 80th St, Ground Fl, NYC

Join Fu Qiumeng Fine Art this Sunday for their Artist Talks series with artist Arnold Chang and Joy Xiao Chen, exhibition curator of his solo show The Mountains Show and Hide: Color in the Landscape Paintings of Arnold Chang currently on view at the gallery.

A painting demonstration by Arnold Chang will commence after their morning discussion. Event details are as follows:

Artist Conversation:
In this dialogue, Chen and Chang will engage in conversation about the artist’s art-making process, from his most well-known monochromatic landscape paintings to more recent experimentation with color, the exhibition’s preparation, and things related to their collaborative stories that happened behind the scenes.

Painting Demonstration: 
In this demonstration with commentary, artist Arnold Chang will demonstrate his painting techniques, both ink and color, and present how he incorporates color into landscape creation or even replaces ink to achieve a “boneless” landscape.

The event is free and open to the public and will be conducted both onsite and online.

To RSVP for the in-person event, click here.

To register for the livestream event, click here.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Hitoshi Fugo: KAMI, Courtesy Miyako Yoshinaga

This week’s Gallery Spotlight shines brightly on Miyako Yoshinaga who opened their esteemed gallery in New York City 25 years ago this month.  Their current exhibition Hitoshi Fugo: KAMI, closing on June 1st, will be their “final” show before the gallery goes nomadic until further notice. They will continue to work with their artists and clients in different capacities as they embark on a new chapter in the art world.

In these last few weeks, be sure to visit their space for the solo exhibition of photographer Hitoshi Fugo. Featuring one of his most ambitious, yet long-silenced projects, KAMI is a still-life study of large burnt paper rolls that the artist salvaged from a printing factory fire in 1993. In 2001, Fugo began photographing the roll documenting each stage and progress of destruction, sometimes adding new physical forces such as cutting through a thick wall of paper with a chainsaw, which investigated the violence lurking within himself. The result is an unsettling yet fascinating visual rhapsody consisting of 31 black-and-white images that delves into the essence of paper, with its cut and burnt surfaces powerfully exposed.

Paper in Japanese is kami, a homonym of god. The artist gave the title, KAMI, to this body of work, implying the absence of god in today’s destructive world. The exhibition includes 11 images from the series, two of which were photographed in 2023 of the same paper roll.

To learn more and view the works, click here.

Installation view, KOGEI and Art, Courtesy Onishi Gallery

KOGEI and Art
and
Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett
Closing Friday, May 24, 2024

There is still time to visit Onishi Gallery’s current exhibitions – KOGEI and Art, marking the inauguration of KOGEI USA, a non-profit dedicated to the revitalization of Japan’s world-famous KOGEI (art crafts) and Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett celebrating Living National Treasure Inoue Manji and Japan based artist David Stanley Hewett before they close this Friday, the 24th.

KOGEI and Art celebrates contemporary practitioners who’s innovative use of materials and methods have stood the test of time and reflect an unrivaled dedication to technical perfection and refinement. Works in this exhibition include those in ceramics, metal, and lacquer by both well-established artists and newcomers to the field. Alongside masterpieces by “Living National Treasures” such as Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, Nakagawa Mamoru, Ōsumi Yukie, and Murose Kazumi, the exhibit includes recent work by Rusu Aki and Konno Tomoko, two younger women who are building international reputations with sculptural pieces that combine technical rigor with an inventive approach to materials and processes.

While in Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett, the two artists’ practices convey contrasting aspects of Japanese expression. Inoue Manji—a “Living National Treasure” and the embodiment of his country’s dedication to traditional philosophies, materials, and techniques—uses the purity of hakuji (white porcelain) to create works that offer a new perspective on Japanese minimalism, while David Stanley Hewett, an American living in Japan, works in the medium of finest Japanese gold leaf applied to canvas or wood, preserving and re-imagining a heritage of gorgeous decoration with its roots in elite samurai culture.

Be sure to stop by and take in the beauty of all these works on view this week!

To learn more, click here.

Copyright The Artist; Courtesy INKstudio

Observing My Distant Self: Kang Chunhui
May 25 – August 18, 2024
Red No. 1-B1 Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing

INKstudio is pleased to present Observing My Distant Self: Kang Chunhui, marking the artist’s premiere solo exhibition at the gallery. Offering an immersive journey into a crucial juncture in her artistic development, the exhibition unfolds in two distinct sections: “Observing My Distant Self” and “Undeniably Me.”

Occupying the entirety of INKstudio’s ground floor, Observing My Distant Self 73°40′E～96°23′E 34°25′N～48°10′N, 2019-2023, is an expansive eight-part multimedia project responding to Kang’s childhood dream in the form of a metaphorical pilgrimage to the Western Regions. Eight 6’6”-long videos place an aspect of Kang’s artistic practice in spatial dialog with a location in Xinjiang selected by Kang for its historical, sociological, and cultural significance. On her pilgrimage Kang makes eight stops: the Kumtag Desert, Lop Nur, Bosten Lake, Tarim Poplar Forest, Kuqa Old Town, Tianshan Grand Canyon, Kizilgaha Beacon, and the Kizil Caves. Throughout her journey, Kang explores the boundaries between place, history, memory, self and creativity, conceiving them not as rigid territories but as expansive areas for exploration, exchange, synthesis and transformation.

On INKstudio’s third floor, Kang debuts new works in her Post-Modern synthesis of historical Central and East-Asian polychrome painting styles. In the latest works of her signature Sumeru series, she continues her alchemical exploration of mineral and organic red pigments through the form and metaphysical theme of the fold.  In The Hidden Protagonist: Mount Fuchun she transgresses the traditional boundary between xieyi or “calligraphically expressive” and gongbi or “meticulously descriptive” painting while interrogating the dialogical relationship between self and history through the landscape.

Kang Chunhui is a female visual artist born in Urumqi and educated in Seoul who has entered the hallowed grounds of the literati landscape—populated since its inception exclusively by men—to assert herself as a contemporary artist with an uncompromising, distinctly feminine vision. She describes her approach as a form of homage, not to the masters of the past, but to her own emotional connection to nature itself. In the end, Kang Chunhui, undeniably herself, ends up her own “hidden protagonist.”

To learn more and view her works, click here.