Tripitaka Bodhisattvas 삼장보살도, Joseon dynasty, 18th century, Minhui 민희 (active early to mid-18th century) and other monk-painters. National Museum of Korea, LKH3965. © National Museum of Korea

Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art
Closing Sunday, July 5, 2026
111 South Michigan Avenue

Don’t miss 2,000 years of Korean art at the Art Institute of Chicago before Korean National Treasures closes July 5, the museum’s largest exhibition devoted to Korean art in four decades! This expansive exhibition showcases 140 works—including modern and historical painting, ceramics, and objects made for Buddhist worship and scholarly study—22 of which are officially recognized as National Treasures or Treasures by the Korean government.

The objects in the exhibition are recognized as remarkable examples of their type and distinguished for their exceptional historic, artistic, and academic value. From a 6th-century gilt bronze Buddhist sculpture to Joseon dynasty paintings to contemporary paintings of the late 20th century, the works of art in this exhibition demonstrate the artistic legacy produced on the Korean peninsula over millennia.

Once privately held, these artworks now belong to the Korean people thanks to a single groundbreaking gift from the family of Lee Kun-Hee, late chairman of Samsung Group. In 2021 the family donated over 23,000 works to the Korean government for public audiences to study and appreciate in perpetuity. Lee Kun-Hee and his father, Lee Byung-Chull, collected exceptional and storied objects from throughout Korean history as a means of preserving and celebrating the nation’s cultural heritage.

“The Lee Kun-Hee Collection is not biased toward a specific period or genre, but evenly encompasses the essence of Korean art history from the Three Kingdoms period to the modern era,” said Yeonsoo Chee, Korea Foundation associate curator of Korean art at the Art Institute of Chicago. “By encountering the depth and diversity of Korean art across millennia, visitors will experience the accumulated cultural richness and artistic creativity that have evolved into the dynamism of Korean art and culture today,” she said.

The exhibition charts the ideas, values, and traditions that have shaped the country’s creative production, from the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–676 CE) through the 1900s, offering insights into these objects’ rich meanings across centuries.

Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art is curated by Yeonsoo Chee, Korea Foundation Associate Curator of Korean art at the Art Institute of Chicago.

This exhibition, drawn from the National Bequest of Lee Kun-Hee’s Collection, is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, the National Museum of Korea, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

To learn more and plan your visit, click here.

Installation view of Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay at Princeton University Art Museum. Photo: Joseph Hu

Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay
Closing Sunday, July 5, 2026
Princeton University Campus

There is still time to experience Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay at the Princeton University Art Museum — a celebration of the groundbreaking ceramic artist (1922–2011) who taught at the University for nearly three decades.

Drawing from the Museum’s deep holdings of Takaezu’s ceramics, Dialogues in Clay explores the artist’s experimental practice, including her signature “closed” forms and painterly glazing. Placing Takaezu’s sculptures in conversation with the work of her teachers and contemporaries who embarked on parallel pathways of innovation—including Helen Frankenthaler, Maija Grotell, Robert Motherwell, Isamu Noguchi, Lenore Tawney, and Peter Voulkos,— alongside reflections by her students, the exhibition positions Takaezu as one of the most important ceramic artists of the twentieth century.

Toshiko Takaezu was an instructor at Princeton University for many years. She had a deep respect for the wonders of the natural world and often found inspiration in nature. Learn more about her legacy in this article here.

To learn more about the exhibition, click here.

Hiroshige (1797-1858), Naruta Whirlpool, Awa Province, 1855, woodblock print, 14.5 x 10 in. (36.83 x 25.4 cm)

Celebrating 250 Years
Summer Selection
Summer 2026

This summer, The Art of Japan is pleased to unveil a remarkable selection of new acquisitions, now available to view on their site. Each carefully selected work reflects their ongoing commitment to bringing exceptional Japanese art to collectors and enthusiasts alike.

Reflecting the depth and beauty of Japan’s printmaking tradition, the selection includes works of extraordinary range and beauty — among them Hiroshige’s (1797–1858) Naruta Whirlpool, Awa Province (1855), a masterwork that exemplifies the artist’s celebrated ability to capture the power and poetry of the natural world.

