Paying attention to every detail, Heakyum Kim of HK Art and Antiques LLC makes sure Wonsook Kim's Shadow a Bird is free of dust and fingerprints.

Preparing the exhibitions and auctions that comprise Asia Week involves a myriad number of details—many hours of work, an enormous amount of collaboration, lots of cleaning, and checking-checking-checking. And because the best display has little meaning without visitors, there is no such thing as too much marketing and promotional efforts.

Next week, everything will come together—online and in person—and we all eagerly look forward to gather together……after a long delay!……and enjoy wonderful Asian artworks and each other's company.

Bonhams prepares their galleries, as Bruce Maclaren (left) hangs calligraphy from Richard Fabian's collection

Asia Week New York has assembled a number of features to provide you the information you need, so that you are sure not to miss a thing!
•Daily Digest — an email list of day’s events, plus a bonus round-up, March 15-26. Check your daily email box.
•Calendar — AWNY’s website has a new feature for Asia Week that lists all events each day, click here
•Map — find out where each participating member is located, click here
•Comprehensive list —This blog post has expanded to include all exhibitions and events, organized by date and by category (galleries/auctions/museums), click here
•Participant’s pages and daily blog posts — stay tuned to our daily online news posts and participant’s pages for the latest and most detailed information.

Jayashree Chakravarty, Pulsating, 2020-2021, acrylic, oil, audiotape, plant bark, paper and synthetic adhesive on canvas

Jayashree Chakravarty: Feeling the Pulse (in the pandemic year)
Akar Prakar
Online exhibition, March 15-April 15

On March 15th Akar Prakar will debut their newest online exhibition Jayashree Chakravarty: Feeling the Pulse (in the pandemic year). As explained by Roobina Karode, director and chief curator of KNMA, “Feeling the pulse and sensing all is well has become a preoccupation emphasized more than ever before, with disruptions and disaster that have drawn us to witness sudden, inexplicable loss, extreme vulnerability and anxiety all around. Jayashree has been seeking recuperative energies through her art-making, using grass and roots, seeds and mud, imagining sproutings of a new life from within the fertile tending of her canvas.”

Jayashree Chakravarty, Soaring, 2021, acrylic, oil, paper, audiotape, seeds, synthetic adhesive, shell flakes on canvas

Jayashree Chakravarty, who was born in 1956 and now lives in Kolkata, studied first at Visva Bharati, amidst the sprawling natural environs of Santiniketan, and then at the Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University, Baroda, where she was exposed to an urban sensibility. From 1993-95, she was artist-in-residence at Aix en Provence, where she was influenced in the formative years of her practice by the French movement Supports/Surfaces, especially the work of Claude Viallat. Inventing her own creative techniques, using organic material and varied kinds of paper, her installations in the form of paper scrolls remain unique in their conceptions and execution.

Founded in 2004 by Reena and Abhijit Lath, Akar Prakar traces its roots to a family of Indian modern and contemporary art collectors, spanning three generations. Engaging in transcultural histories through collaborations with international museums and curators, Akar Prakar has created a space for indigenous representations from Indian modern and contemporary artists. Operating between its two galleries, in Kolkata and New Delhi, and participating in shows and projects throughout the world, Akar Prakar curates narratives drawn from the subcontinent’s modern and contemporary art movements. Recently, they have expanded their curatorial focus to include emerging and historical narratives of Southeast Asian art and culture.

Read more, click here

Gomai-dō tosei gusoku with “Kyu” kamon, Mid-Edo period, 18th century

Japanese Art and Antiques, Giuseppe Piva Japanese Art
March 16-25, 2022
Opening reception, Friday, March 18, 5-9pm

Exhibiting at:
Adam Williams Fine Art
24 East 80th Street
New York 10075

This season Giuseppe Piva returns to New York from his base in Milan with an exceptional array of Japanese armor, ceramics, paintings, and metalwares. Each item is presented with the gallery's thorough research that explains its history, artistic importance, and aesthetic sensibilities.

Jizai Okimono, A russet-iron articulated figure of a hawk, Edo period, 19th century

One of the highlights of this season's exhibition is a jizai okimono in the form of an alert hawk. Jizai okimono are realistically shaped figures of animals. Their bodies and limbs are articulated, and can be moved like real animals; among these figures are found models of dragons, birds, fish, snakes, lobsters, crabs and insects. This iron hawk, constructed of numerous hammered plates jointed inside the body, can move its head, wings and claws remarkably smoothly. Its finely chiseled feathers move individually and can spread, which enhances its realistic appearance.

