Wang Mansheng (born 1962), Deep in the Mountains Searching for Ancient Trees, No. 5, 2014,
ink on paper, 71 x 38.5 in.

Wang Mansheng's Moonlight on Stones Curated by Dr. Chao Ling,
Fu Qiumeng Fine Art
Concludes July 23, 2022

Moonlight on Stones is the gallery’s first solo exhibition devoted to the Asian-American landscape artist Wang Mansheng (born 1962). Wang uses self-invented organic painting materials, in addition to conventional ones, to explore contemporary forms of landscape and finds enchanting and enlightening visual structures to embody his perception of nature.

Moonlight on Stones features 19 paintings selected from Wang’s Night Mountain and Ancient Trees series. These artworks, executed between 2008 and the present, are on display for the first time. Each work in the Night Mountain collection is inspired by a line from classical Chinese poetry. The relationship between text and image–a traditional scope–has been enacted in a novel way through the artist’s sensitivity and intellectual interests. The Ancient Trees collection represents his consideration of longevity and form. In intimate contact with the ecosystem of the Hudson River Valley, he makes brushes and ink out of local organic materials to paint objects found in the area while demonstrating his reflections on lines, shape and texture.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Chao Ling, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong. An exhibition catalog is available online, in which his introductory essay is included, as well as other print and video materials. Read more, click here

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Oki Toshie, Daybreak, 2015, madake bamboo, rattan, 5.25 x 11.75 x 5.75 in.

Oki Toshie, TAI Modern
Last day July 23, 2022

Born in Gunma in 1976, Okie Toshie studied under Iizuka Shokansai. Since she began exhibiting her works in 2002, she has maintained an active schedule of shows, won several important awards, and has had her work enter several museums, including the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon. Most recently, some of her creations were included in Masterpieces of Bamboo Art: Katsushiro Soho and Fujinuma Noboru at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts in Utsunomiya in 2020.

Commenting on her work, Okie remarked, “It is a joy for me to create my artwork. At the same time, it is painful. Every time I push my creative boundaries, I hit walls of resistance. This makes me realize how incompetent I am and how much there is still to learn. On top of that, it shows a part of me that I want to hide. This process is, however, a necessary part of my life just as eating and sleeping are. I chose to work in the Traditional Craft Organization which has many rules and regulations that limit working in more sculptural forms. Despite this, I am very comfortable working within this restrained freedom to express myself.”

An informative and fully illustrated online catalogue is available on TAI Modern's website. Read more, click here.

Hanbok: Gender, Class, and Modernity, Korea Society
Online lecture, July 21, 6pm

Riding the Korean Wave sweeping the world, the traditional Korean costumes have become increasingly visible in global media. In 2021, hanbok-the generic term referring to traditional style Korean clothing-was registered in the Oxford English Dictionary. In this comprehensive series of lectures, Dr. Minjee Kim, the preeminent scholar of Korean textile and fashion in the U.S., illustrates and elucidates hanbok in sartorial, socio-cultural, and historical contexts.

In this third lecture which will wrap up the exploration of hanbok as a new lexicon of world fashion, Dr. Kim will discuss how the notions of gender and class shaped dress practice in Joseon and their modern transitions up to the twenty-first century.

Read more and register, click here

Samurai armor from the Inaba clan, early Edo period (1615–1867)

Giuseppe Piva Japanese Art, which is based in Milan, Italy, has just announced the acquisition of several important and appealing Japanese works of art. At the top of the list is this fine example of tosei gusoku (modern armor), a type that was common throughout the time period but had certain significant innovations added. It was owned by the Inaba clan, who originated in 16th century Mino province and during the Edo period were named daimyō of large and strategic provinces. In addition to this fine suit of armor, Giuseppe Piva has also added several impressive swords and sword furnishings.

Jugyoku II, Large wood netsuke of a Nio guardian, late 19th century, L. 5.8 cm

For those looking for more decorative works of art, the gallery has dramatic paintings and finely crafted three-dimensional art works. A particularly skillfully rendered example is this Large Wood Netsuke of a Nio Guardian. Carved in the late 19th century by Jugyoku II, this powerful and energetic muscular guardian deity is shown wearing a billowing shawl and sitting on a straw sandal, while he pulls on a long rope.

For more information about these and other fine items, click here.

Wada, Waichisai III (1899-1975), Flower Basket, 1945-72, madake, rattan, wood and urushi covered metal beads, object: 12.5 x 11 x 12 in. Collection of Carl & Marilynn Thoma, © Artist or artist estate, courtesy of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, photo by TAI Modern

Creative Splendor: Japanese Bamboo Baskets from the Thoma Collection,
San Antonio Museum of Art July 15, 2022-January 2, 2024

Creative Splendor: Japanese Bamboo Baskets from the Thoma Collection is a series of three installations of approximately fifteen baskets, each, that will survey the outstanding accomplishments of Japanese basket makers active since the nineteenth century to the present day from three regions of Japan: the Kansai region, which encompasses the ancient capital, Kyoto; the Kanto region, which stretches westward from Tokyo; and the southernmost island of Kyushu. The exhibition demonstrates the specific techniques and styles of cutting and weaving bamboo that are particular to each of these geographic regions.

