Krishna and Radha Sheltering in a Pavilion from a Storm. India, Rajput. Guler School, circa 1820. Watercolor, gold and tempera on paper. Asia Society, New York: Gift from Sandra Ferry Rockefeller in memory of John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Blanchette H. Rockefeller, 2025.7. Courtesy Asia Society
In addition to the exceptional exhibitions at our AWNY member galleries and auction houses during Autumn Asia Week New York, our member museums across New York City and the surrounding area are also presenting an exciting array of Asian art exhibitions and programs this month. Explore our highlights below and discover what’s on view and happening throughout September. Click on each museum heading for more information.
Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy
Through January 3, 2027
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
Through January 3, 2027
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.
Busy, Busy Towns: Moving Images of a Changing Asia
Through January 3, 2027
The exhibition highlights seven works from the Asia Society Museum Collection exploring how cultural, political, and ecological change has transformed cities across contemporary Asia, particularly China, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Featuring works by Song Dong, Chen Shaoxiong, Tromarama, and Chen Chieh-jen, the exhibition showcases innovative moving-image techniques while reflecting on urbanization, consumerism, gentrification, industrial decline, and environmental change.
CHARLES B. WANG CENTER AT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
Courtesy Charles B. Wang Center
Walking the World: Gareth Fuller’s Art of Place
September 9 – December 18, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, Sept 9, 5-7pm (kindly RSVP)
The Charles B. Wang Center proudly presents the work of British artist and explorer Gareth Fuller, whose decades of walking across cities and landscapes have inspired intricate, hand-drawn “maps of the mind.” Blending geography, culture, history, and personal experience, Fuller’s maps capture the layered identities of places while transforming walking into a way of knowing and drawing into a way of remembering. Visitors are invited to explore these evocative works and reimagine the landscapes we inhabit.
Courtesy China Institute of America
China Institute Gallery at 60: 1966-2026
September 10, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Curator’s Talk | Strolling Together in the World of Chinese Art: Tuesday, Sept 15, 2026, 6:30-8pm
AWNY Open House: Thursday, Sept 17, with free admission and light refreshments
Founded in 1966, the China Institute Gallery has presented the history of Chinese art from antiquity to the present through original and thought-provoking exhibitions. The masterworks featured in China Institute Gallery at 60: 1966-2026, date from the 11th century BCE to the 21st, and exemplify what has made the Institute’s exhibitions groundbreaking. Through displays of fine jades, bronze vessels, paintings of gardens and trees as well as calligraphy, architecture, Buddhist sculpture, Chinese ceramics, and clay burial figures, China Institute Gallery at sixty will demonstrate how its presentations have consistently illuminated pathways to a deeper understanding of the arts of China. The exhibition features approximately 85 pieces on loan from more than thirty institutions and private collectors.
JAPANESE ART SOCIETY OF AMERICA
HISHIKAWA MORONOBU (1618?–1694), The Pleasures of Edo; Handscroll; ink, color, and silver and gold pigments on silk, 13⅞ x 337 in. (35.2 x 8.55.7m); ca. Early Genroku era (ca. 1688–1694) Unsigned
Inaugural Ukiyo-e Lecture: Hishikawa Moronobu’s Floating World
Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 5pm
Japan Society | 333 E 47th Street, NYC
Thanks to the generous support of Sebastian Izzard, the Japanese Art Society of America is launching an annual lecture series on Ukiyo-e, beginning with an inaugural lecture by Professor Matthew McKelway. Explore the fascinating world of Hishikawa Moronobu, often considered the founder of Ukiyo-e, through a look at his career and recently discovered handscrolls depicting the Yoshiwara, theaters, and leisure activities of Edo. The lecture offers a rare opportunity to discover new insights into one of the most influential artists of the “floating world.” The lecture is free and open to all, with in-person and Zoom attendance available. Refreshments will follow. To register in-person, click here. To register by Zoom, click here.
