What's Happening in Asian Art...
January 5, 2023
Living in Two Times: Photography by Bahman Jalali and Rana Javadi,
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Concludes January 8
Living in Two Times features the work of Bahman Jalali (1944–2010) and his wife and closest collaborator Rana Javadi (born 1953). Noted for their sharp documentary images and haunting photomontage works, the artists are among the most influential figures in the development of late twentieth-century photography in Iran. Driven by the medium’s powerful—and fragile—relationship to memory, Jalali and Javadi created an unparalleled visual record of a tumultuous period in their homeland.
This exhibition features images by both photographers from the iconic series Days of Blood, Days of Fire, capturing events in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, as well as images from Jalali’s Khorramshahr: A City Destroyed and Abadan Fights On, drawn from his years spent on the Iran-Iraq warfront. Throughout his career, Jalali returned continually to his project of observing the changing lives and landscapes of Iran. A third section of the exhibition presents a selection of his images of fishing communities along the northern Persian Gulf. In addition to their documentary projects, Jalali and Javadi preserved early twentieth century archives, which they used as a basis for creating vivid photomontages that explore the role of the medium in documenting history. This will be the first museum retrospective in the United States that offers a glimpse of Jalali’s extensive practice and the first to be presented together with a selection of Javadi’s evocative work from the late 1970s to the present.
Curator-Led Tour—Living in Two Times: Photography by Bahman Jalali and
Rana Javadi
In-person program, January 7, 2-3pm
Meet curator Carol Huh in the galleries for a tour of Living in Two Times: Photography by Bahman Jalali and Rana Javadi. The tour will begin at Arthur M. Sackler gallery at the entrance of the exhibition on level B1.
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January 4, 2023
At the starting point of the Ancient Tea Horse Road–part of the historic Silk Road–the Padma Pu’er is a new sub-brand created by Songtsam, which provides tourists with a more affordable option to have immersive experiences and connections with local people to celebrate the culture and biodiversity of Yunnan and Tibet as a whole.
Asia Week New York is pleased to announce that Songtsam Group, the award-winning luxury boutique hotel collection, and Destination Management Company, located in the Chinese provinces of Tibet and Yunnan, will continue its sponsorship of Asia Week New York in 2023.
“We are honored that Songtsam is the Presenting Sponsor of Asia Week New York,” says chairman Dessa Goddard. “We appreciate their commitment to Asian art and culture and are grateful for their continued support.”
“Songtsam is delighted to sponsor Asia Week New York for its fourth year,” said Florence Li, Songtsam’s Director of International Sales & Marketing. “As a devoted enthusiast and collector of Chinese, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art, Baima Duoji, the Founder and Chairman of Songtsam Group, is committed to maintaining the synergy between our luxury brand and Asia Week New York.”
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January 3, 2023
Book Launch: Ganesh Haloi: A Rhythm Surfaces in the Mind,
Akar Prakar, New Delhi
January 5, 5:30pm IST
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, in association with Akar Prakar, invites guests who are in New Delhi to a special book launch. The new publication, Ganesh Haloi: A Rhythm Surfaces in the Mind, is edited by Natasha Ginwala and Jesal Thacker, with contributions by Iftikhar Dadi, Adam Szymczyk, Lawrence Rinder, Soumik Nandy Majumdar, Roobina Karode, Natasha Ginwala, and Jesal Thacker, and published by Akar Prakar and Mapin Publishing. There will also be a Film Screening of A Rhythm Surfaces in the Mind, directed by Nilanjan Paul. After the book launch and screening, a conversation between Adam Szymczyk and Roobina Karode will follow. For those in New Delhi, this engaging event will take place at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Saket 145, DLF South Court Mall in New Delhi.
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January 3, 2023
Chen Duxi (born 1983), Magnolia Delavayi, mineral pigment on silk,59 x 39 3/8 in. (150 x 100 cm.)
Chen Duxi: The Order of Body, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art
January 6-March 4, 2023
Opening reception, January 6, 6-8pm
Beginning on January 6th, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art presents Chinese artist Chen Duxi’s (born 1983, Chengdu) first major solo exhibition in North America. Titled The Order of Body, the exhibition consists of paintings on silk which reveal the artist’s persistent interrogation of time, motion, and objects through a synthesis of Western oil painting and traditional Chinese ink painting. The neo-traditionalist paintings Chen creates can best be located in his ongoing engagement with lines and threads, which seek to express the subtle stability of qi and the concealed shi (momentum) that underlie the observable world. Though his works take classical elements of landscape and figures as stylistic references, Chen does not merely seek to revive antiquity. Rather, he grounds the act of painting in the artist’s embodied relationship with the natural world.