To explore these new summer acquisitions, click here.

Nakatomi Hajime, FLY: Shirabyoushi, 2023, madake bamboo, rattan, 29 x 31 x 16.5 in. Image: Minamoto Tadayuki.

Nakatomi Hajime
June 26 – July 25, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, Jun 26, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, Jun 27, 2pm
1601 Paseo de Peralta, Sante Fe, NM

TAI Modern is pleased to present Nakatomi Hajime, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the US opening June 26. This exhibition brings together work from five series developed over more than two decades — Prism, Musubi, Auspicious 8, Frill, and FLY — work defined by a single animating question: what does it mean for something not to look like bamboo? Rather than emphasizing material qualities or classical techniques and forms, Nakatomi embraces this paradoxical inquiry. His aim is to express the beauty of bamboo through colors, shapes, sizes, and materials not typically found in bamboo art. The most recent works in the exhibition combine bamboo with other materials, such as gold.

“Many people who see my work murmur, ‘Is this really bamboo?’” Nakatomi has written. “That is because I create my pieces so that they do not look like bamboo. Yet, such small reactions cast a faint light on the path I am taking — they give me the conviction that a new form of bamboo art is being born here.”

Nakatomi came to bamboo art by way of an unlikely path. Raised in Osaka and educated at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he studied business and commerce, he had no prior relationship with art until an interest in ceramics led him to the university art club. A large photograph of Flame, a 1957 bamboo sculpture by master Shono Shounsai, encountered by chance at a Tokyo department store, set him on an entirely new course.

In the spring of 2000, Nakatomi entered the bamboo craft training center in Beppu, Kyushu, one of Japan’s foremost centers of bamboo production. After completing his training, he was introduced to Honda Syoryu, a celebrated bamboo sculptor. Nakatomi served as Honda’s assistant for three years, an experience he has described as transformative not for its technical instruction, but for the spiritual insight it offered into the nature of artistic creation.

TAI Modern has represented Nakatomi since 2002, and this exhibition marks the first time the gallery has devoted a full solo presentation to his work. They warmly invite you to join the opening reception Friday evening, June 26 from 5-7pm followed by an artist talk on Saturday, June 27 at 2pm.

To learn more, click here.

Pillow in the shape of an infant boy (清 翡翠孩儿枕). Chinese, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 18th–19th century. Jade (jadeite). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Heber R. Bishop, 1902

This summer showcases remarkable Asian works of art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is still time to catch two exceptional exhibitions before they close June 28 — A Passion for Jade: The Bishop Collection and Embracing Color: Enamel in Chinese Decorative Arts, 1300–1900. And just one day earlier, on June 27, the Met opens City of Memory: Nanjing in the Seventeenth Century, offering a rare window into one of China’s most historically rich and culturally vibrant cities. Plan your visit soon!

A Passion for Jade: The Bishop Collection
Closing Sunday, June 28, 2026

More than 100 remarkable objects from the Heber R. Bishop collection, especially carvings of jade, the most esteemed stone in China, and many other hardstones, are on view in this focused presentation. These refined works represent the sophisticated art of Chinese gemstone carvers during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) as well as the highly accomplished skills of Mogul Indian (1526–1857) craftsmen, who provided an exotic inspiration to their counterparts. Also on view are a set of stone-working tools and illustrations of jade workshops, which introduce the traditional method of working jade.

The exhibition is made possible by the Florence and Herbert Irving Fund for Asian Art Exhibitions.

To learn more, click here.

Bottle with lotuses, China, late 15th century. Porcelain with raised slip and enamels (Jingdezhen fahua ware), H. 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm); Diam. 7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm). Bequest of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1960.