The fearsome beauty and predatory features of hawks, with their sharp beaks, keen eyes, long curving talons, made them metaphors of martial training and the warrior spirit since the Muromachi period. Samurai found in the brave and daring nature of these birds a congenial expression of their ideals, and hawks became a preferred theme in painting. To collect and maintain fine hawks constituted a status-symbol of the warrior class.

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Osumi Yukie (b. 1945), Silver Plate Bogetsu (Full Moon), 1994, hammered silver with nunomezōgan (textile imprint inlay) decoration in lead and gold, H. 2 1/4 x Dia. 17 3/4 in. (5.7 x 45 cm)

The Eternal Beauty of Metal, Onishi Gallery
March 16-23
Opening reception March 17, 5-8pm

In celebration of Asia Week New York March 2022, Onishi Gallery presents their anticipated exhibition The Eternal Beauty of Metal. The exhibition’s title reflects the philosophy of Ōsumi Yukie—Japan’s first female Living National Treasure in metal art. Yukie articulates, “ . . . something particularly meaningful about the way that metals can substitute the permanent for the fleeting and transitory, conferring eternity on phenomena that would otherwise have a limited lifespan.” The exhibit features vessels made from gold, silver, platinum, copper, lead, and unique Japanese alloys that are worked using techniques including casting, chiseling, hammering, and overlay.

The Eternal Beauty of Metal showcases the beauty behind these contemporary artists' masterpieces, while enhancing distinct personal modes of expression, unified together by their embrace of traditional methods. Select metalwork artists will be displayed in this exhibit, among artists featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current exhibit, Japan: A History of Style.

Sako Ryuhei (b. 1976), Mokume-gane Vase 03, 2020, silver, copper, shakudo (alloy-copper, gold) and shibuichi(alloy-copper, silver), H. 9 5/8 x Dia. 6 in. (24.5 x 15 cm.)

The gallery's website includes much engaging information and videos about these art works, the artists that make them, and the techniques employed. Read more, click here

Woman’s Ceremonial Skirt, tapis inuh cumi cumi, Paminggir People, Lampung, 19th century, cotton, silk; embroidery, warp ikat, 50.5 x 45.5 in. (128 x 116 cm.)

Important Indian, Indonesian and Other Textiles and Masks: Inspiration and Interpretation, Thomas Murray
Online and in person by appointment, March 16-25

This Asia Week, Thomas Murray, who is based in California, hosts a display of important textiles and masks on his gallery website. For collectors with particular interest, he also has available a choice selection for examination by appointment in New York.

A number of the textiles are drawn from his new publication, Textiles of Indonesia, which presents an array of traditional weavings from the Indonesian archipelago and provides a unique window into the region's cultures, rites, and history. The objects comprise ritual clothing and ceremonial cloths that tell us much about the traditions of pre-Islamic Indonesian cultures, as well as about the influences of regional trade with China, India, the Arab world, and Europe.

L-R: 1. Nuo Mask, Minority Areas, Southwest China, 19th/ early 20th century, wood, pigment, fiber; 2. Court Mask of a Hero, with Old Label, Cirebon, West Java, 19th/early 20th century, wood, pigment, leather; 3. Apa Mask “The Father” Character, Monpa or Sherdukpen People, Arunachal Pradesh or Bhutan, 19th century or earlier, wood, pigment

Thomas Murray is currently also offering an exceptional exhibition of masks from numerous tribal groups, ranging from the Himalayas to Indonesia, even a Swiss mask from a remote Alpen valley. These striking images are crafted of a variety of materials, including wood, metal, and papier mache.

Read more, click here

Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958), Monumental standing zigzag monolith with pâte de verre cast clear and black glass titled, “Wave”, 2021, marbleized porcelain, “silver mist” overglaze, cast glass, removable stainless-steel base, 60 5/8 x 10 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.