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January 2, 2023
Huang Shaofen (active 1881-1901), Teaching in Haimen (detail), handscroll, ink and color on paper, Matthew J. Edlund Dongguanlou Collection
Mountains and Painting: An Educational Journey Through Landscape Art,
China Institute
Concludes January 6, 2023
Combining photography of the renowned Chinese mountains with original Qing dynasty (1644-1911) Chinese landscape paintings from U.S. private collections, this showcase spotlights twenty-two works of art by thirteen artists, revealing the importance of mountain culture in Chinese history and art. The assembled works highlights the formats, compositions, techniques, subjects, and aesthetics of Chinese painting. This unique display provides basic knowledge of landscape painting, as well as inspire further interest in the genre and arouse and appreciation of the relationship between man and nature in Chinese culture. The Qing-dynasty artists featured in the exhibition are Dai Mingyue戴明说, Wu Tao吴滔, Huang Yi黄易, Zhang Geng张庚, Gu Linshi顾麟士, Hu Gongshou胡公寿, Dai Xi戴熙，Huang Shaofen黄绍芬, Xiang Kun项坤, Chen Chongguang陈崇光, and an unknown painter.
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December 31, 2022
Man's Informal Robe, Coromandel Coast, mid-18th century, cotton, plain weave foundation, painted and resist-dyed, Grace R. Smith Textile Endowment, 2016.176
Fabricating Fashion, Art Institute of Chicago
Final day January 2, 2023
Fabricating Fashion celebrates the artistry and rich legacy of an extraordinary range of fabrics for clothing from around the world.
Textiles are fundamental to clothing: they determine a garment’s color and texture and contribute to its silhouette. They have the power to convey messages, from social rank and status to gender to cultural identification, as well as individual preference and taste. Handmade fabrics, in particular, often have special resonance for the wearer as the product of human labor and technical expertise.
The decorative fabrics presented in this exhibition, all part of the museum’s permanent collection, were specifically intended for clothing and meant to be worn in a particular way or made into a certain type of garment. Indeed, some of the works on view are fully realized articles of clothing. They were created by a range of communities and by individuals, both professionally trained and self-taught, who come from a spectrum of economic classes and are often unidentified.
While a number of techniques showcased in this presentation—such as dying, embroidery, printing, and weaving—are practiced globally, other materials and methods are more closely associated with particular cultures: Indian cotton, Chinese silk, French embroidery, West African indigo, among them.
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December 30, 2022
Jar decorated with auspicious characters amid plants, late 16th century, porcelain painted in underglaze cobalt blue, Rogers Fund 1917 (17.118.7a, b), The Metropolitan Museum of Art
As expressed in stylized calligraphy, set amongst the Three Friends of Winter, on this Blue and White Jar of the Wanli period (1573-1620) in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, we at Asia Week New York wish you prosperity (fu), long life (shou), peace (ning), and health (kang) in the New Year.
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December 29, 2022
The Black-necked Crane is considered a "sacred bird" by the Tibetans and is also called the "Fairy of the Plateau”. These are the only cranes in the world that grow and breed on the Tibetan plateau and can fly over Mount Everest.
Songtsam, the award-winning luxury boutique hotel collection and Destination Management Company, located in the Tibet and Yunnan Provinces of China, announced new 6-day bird watching tours that will be available at three of Songtsam’s several properties, including Songtsam Lodge Lijiang, Songtsam Lodge Tacheng, and Songtsam Linka Retreat Shangri-La, in Northwest Yunnan, an area famous for the photography of its rare, native bird species.
L-R: Napa Sea bird watchers and Purple Water Chickens
Leading the bird watching tours’ six-day long itinerary is Mr. Jiansheng Peng, Tibet’s most influential nature photographer. Peng is also Songtsam’s senior eco-tourism expert, who is dedicated to promoting the harmonious coexistence between man and nature through natural images and high-quality eco-tourism. Under his guidance, Songtsam guests will have an opportunity to observe, learn about, and photograph the many rare birds of Northwest Yunnan, including black-necked cranes, bar-headed geese, black storks and purple water chickens.
Shangri-La in the winter
Northwest Yunnan is the main habitat for migratory birds in the winter, with its still sunny and mild climate. In Lijiang and Shangri-La, migratory birds arrive every winter. In Heqing Caohai and Lashihai near Lijiang, and the Napa Sea in Shangri-La, visitors will have the unique six-day opportunity to observe and learn about the more than 60 species and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that stay there during the winter months.