Embracing Color: Enamel in Chinese Decorative Arts, 1300-1900
Closing Sunday, June 28, 2026

Enamel decoration is a significant element of Chinese decorative arts that has long been overlooked. This exhibition reveals the aesthetic, technical, and cultural achievement of Chinese enamel wares by demonstrating the transformative role of enamel during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. The first transformational moment occurred in the late 14th to 15th century, when the introduction of cloisonné enamel from the West, along with the development of porcelain with overglaze enamels, led to a shift away from a monochromatic palette to colorful works. The second transformation occurred in the late 17th to 18th century, when European enameling materials and techniques were brought to the Qing court and more subtle and varied color tones were developed on enamels applied over porcelain, metal, glass, and other mediums. In both moments, Chinese artists did not simply adopt or copy foreign techniques; they actively created new colors and styles that reflected their own taste. The more than 100 objects on view are drawn mainly from The Met collection.

This exhibition is made possible by the Florence and Herbert Irving Fund for Asian Art Exhibitions.

To learn more, click here.  

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.

City of Memory: Nanjing in the Seventeenth Century
Opening Saturday, June 27, 2026 – January 3, 2027

Throughout Chinese history, the city of Nanjing served as the capital of multiple dynasties. Each time a dynasty was overthrown, it left behind another layer of cultural memory, creating an atmosphere in which artists found themselves surrounded by the past. Material traces of history—temples, city walls, ancient trees—blended with less tangible remains, such as views that had inspired famous artists and poetic verses they had written. In 1644, the Ming dynasty was violently overthrown, and the Qing took its place. A new layer of reminiscence was added, sparking feelings of loss and nostalgia, as the people of Nanjing saw their world shattered and another dynasty—their own—consigned to the realm of history.

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. Artworks donated to The Met by Julia and John Curtis have inspired and enriched this exhibition.

The exhibition is made possible by the Joseph Hotung Fund.

To learn more, click here.        

Installation view of Asa Hiramatsu: To Be Cloud at Seizan Gallery, NYC. Photo by Thomas Barratt

Asa Hiramatsu: To Be Cloud
Closing Thursday, July 2, 2026
525 West 26th Street, NYC

There is still time to experience Asa Hiramatsu: To Be Cloud, the debut solo exhibition of Tokyo-based painter Asa Hiramatsu at Seizan Gallery, before it closes July 2. To Be Cloud gathers eighteen new paintings that distill Hiramatsu’s investigation into the inner landscape she carries within herself — and that, she believes, each of us carries as well.

A self-taught painter and illustrator, Hiramatsu makes tranquil, contemplative scenes built up in muted color and the heavy, layered surface of oil paint. She calls them inner landscapes: a world she holds within herself, running parallel to the one we share. For Hiramatsu, painting is a way of descending into her own inner topography and registering what she finds there — meeting familiar faces, finding new patches of ground, driving a stake to mark that she has been. It is, in her words, an act of “understanding why I am myself.” That journey, by its nature, opens into the viewer’s own — into the self, and into its relationships with others, with society, with the natural world.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view of Japanese Ceramics and Modern Paintings at Thomsen Gallery, NYC

Japanese Ceramics and Modern Paintings
Closing Friday, June 26, 2026
8 East 67th Street, NYC

There’s still time to catch Japanese Ceramics and Modern Paintings at Thomsen Gallery before it closes June 26!

Celebrating one of the most enduring and vital traditions in Japanese art, the exhibition brings together ceramic works spanning from fifteenth-century stoneware vessels to refined contemporary porcelains, tracing over 10,000 years of artistic innovation and aesthetic continuity.

Complementing the ceramics is a selection of Japanese screen and scroll paintings from the first half of the twentieth century, creating a rich dialogue between material, form, and modern expression.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view of Architect of the Bizen Renaissance: Mori Tōgaku at Joan B Mirviss LTD

Architect of the Bizen Renaissance: Mori Tōgaku
Closing Friday, June 26, 2026
39 East 78th St, Ste 401, NYC

Don’t miss your chance to experience Architect of the Bizen Renaissance: Mori Tōgaku at Joan B Mirviss LTD before it closes June 26! Presented in conjunction with Shibuya Kurodatoen Co. Ltd., this landmark exhibition marks Mori Tōgaku’s (b. 1937) first solo show and retrospective outside of Japan. Long synonymous in Japan with contemporary Bizen ceramics, the artist is celebrated here through twenty-three works spanning his career — revealing the remarkable aesthetic diversity that this master ceramist has been able to achieve within the Bizen tradition.