Kondō Takahiro: Making Waves, Joan B Mirviss LTD
March 16-April 22, 2022

After six years of planning, acclaimed contemporary artist Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958) presents his latest solo exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD this spring for Asia Week New York. These thirty new sculptures in swirling whirlpools of black, gray, and white marbleized porcelain glisten with ‘silver mist’ that resembles morning dew. His signature gintekisai (silver mist) overglaze technique finds new expression here as he plays with scale in striking geometric forms that catch light from daring angles. In a departure from his earlier “Wave” artworks, Kondō incorporates a whiter clay into his marbleization (nerikomi) technique. Its combination with the darker clay that seemingly flows down the surfaces creates an ink-on-paper effect, transforming his sculptures into what he calls “porcelain ink paintings”. From major zig-zagging rhomboidal monoliths to glass-capped vessels to wondrous teabowls, the incomparable skill and singular creativity of master artist Kondō Takahiro is on full display in Making Waves.

Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958), A standing rectangular marbleized form titled, Nami; “Wave”, 2021, marbleized porcelain, “silver mist” overglaze 18 1/8 x 7 x 4 1/2 in.

As an artist, Kondō Takahiro has always been focused on water, especially as a life-giving and spiritual force. However, following the devastating 3.11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Kondō gained new perspective on the dichotomy of water’s creative and destructive powers. Reflecting on the many aspects of water since then, Kondō has returned in Making Waves to this inherent tension. On some of his smaller table-top forms, the blending of the clay in pooling thin layers of gray and black, set against the white ground, conjures gentle, lapping tides. On larger sculptures, the swirling layers plummet downwards, evoking powerful rapids and crashing waterfalls; additionally, the capping or angled joining of large porcelain sections with clear and black cast-glass punctuated with air bubbles suggest floating seaweed.

ZOOM online panel discussion
MAKING WAVES
with artist Kondō Takahiro
March 17, 2022 at 5pm EDT
In celebration of his latest exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD, the artist Kondō Takahiro will join us live from Kyoto for an in-depth discussion with a panel of experts. Reflecting on the many aspects of water, Kondō's latest striking sculptures are masterful explorations of his marbleized clay (nerikomi) technique married with his signature “silver mist” (gintekisai) overglaze. Reimagining clay's relationship to another classical art form, ink painting, Kondō finds resonance in their shared origins in water.

This event brings the artist together in conversation with design historian and curator Glenn Adamson, former Director of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, and scholar and curator Joe Earle, formerly of the V&A, MFA Boston, and Japan Society. They will discuss his creative process, the challenges posed by his sculptures, and his fascinating legacy.

PANELISTS:
KONDŌ TAKAHIRO, artist
GLENN ADAMSON, independent curator based in New York and formerly Director at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York
JOE EARLE, Senior Consultant, Japanese Art, Bonhams
CAROL HORVITZ, art collector and museum patron
Moderated by JOAN MIRVISS

Read more and register, click here

Exhibiting in tandem with Kondō Takahiro: Making Waves is INKstudio's show of contemporary ink paintings, Bingyi: Land of Immortals, which was conceived as a collaborative event. For more information, click here

Joan B Mirviss gallery website is rich with additional information about the artist and this exhibition, a preview video, and recent press coverage. For more information, click here

Buddha Head, Gandhara, 4th century, gray schist

Dhanvantari's Blessing, Kapoor Galleries
March 14-25, 2022
Opening party: Wednesday, March 16, 5-8pm

Kapoor Galleries presents Dhanvantari’s Blessing for Asia Week New York 2022. Highlights of the exhibition include a delicately rendered Company School painting of a great Indian fruit bat; an illustration from the “large” Guler-Basohli Bhagavata Purana series by the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh; a splendid Mughal khanjar with bejewelled jade hilt; and two vibrant paintings from a unique Nepalese Bhagavata Purana series.

The gallery exhibition will consist of the aforementioned highlights, along with many fine Indian miniature paintings and arms as well, as a carefully-curated selection of sculptures from India, Nepal, and Tibet. A virtual exhibition space will display all of the additional Indian and Himalayan artworks contained within our 2022 catalog, Dhanvantari’s Blessing.

First generation after Manaku and Nainsukh, An illustration from the “large” Guler-Basohli Bhagavata Purana series: Satadhanva, Akrura and Kratvarma in discussion, Punjab Hills, ca. 1760-65, opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper

When not visiting Kapoor Galleries in person, their website has a wealth of engaging virtual exhibitions to enjoy. To visit these online shows, click here. For more information about the gallery, click here.

