Gambhira putra, fourth ‘son’ of Sri Raga, from a Ragamala series, North Deccan, c. 1630-50, opaque pigments and gold on paper, folio: 33 x 27 cm, painting: 29 x 22.5 cm including yellow border

Sound, Text, and Image: Picturing Music through Ragamala
Summer 2025

Francesca Galloway is pleased to present a selection of newly available works that accompany Richard David Williams’ essay on Ragamala painting this summer.

What does sound look like? In pre-colonial north India, music scholars, poets, and painters developed images and descriptions for the musical entities known as ragas, and strung them together in a series or “garland” (mala). While it is not clear precisely when listeners began to conceive of music this way, by the 1500s, ragamala poetry and paintings were well established, and proved to be extremely popular until the nineteenth century.

In his insightful essay, Richard David Williams explores how Ragamala paintings weave together sound, text, and image to create an immersive multi sensory experience—where melodies are not only heard but also seen and read. Drawing from a group of rare Ragamala paintings from the north Deccan, dating from 1630–50, Williams reveals how artists from this period used color, composition, and accompanying verse to evoke the emotional and aesthetic essence of musical modes.

His essay provides fresh insight into the cultural and historical context of these works, highlighting the distinctiveness of Deccani aesthetics, marked by lyrical compositions, jewel-toned palettes, and Persianate influences. By examining how painters translated sonic and poetic structures into visual form, Williams invites us to rethink the boundaries between art forms and appreciate Ragamala not simply as illustration, but as a unique form of musical translation. These paintings make melody visible, readable, and deeply felt.

To read the full essay and view new works of art, click here.

Installation view, Project Room, Seizan Gallery

Special Project
MORIOKA SHOTEN: THE BOOK OF TEA
Closing Saturday, June 21, 2025
525 West 26th St, NYC

Don’t miss the final week of MORIOKA SHOTEN: THE BOOK OF TEA, a special pop-up at Seizan Gallery featuring the internationally celebrated Tokyo bookstore Morioka Shoten before it closes on June 21!

This unique presentation centers on The Book of Tea, the seminal 1906 text by Japanese art critic, scholar, and collector Okakura Kakuzō (1863–1913). Written in English, Okakura’s essay introduced Western audiences to Japanese aesthetics, spirituality, and philosophy through the lens of tea, becoming a touchstone for cross-cultural understanding. Okakura also played a pivotal role in building the East Asian art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Over the decades, The Book of Tea has inspired countless artists and thinkers—including Georgia O’Keeffe. Earlier this year, Yoshiyuki Morioka of Morioka Shoten visited O’Keeffe’s home and studio in Abiquiú, New Mexico, where he discovered two copies of the book—one annotated by the artist herself.

On view in SEIZAN’s project room are photographs from Morioka’s visit, featuring marked pages and quiet moments captured in O’Keeffe’s desert sanctuary. The installation also includes a rare first edition of The Book of Tea, a portrait of O’Keeffe by photographer Todd Webb, and a curated selection of vintage and contemporary objects inspired by the book and O’Keeffe’s singular sense of place.

This quietly powerful exhibition is not to be missed!

To learn more, click here.

(Left): Tokuda Yasokichi III, Jar, deep blue brilliant glazes, wave pattern, 2005, porcelain with vivid colored glaze (yosai), 7 1/2 x 10 in (19 x 25.5 cm); (Right): Tokuda Yasokichi IV, Jar, Loulan, 2010, porcelain with vivid colored glaze (yosai), 17 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in (43.2 x 21.6 x 21.6 cm)

KOGEI and Art
Closing Friday, June 20, 2025
16 East 79th Street

This is the last week to experience KOGEI and Art at Onishi Gallery before the exhibition closes on June 20! This dynamic exhibition highlights contemporary works across a range of KOGEI media, including metalwork, lacquerware, ceramics, painting, and screens, celebrating the enduring legacy and innovation of Japanese craftsmanship.

“KOGEI” refers to works made using materials and methods that have stood the test of time, reflecting uncompromising dedication to technical perfection and a search for new forms of expression. This exhibition highlights the growing role of KOGEI in contemporary Western lifestyle and global art and design. The title KOGEI and Art is given to reflect the unique character of KOGEI, not seen in other cultures, and to emphasize its separate but complementary status compared to “Art” in the conventional Western sense.