Image courtesy the Artists
Afterlayers: Tai Hwa Goh & Julia Kwon
September 17 – December 4, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept 17, 5-7pm
The Korea Society presents Afterlayers: Tai Hwa Goh & Julia Kwon this autumn, bringing together two artists who transform traditional Korean materials—paper and textiles—to explore identity, memory, and cultural hybridity. Goh creates intricate, layered paper installations that blur the boundaries between nature, memory, and lived experience, while Kwon reimagines the traditional Korean bojagi to challenge assumptions about identity, femininity, and cultural authenticity. Together, their works offer a thought-provoking dialogue between tradition and contemporary life.
Courtesy Korean Cultural Center New York
Tchah Sup Kim: The Key to a New World
September 17 – October 24, 2026
Tchah Sup Kim (1940–2022) was an artist whose lifelong practice explored fundamental questions of civilization, the universe, existence, and humanity. Moving beyond formal experimentation, his work sought new ways of seeing and understanding the world—often by challenging established boundaries between East and West, the individual and the cosmos, and the finite and the infinite.
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Tao Hong (Chinese, active ca. 1610–1640s), Riverside village, 1638. One leaf from an album of seven leaves. Image: 9 3/4 × 10 1/2 in. Promised gift of Julia and John Curtis; Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art
City of Memory: Nanjing in the Seventeenth Century
June 27, 2026 – January 3, 2027
City of Memory: Nanjing in the Seventeenth Century explores how artists lived and worked in this charged environment in the decades before and after the fall of the Ming dynasty. Through a selection of about 100 objects, mostly from The Met collection, the exhibition illuminates both the city’s lore and complex history as well as the evolution of Nanjing painting from the 1640s to the 1680s, introducing key figures, genres, and styles.
Decorative Arts in China, 1000 to the Present
July 25, 2026 – Ongoing
Uncover the overlooked essence of decorative arts in China. This exhibition featuring over 100 works mainly from The Met collection, highlights the superb aesthetic achievement and deep cultural significance of so-called “decorative arts.” Departing from the usual presentation style that focuses on the material or dates of objects, this cross-medium display explores evolving tastes across different social strata, reflects artistic virtuosity, and deepens our understanding of Chinese cultural traditions.
A Lasting Legacy: Chinese Jades from New York Collections
July 25, 2026 – Ongoing
Revered in China for thousands of years, jade has long been prized for its beauty and the virtues its qualities symbolize, including benevolence, humility, and integrity. Featuring 50 works from The Met alongside pieces from pioneering collector Heber R. Bishop, this exhibition explores the enduring fascination with Chinese jade and its evolving appreciation in America.
Flip Sides: Seeing Korean Art Anew
March 16, 2026 – May 31, 2027
Flip Sides: Seeing Korean Art Anew invites viewers to look beyond the “best” angle, revealing hidden interiors, reverses, and intricate details. Featuring approximately 50 works from The Met collection, more than half on view for the first time, the exhibition offers fresh perspectives on Korean traditions and the construction and function of works in metal, wood, ceramic, textiles, and lacquer.
Courtesy Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art
The Rubin Museum Distinguished Lecture in Himalayan Art at The Met
Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 6-7pm
The Met Fifth Avenue | Bonnie Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education
Join the Rubin’s third annual lecture at The Met Fifth Avenue on Tuesday, September 15, featuring Sanskritist and scholar of South Asian art and cultures Gautama V. Vajracharya. In “Flowering Trees and Beauties in Nepalese Art,” Vajracharya explores the ongoing scholarly debate surrounding the salanbhanjika—a young woman standing atop a human figure beneath a flowering tree—and shares his research into this enduring iconography across Sanskrit, Pali, and Newari sources. Free and open to the public, with advance registeration recommended. Space is limited, and priority will be given to those who register.
Mandala Lab at the New York Botanical Garden
Saturday, September 19, 2026, 11am or 1pm
New York Botanical Garden
This 90-minute immersive Mandala Lab Workshop draws on Tibetan Buddhist art and its powerful universal teachings, inviting participants to explore their emotions through five playful and thought-provoking experiences. Presented as part of NYBG’s 1960s-inspired exhibition Flower Power, it marks the Rubin’s first Mandala Lab Workshop in New York City. Register here.