Bronze Taotie Mask with Ring Handle, Northern Wei Dynasty, 4th-5th century

The Ancients Among Us: Chinese and Japanese Paintings and Works of Art, Kaikodo LLC
Online exhibition, March 15-25

The Ancients Among Us includes works focusing on characters drawn from antiquity, whether historically real, legendary, or figments of an imagination. A human figure mysteriously appears seated dead-center in the forehead of an otherwise typical gilt-bronze taotie mask. A dignified slender-bodied military official represents his class in a sculptural style and garb typical of the early 6th century while an aristocratic couple in kaleidoscopic color lounge on the lid of a kogo incense container, fashioned by the inimitable Nonomura Ninsei in 17th century Kyoto. Actual historical figures are immortalized in such painted images as that of the illustrious Zen monk Tōran Sōtaku, a contemporary of Ninsei and another of a Manchu noblewoman majestically sitting for her portrait in opulent formal attire. Writhing dragons on a late Zhou dynasty garment hook and a tiger captured in ink and color on silk, by a painter working centuries later, have lorded over the East and the West from time immemorial, their claim to antiquity without peer. And, finally, artists and craftsmen who have slipped into eternity are among us today through their enduring creations in all manner of media, a number of them represented in the exhibition.

Tachibana Shoun, Tiger in Landscape, ink and color on silk

Read more, click here

Blanket from Zhuang Tribal, early 20th century, silk supplementary weft on a fine cotton tabby ground, 45 x 67 in., Collection of Chinalai Tribal Antiques

Auspicious Dreams: Tribal Blankets from Southern China
Charles B. Wang Center Stony Brook University
March 9-May 31, 2022
Lecture: Tribal Blankets of South China: Power, Protection, & Prestige
Wednesday, March 9, 4pm
Reception: Wednesday, March 9, 5pm

The Charles B. Wang Center celebrates precious, rarely seen Chinese textiles, specifically blankets made by South and Southwest Chinese tribes in Auspicious Dreams: Tribal Blankets from Southern China exhibition. Often made with fine materials, exemplary techniques, and unparalleled artistry, these striking textiles convey the unique identities, statuses, and traditions of diverse Chinese tribal groups.

Curated by Vichai and Lee Chinalai of Chinalai Tribal Antiques and Jinyoung Jin, director of cultural programs at the Charles B. Wang Center, the treasures in this exhibition take visitors on a remarkable journey across regions and time.

Read more, click here

Kubo Shunman (1757‒1820), A Pipe and Decorative Tobacco Pouch with Ojime Bead and Manju Netsuke, 1813, color woodblock print with metallic pigments: shikishiban surimono

Privately Commissioned Japanese Prints and Albums from the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, Sebastian Izzard Asian Art LLC
March 18-26, 2022

The spring exhibition at Sebastian Izzard Asian Art LLC will feature surimono, the privately commissioned counterparts to the commercial Japanese woodblock prints of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Produced in small numbers for a mostly educated audience of literati, surimono were often more experimental in subject matter and treatment, and extravagant in printing technique, than commercial prints. Two artistic groups dominated surimono production: the group of artists led by Katsushika Hokusai (1760‒1849) and his school, including Totoya Hokkei (1780‒1850) and Yashima Gakutei (1786‒1868), who specialized in still-life, landscape, and illustrations of classical Chinese and Japanese literature; and the artists led by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769‒1825)—and after his death in 1825 by Utagawa Kunisada (1786‒1865)—who became known for images of the theater and its performers. Fine examples by these artists as well as other renowned painters including Kitagawa Utamaro (1756‒1806) and Kubo Shunman (1757–1820) are featured.

Utagawa Kunisada (1786‒1865), Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Endō Musha Morichika, color woodblock print with silver and bronze metallic pigments: shikishiban surimono

Unlike commercial publishing, cost was not a primary consideration in the production of surimono. Only the finest quality paper was employed. Skilled artisans cut highly refined and complex matrices of blocks which craftsmen worked with new and inventive procedures and materials. The shikishiban, or square paper shape, soon became the format of choice among the many ukiyo-e artists hired to design surimono.

Read more, click here