The first category is Metalwork, including works by artists whose works were shown in Japan: A History of Style (2021) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and subsequently acquired by the Museum, or are currently on display in Striking Objects: Contemporary Japanese Metalwork at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, comprising masterpieces from the Shirley Z. Johnson Bequest. The second category is Lacquerware by artists who participated in The Spirit of Noto: Urushi Artists of Wajima, held at Onishi Gallery in October 2024 and highlighting leading figures from a region whose tradition of lacquer production dates back more than five centuries. The third category is Ceramics, an aspect of KOGEI that Onishi Gallery has foregrounded ever since its opening in 2005.

The show includes works by numerous Living National Treasures of Japan such as Ōsumi Yukie, Nakagawa Mamoru, Katsura Morihito, Tamagawa Norio, Murose Kazumi, Yamagishi Kazuo, Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, and Yoshita Minori as well as younger artists including Onihira Keiji, Noguchi Ken, Rusu Aki, and Konno Tomoko, creating a lively intergenerational dialogue within Onishi Gallery’s historical space in the Sidney Ripley mansion, built in 1905 and designed by Warren and Wetmore in Neo-Georgian style. They are also delighted to premiere a new jewelry artist, George Inaki Root, whose practice is based on kintsugi , the Japanese philosophy of “mended, not broken.”

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience these timeless pieces today!

To learn more and view their online brochure, click here.

Light and Grain 秋麦
June 12 – August 23, 2025
Reception: Friday, June 27, 5-8pm
65 East 80th Street, NYC

Fu Qiumeng Fine Art is pleased to present Light & Grain 秋麦, a solo exhibition by American photographer Michael Cherney (b. 1969). The exhibition offers a focused exploration of Cherney’s distinctive photographic practice—at once a contemporary response to classical landscape aesthetics and a visual meditation on the nature of time. Over more than thirty years of living and working in China, Cherney has utilized the camera as a vessel for temporal reflection, guiding the viewer through nuanced encounters with landscape and cultural memory. This exhibition is shaped by a classical Chinese understanding of time—the past lies ahead, visible and examinable, while the future gathers behind, obscured from sight. For Cherney, photography becomes a quiet act of preservation, capturing transient moments within a fixed, visible frame.

In Light & Grain, Michael Cherney navigates the currents of time through three interlocking movements: Tracing Downstream, where ancient myth and contemporary terrain converge in album-like sequences; Reflections in Midstream, which transforms fleeting instants into immersive, scroll- and fan-inspired experiences; and The Unseen Upstream, a cross-cultural dialogue of calligraphy and collaborative brushwork that hints at futures beyond our view. By enlarging the subtle textures of his negatives, Cherney distills each frame to its essence—“seeing the grand within the small”—and fuses photographic rigor with the spirit of ink painting. Together, these works bring past, present, and future into quiet convergence, inviting viewers to witness time’s flowing passages, held momentarily within the stillness of the frame.

Spanning two decades of work, the exhibition unfolds as a visual journey shaped by place, memory, and the enduring passage of time. Be sure to mark your calendar for their public reception on Friday, June 27, from 5-8pm. They look forward to welcoming you to experience Michael Cherney’s captivating works soon!

To learn more, click here.

Iizuka Rōkansai (1890-1958), Paired Dragons, Bamboo Handled Flower Basket, ca 1930, Japan, 10¼ x 12¼ x 11¾ in. (26 x 31 x 30 cm)

MAZE / Design Basel
Soft Opening: Sunday, June 15, 7pm (by invitation only)
Vernissage Preview: Monday, June 16, 10am-8pm (by invitation only)
June 16 –17, 2025
Elisabeth Church (Offene Kirche Elisabethen), Elisabethenstrasse 14, Basel, Switzerland

Thomsen Gallery is delighted to announce their participation in the first edition of MAZE/Design Basel. A select group of galleries specialized in decorative art and design has worked together with MAZE Art Salons to create the new Design Basel at the Offene Kirche Elisabethen.

Their exhibition will focus on Japanese bamboo baskets by the great masters of the 20th century while also featuring Japanese gold lacquer boxes, contemporary ceramics, and Japanese folding screens and scroll paintings.

If you’re in Switzerland during Art Basel week, be sure to visit them in the Elisabethenkirche, opposite the Kunsthalle Basel. They look forward to seeing you soon!

To learn more, click here.