Mori Tōgaku was born on March 23, 1937, in the town of Imbe, historically part of Bizen Province. His family has been making ceramics there since the Muromachi period (1336–1573), when they were officially designated one of the six Bizen ceramic lineages that established the region’s tradition of unglazed, wood-fired ceramics. A true virtuoso in this challenging and often unpredictable ceramic style, Mori Tōgaku has long impressed Japanese art critics with his mastery of highly coveted surface effects, such as scarlet straw marks (hidasuki) and trailing natural ash glaze reminiscent of sesame seeds (nagare goma), both of which can only be achieved through meticulous wood-firing. Mori has spent decades avidly researching historical sherds and kiln sites for clues about historical firing techniques. His efforts to reconstruct the communal Great Kilns used by medieval Bizen ceramists have become a central component of his artistic legacy. Since 1980, Mori has constructed several climbing Great Kilns, including the 53-meter-long Sabukaze Great Kiln and the 85-meter-long New Sabukaze Great Kiln. In this exhibition, we are delighted to present works that were fired in these magnificent kilns.

Mori combines his unrivaled technical prowess with a keenly contemporary and sculptural sense of form. His curvilinear Banded Pattern vessels undulate with dynamic rhythm, while the sharp angles of his geometrically faceted vessels cast intriguing shadows across the surface of his clay. Earlier in his career, he also experimented with techniques not typically employed in Bizen ceramics, such as nerikomi marbleization and oxidized silver or platinum surface decorations, both of which he typically applied to low-fired earthenware. The resulting soft and porous texture of these works is reminiscent of ancient objects unearthed in an archeological dig, imbuing a sense of timelessness to these more experimental designs.

A truly unique ceramic artist, Mori Tōgaku has used his deep knowledge of Bizen ceramic techniques to bring an entirely contemporary expression of Bizen to life. Architect of the Bizen Renaissance offers a wonderful opportunity to explore the artist’s original approach to clay.

To learn more, click here.

(Right): Yukiya Izumita, Sekisoh, layered Fissure 積層裂, 2026, ceramic; (Left): YMER&MALTA / Sylvain Rieu-Piquet Galet, Akari Unfolded Collection for the Noguchi Museum, 2018, resin, sand, LED; (Back Wall): Ikuro Yagi, Impressions – Kyoto 印象 京都, 2003, washi paper, panel board, adhesive paste, Sumi ink, gold leaf; Courtesy Ippodo Gallery

Summer Symphony: Work from Ippodo Gallery’s Archive
June 18 – August 8, 2026
35 N Moore St, NYC

Ippodo Gallery is pleased to present Summer Symphony: Work from Ippodo Gallery’s Archive, a new curation of artworks from the Ippodo Gallery collection, from June 18 to August 8, 2026. The exhibition includes special offerings on artworks both which were exhibited previously and also never before seen works.

As summer comes to New York, they welcome the season as a time of light, beauty, and discovery; themes that resonate through the Summer Symphony curation. Celebrating the diversity of kogei (Japanese fine art craft), the exhibition strikes a rhythm between mediums: ceramic, painting, metal, calligraphy, photography, and glass. Spanning across generations, artistic practices, and origins, each work contributes its own note to create a carefully composed arrangement.

Evoking the atmosphere of the most lively and warm season, Summer Symphony moves between moments of vibrancy and reflection. Mitsukuni Misaki’s blue vessels conjure serene ocean horizons; KAKU’s carefully folded washi spirals resemble white seashells, shaped by the wind and tide; YMER&MALTA’s lamps bring to mind shards of sunlit seaglass; Ken Matsubara’s Nihonga paintings capture crashing waves on a warm summer night. Together, the works invite viewers to experience the senses of the season through the richness of Ippodo Gallery’s contemporary world of fine art and craft.

The presentation unfolds in two movements; new artworks will be featured in mid-July.

To learn more and view these evocative pieces, click here.