Follower of Lin Liang (ca. 1428-ca. 1495), Hawk Pursuing Water Birds, hanging scroll,
ink and color on silk, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1919.146

Falcons: Art of the Hunt, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Final day July 17, 2022

Swift, fierce, and loyal, falcons have been celebrated for millennia. In ancient Egypt, they were closely associated with Horus, the god of the heavens. By the early eighth century in Syria, falcons were being trained to become skillful hunters at the royal courts. The art of falconry soon spread across the rest of the Islamic world, to the Byzantine empire in the west, and to the east as far as China. It is still practiced in many societies today, especially in the Arab world.

Ganesh Haloi, Scroll 21, 2021, gouache and Chinese ink stick on Japanese scroll paper, 53.25 x 13.75 inches

The Architectonics of Form: Scrolls by Ganesh Haloi, Akar Prakar
In person in Kolkata and online, July 16, 2022

Sound encompasses both time and space, weaving the two into complex structures of material manifestation that we experience and express as forms through our sensorial perceptions (smell, taste, see, feel and hear). The scrolls by Ganesh Haloi, are cartographic mappings of the layered sensations that have impressed upon him for decades. Beginning with the steady lyricism of Ajanta murals, resonant whispers of the varying landscapes, the rhythmicity of the alpana forms, structurality of manmade interventions and the poetics of space.

Ganesh Haloi (b.1936) was born in Jamalpur, Mymensingh(in present-day Bangladesh). He moved to Calcutta in 1950 following the partition. The trauma of displacement left its mark on his work as it did on some other painters of his generation. Since then his art has exhibited an innate lyricism coupled with a sense of nostalgia for a lost world. In 1956, he graduated from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta. In the next year he was appointed by the Archaeological Survey of India to make copies of Ajanta murals. Seven years later, Haloi returned to Calcutta. From 1963 until his retirement, he taught at the Government College of Art and Craft. He is a member of The Society of Contemporary Artists, Calcutta since 1971, and lives and works in Calcutta.

To view the exhibition, click here

David Or, Moon Mandala [No. 20]

David Orr: Radiance + Reflection, Tibet House US
Last day July 17, 2022

This exhibition integrates two primary bodies of work which evoke interconnection and impermanence: Mandala Lunae, photographs of the moon, repeated and arranged in geometric patterns via digital reflection, and ILLUMINED, a series wherein photographs of sacred manuscripts, texts, and sūtras—from myriad traditions—have been reconfigured into purely visual forms. In both series, the visual modifications are key, transforming the original subjects into contemplative forms.

The catalogue for the exhibition is available online, click here.

Dominique Paul (born 1967), Insects of Surinam 13, 2013, archival pigment print on
Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 12 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm), Edition 3 of 6

Lasting Life: Works by Dominique Paul and José Luis Fariñas
MIYAKO YOSHINAGA
July 6-August 5, 2022
Opening Reception: Wednesday, July 13, 6-8pm

This exhibition features a selection of works by Canadian artist Dominique Paul and Cuban artist José Luis Fariñas. Both artists utilize insects–bees, butterflies, etc.–as a metaphor for the changing nature of human existence. Paul's opulent photographic prints concern the biological and ecological coexistence of humans and insects, whereas Farinãs's intricate ink-and-watercolor drawings deal with the introspective and philosophical implications of their coexistence.

Dominique Paul (born 1967) is fascinated by the transformation of the human body as a result of physical exercise, plastic surgery, or genetic engineering. This once controversial but now congenial notion of body transformation informs Paul’s fantastical invention of hybrid creatures. She combines the elements of human bodies with those of plants and insects in her “Insects of Suriname” series. The lacy cutouts of bodybuilder’s flesh are buoyed by colorful consumer products, all found in various magazines. These surrealistic scenes of chaos share a background of cutout collage images of flora and insects by Maria S. Merian, a Baroque-era naturalist. Taking the form of a botanical mandala, Paul strives to express a sense of urgency and questions the durability of the entire ecosphere in these times of human exploitation of the planet’s resources.

José Luis Fariñas (born 1972), On the Backyard of the Sky (Soul's Documents), 2012, fine brush and watercolor on paper, 18 7/8 x 14 1/8 in. (48 x 35.6 cm)

José Luis Fariñas (born 1972) explores the subjects of chaos, infinity, and transmutation in philosophical and biblical allusions in ink-and-watercolor drawings. These images are threaded together through Fariñas’s singular vision of the universe, in which our conflicted reality is successively metamorphosing. Unlike Paul whose work is informed by scientific observation, Fariñas invents an array of symbolic motifs to fortify this vision. He repeatedly portrays a half-human half-insect creature such as a winged old man with insect antennae in nightmarish scenarios, as well as an egg that is metaphorically the birth of the universe. In the mysterious surroundings of human life, Fariñas sees the eternal cycle of our emotional ups and downs without end.

The gallery’s summer hours are Tuesday–Friday, 12 noon–6 pm.

Read more, click here

Fukami Sueharu 深見 陶治 (born 1947), Untitled, 1985, with signed wood box, celadon porcelain on wood base, H. 6.2 x W. 18 x D. 2 in. (15.7 x 45.7 x 5.0 cm)

Modern Splendor: Exceptional Contemporary Japanese Ceramics,
Dai Ichi Arts Ltd.
July 11-August 31, 2022

Dai Ichi Arts' summer show features splendid works by Modern Japanese ceramic artists who are masters of their craft in technique and aesthetic sensibilities. This summer show includes works of art in clay by Fukami Sueharu, Yoshikawa Masamichi, Kawase Shinobu, Imanishi Masaya, Shimizu Keiichi, Mihara Ken, & more.

Read more, click here