Suzuki Sansei (b. 1936), Round Celadon Vase, 1990s, porcelain with celadon glaze, 12½ x 15½ in. (31.8 x 39.4 cm)

Also be sure to view Japanese Ceramics: Medieval to Contemporary at their new space at 8 East 67th Street in New York City before it closes on June 13! This special exhibition is devoted to a vital part of the Japanese aesthetic tradition—one that remains as dynamic today as it was 10,000 years ago. The works on view range from 14th-century stoneware vessels to contemporary porcelain, including pieces by two Living National Treasures.

To learn more, click here.

Miyashita Zenji (Japanese, 1939 – 2012), Twin Breezes, 2008, glazed stoneware with colored-clay bands. Purchased with the East Asian Art Revolving Fund and with funds contributed by Maxine de S. Lewis, 2024-9-1. Photography by Richard Goodbody, Courtesy of Joan B Mirviss LTD

The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents two compelling new exhibitions that celebrate global artistry across centuries and cultures. Opening June 14, Visions of the Land in Japan showcases works spanning over five hundred years—from 1500 to the present—tracing the evolving artistic interpretations of Japan’s landscapes and the cultural shifts they mirror through paintings, ceramics, and more. Complementing this is Head to Toe: African and Asian Wearables from the Ira and Myrna Brind Collection, a recently opened exhibition that highlights the artistry of adornment across continents. Featuring intricate jewelry, textiles, and headdresses, it explores how notions of status, identity, and value are expressed through wearable art. Don’t miss the chance to experience these rich and resonant exhibitions this summer!

Visions of the Land in Japan
Opening Date: June 14, 2025
Galleries 341-343

Representing the land we live in is a common practice shared across the world. In Japan, artists created a large body of landscape art ranging from indigenous yamato style to ones that incorporated Chinese and later Euro-American ideas and techniques.

When Chinese ink painting as a new art form was introduced to Japan around 1300, it ushered a fresh way of rendering landscapes for Japanese artists. Chinese paintings became prized collectables for Buddhist temples and the ruling class, and served as indispensable models for Japanese painters who aspired to master painting with ink and brush. Over the centuries that followed, Japanese artists developed their visions of ink landscapes, either as idealized, imaginary sceneries or as renditions of a true view. The encounters with Euro-American art since 1550s offered yet another inspiration for expanding the horizons.

Drawing from the museum’s collection including some recent gifts, the works featured in these galleries span more than five hundred years from 1500 to the present and vary in mediums from painting to ceramics. They showcase the evolution and expansion of artistic expressions of the land in Japan, and offer glimpses into the shifting cultural and social landscapes as well.

To learn more, click here.

Bridal Headdress, early 20th century, Yao, China (Guangxi province), lacquered cotton plain weave, bamboo, glass beads, silk yarns; The Ira and Myrna Brind Collection, BRN-12

Head to Toe: African and Asian Wearables from the Ira and Myrna Brind Collection
May 9, 2025 – January 19, 2026
Penny and Bob Fox Hall

The media and materials used to make artworks are often encoded with culturally specific notions of value, status, or prestige.

Comprised almost entirely of wearables (including jewelry, headdresses, and textiles) from both Africa and Asia, this exhibition explores how notions of value and status are encoded within artistic media. It examines how trade and other forms of exchange have influenced the meaning of specific materials for the cultures and regions represented and how materials acquired abroad become incorporated into local systems of meaning.

To learn more, click here.

Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room; Photo: Dave De Armas, courtesy Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art

Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
June 11, 2025 – April 20, 2031
Members Evening: Thursday, June 26, 7-9pm
200 Eastern Parkway, Arts of Asia Galleries, 2nd Fl

A lamplit sanctuary amid the bustle of Brooklyn—and a refuge in uncertain times—the Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room is a place to learn, reflect, and seek inspiration. Opening June 11 at the Brooklyn Museum, the installation presents more than 100 artworks and ritual objects as they would be displayed in an elaborate household shrine, where devotees make offerings, pray, and meditate. Scroll paintings (thangkas), sculptures, furniture, and musical instruments dating from the 12th to 20th century are carefully arranged according to Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Chanted prayers by monks and nuns reflect the ritual practices and remind visitors that Buddhist rituals engage all the senses. The design incorporates elements of Tibetan architecture and the color schemes of traditional Tibetan homes, offering visitors the opportunity to experience Tibetan religious art in its cultural context.

More than one million people experienced the Shrine Room when it was exhibited in its original location, the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in Manhattan, from 2013 to 2024. To ensure New York City residents and visitors can continue to enjoy this space, it has been given a new home at the Brooklyn Museum. The immersive installation will welcome guests within the Arts of Asia galleries for six years. A virtual exploration of the Shrine Room will allow visitors worldwide to enjoy this evocative sanctuary from home.