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December 28, 2022
Tianzhuo Chen, Trance, 2019 (video still), Two single-channel videos with sound (loop) Courtesy of the artist and BANK/MABSOCIETY. Image courtesy of the artist, BANK/MABSOCIETY, and Asia Society Museum, New York
Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity
Asia Society New York
Concludes December 31, 2022
This exhibition presents 19 artworks by seven artists, born in mainland China in the 1980s. Belonging to what is referred to as the ba ling hou generation, they grew up in a post-Mao China shaped by the one-child policy and the influx of foreign investment. Comprising painting, sculpture, performance, installation, video, digital art, and photography, the exhibition reflects the dramatic economic, political, and cultural shifts the artists have experienced in China during their lifetimes.
The exhibition’s title, Mirror Image, refers to the double reflection at the heart of the exhibition. Rather than emphasizing their “Chinese-ness,” these artists’ respective practices are born of a contemporary China where Starbucks can be found in the Forbidden City and the internet permits them access—despite the obstacles of censorship—to a host of influences beyond geographical boundaries.
Participating Artists:
Tianzhuo Chen (born 1985 in Beijing, China; lives and works in Beijing)
Cui Jie (born 1983 in Shanghai, China; lives and works in Beijing, China)
Pixy Liao (born 1979 in Shanghai, China; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York)
Liu Shiyuan (born 1985 in Beijing, China; lives and works in Beijing and Copenhagen, Denmark)
Miao Ying (born 1985 in Shanghai, China; lives and works in Shanghai and New York City)
Nabuqi (born 1984 in Inner Mongolia, China; lives and works in Beijing, China)
Tao Hui (born 1987 in Chongqing, China; lives and works in Beijing, China)
Nam June Paik, Li Tai Po, 1987, Ten antique wooden TV cabinets, 1 antique radio cabinet, antique Korean printing block, antique Korean book, 11 color TVs H. 96 x W. 62 x D. 24 in. (243.8 x 157.5 x 61 cm), Duration: Continuous loop, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold and Ruth Newman, 2008.2. Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2014
Visionary Legacies: A Tribute to Harold J. Newman
Concludes December 31, 2022
This exhibition celebrates Hal Newman (1931-2021) who, with his wife Ruth, endowed Asia Society Museum’s Collection of Contemporary Asian Art with a seminal gift of some 30 artworks in 2007. Works by eight artists and one artist collective featured in the exhibition represent Hal’s eye and passion for art that pushes the boundaries in Asian and Asian American contemporary art.
In 2007, Asia Society Museum inaugurated its contemporary art collecting program with a significant gift from Mr. and Mrs. Harold and Ruth Newman. Their largesse provided the means for the Museum to acquire thirty-four objects by twenty-two artists from eight countries—including iconic video works by Cao Fei, Dinh Q. Lê, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Koki Tanaka, and Yang Fudong, among many others—and develop a solid foundation for its contemporary collection. The Newmans’ gift also provided the Museum the opportunity to collect new media artworks at the highest level, following the precedent of connoisseurship set by John D. Rockefeller 3rd’s gift of traditional Asian art to the Museum. In memory of our beloved Trustee and friend, this exhibition serves to celebrate the Newman family’s legacy of commitment to Asia Society with this selection of highlights from the Harold and Ruth Newman New Media Collection, an integral part of the Asia Society Museum Collection. This show is curated by Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Vice President for Global Artistic Programs & Asia Society Museum Director.
December 27, 2022
Cong (Ts'ung) Prismatic Cylinder and Bi disc, Qijia Culture, Late Neolithic Period (2100-1600 BCE), jade
Round Heaven | Square Earth: Ancient Chinese Jade, TAI Modern
Last day—December 30
Chinese cosmology views the world in geometric terms. The Earth was square shaped and the Heavens round. As far back as the Neolithic period (10,000 – 2,000 BCE), Chinese artisans have used these shapes to symbolize their universe, which is most apparent when viewing the jade objects on display in Round Heaven | Square Earth: Ancient Chinese Jade.
The Neolithic Period witnessed stone workers carving jade into beautifully polished objects with possible ritual, symbolic or astronomical functions. As jade is both very tough and harder than steel, it is very durable but difficult to shape and carve. As the Smithsonian’s Freer-Sackler Museum of Asian Art describes it, “Working jade is an extremely laborious process that involves both slicing and removing unwanted stone with powdered abrasive minerals.”
This exhibition primarily highlights two distinct types of ritual jade objects: Bi (pronounced Bee), a thin disc with a hole in the center, and Cong (Tsung), a cylindrical tube encased in a square prism. They clearly had great significance, but despite many theories, the purpose of Bi and Cong remain a mystery.
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