Brooklyn Museum Members and Friends of the Rubin are invited to a special evening celebrating this new installation on June 26. Curators of the Shrine Room and the Arts of Asia galleries will be in attendance to offer insights into the works on view. To register, click here.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Sun and Silver: Early Photographs of China by Lai Fong and John Thomson

Sun and Silver: Early Photographs of China by Lai Fong and John Thomson
Closing Tuesday, June 10, 2025
10 West 18th Street, 7th Floor
Open by appointment

Don’t miss your chance to experience this landmark exhibition, bringing together masterworks by two towering figures of 19th-century photography in China, Lai Fong and John Thomson, on view at The Loewentheil Photography of China Collection through June 10!

Lai Fong, the most celebrated early Chinese photographer, and John Thomson, his prominent foreign contemporary, each played a pivotal role in shaping the early artistic and technical development of photography in China. Curated by Stacey Lambrow, this major exhibition gives viewers the opportunity to compare and contrast Lai Fong’s expressive artistry and technical ingenuity alongside Thomson’s stylistic virtuosity. This show reveals the intricate and fascinating relationship between the works of these two photographers who crossed paths, competed for patrons, and had a meaningful influence on one another and the art of photography.

Sun and Silver: Early Photographs of China by Lai Fong and John Thomson spans the careers of both artists through the finest examples of vintage prints, all dating to the 1860s and 1870s. It also presents works by other 19th-century photography studios in China that share the themes and subjects of Lai Fong’s and Thomson’s photographs. The exhibition suggests new ways of looking at the origins of photography in China.

This exhibition presents a tiny sliver of the holdings of the Loewentheil Collection, the most important collection of early China photographs in the world.

To learn more and schedule your appointment, click here.

Courtesy of Ellen Peng

Ginza Curator’s Room #012
Piercing Through a Porous Archive
June 6 – 28, 2025
Shibunkaku Ginza, Ichibankan-Building, 5-3-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

For their 12th edition, Shibunkaku’s Ginza Curator’s Room presents their first-ever co-curated exhibition, welcoming Osaka Koichiro, director of the project space ASAKUSA, and Guo Jau-lan, Associate Professor at Taipei National University of the Arts.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Bian Kai: Conjuring Realities

Bian Kai: Conjuring Realities
On view through August 17, 2025
Red No. 1-B1, Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing

INKstudio is proud to present Bian Kai: Conjuring Realities, the first solo exhibition for the Liaoning-born visual artist Bian Kai (b. 1981). In his contemporary painting practice, Bian Kai draws extensively upon China’s rich mythological, philosophical and religious narrative traditions referencing classical texts—such as the Warring States Era Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Six Dynasties Peach Blossom Spring and the Tang Dynasty Buddhist Canon A Biography of The Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery—to render modern parables for our contemporary times. Using the various historical, heavy-polychrome, visual-narrative languages employed in Buddhist and Taoist temple murals, Tibetan Buddhist thangkas and Chinese imperial court painting, Bian Kai visually reconstitutes the mythological, religious content of his source material but never in a direct retelling or portrayal of the canonical story or image. Rather, in what he describes as painting as “performance” yan 演 or art(ifice), he transforms the canonical telling to conjure a “truth” zhen 真 for his audience that is both transcendent and personal.

The exhibition features the artist’s representative masterworks from the last ten years including (on the first floor) Next Stop: Peach Blossom Spring 下一站桃花源 (2024) from his “City” series; the monumental screen The Unbound Journey 逍遥 (2022) from his “Wandering Far and Wide” series; and its companion work Cosmography of the Primordial 山 · 海 (2020) from his “Mountains and Seas” series; and (on the third floor) The Shore of Enlightenment 慧岸 (2018) from his “Religions” series; and the left-incomplete, six-panel work Peach Blossom Spring: Arcadia as Unfinishable 未完成的桃花源 (2016) from his “Peach Blossom Spring” series.

The exhibition will be up for over ten weeks and will function as an open research workshop where Bian Kai will collaborate with graduate researchers Nancy CHU from Stanford University and Chuxin ZHANG from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, the curator Deng Feng from the National Art Museum of China, and others to excavate and record the many layers of historical, philosophical, religious, literary and mythological content resident in his extraordinary conjured realities.

To learn more, click here.