Installation view, Hitoshi Fugo: KAMI, Courtesy Miyako Yoshinaga

This week’s Gallery Spotlight shines brightly on Miyako Yoshinaga who opened their esteemed gallery in New York City 25 years ago this month.  Their current exhibition Hitoshi Fugo: KAMI, closing on June 1st, will be their “final” show before the gallery goes nomadic until further notice. They will continue to work with their artists and clients in different capacities as they embark on a new chapter in the art world.

In these last few weeks, be sure to visit their space for the solo exhibition of photographer Hitoshi Fugo. Featuring one of his most ambitious, yet long-silenced projects, KAMI is a still-life study of large burnt paper rolls that the artist salvaged from a printing factory fire in 1993. In 2001, Fugo began photographing the roll documenting each stage and progress of destruction, sometimes adding new physical forces such as cutting through a thick wall of paper with a chainsaw, which investigated the violence lurking within himself. The result is an unsettling yet fascinating visual rhapsody consisting of 31 black-and-white images that delves into the essence of paper, with its cut and burnt surfaces powerfully exposed.

Paper in Japanese is kami, a homonym of god. The artist gave the title, KAMI, to this body of work, implying the absence of god in today’s destructive world. The exhibition includes 11 images from the series, two of which were photographed in 2023 of the same paper roll.

To learn more and view the works, click here.

Installation view, KOGEI and Art, Courtesy Onishi Gallery

KOGEI and Art
and
Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett
Closing Friday, May 24, 2024

There is still time to visit Onishi Gallery’s current exhibitions – KOGEI and Art, marking the inauguration of KOGEI USA, a non-profit dedicated to the revitalization of Japan’s world-famous KOGEI (art crafts) and Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett celebrating Living National Treasure Inoue Manji and Japan based artist David Stanley Hewett before they close this Friday, the 24th.

KOGEI and Art celebrates contemporary practitioners who’s innovative use of materials and methods have stood the test of time and reflect an unrivaled dedication to technical perfection and refinement. Works in this exhibition include those in ceramics, metal, and lacquer by both well-established artists and newcomers to the field. Alongside masterpieces by “Living National Treasures” such as Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, Nakagawa Mamoru, Ōsumi Yukie, and Murose Kazumi, the exhibit includes recent work by Rusu Aki and Konno Tomoko, two younger women who are building international reputations with sculptural pieces that combine technical rigor with an inventive approach to materials and processes.

While in Inoue Manji / David Stanley Hewett, the two artists’ practices convey contrasting aspects of Japanese expression. Inoue Manji—a “Living National Treasure” and the embodiment of his country’s dedication to traditional philosophies, materials, and techniques—uses the purity of hakuji (white porcelain) to create works that offer a new perspective on Japanese minimalism, while David Stanley Hewett, an American living in Japan, works in the medium of finest Japanese gold leaf applied to canvas or wood, preserving and re-imagining a heritage of gorgeous decoration with its roots in elite samurai culture.

Be sure to stop by and take in the beauty of all these works on view this week!

To learn more, click here.

Copyright The Artist; Courtesy INKstudio

Observing My Distant Self: Kang Chunhui
May 25 – August 18, 2024
Red No. 1-B1 Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing

INKstudio is pleased to present Observing My Distant Self: Kang Chunhui, marking the artist’s premiere solo exhibition at the gallery. Offering an immersive journey into a crucial juncture in her artistic development, the exhibition unfolds in two distinct sections: “Observing My Distant Self” and “Undeniably Me.”

Occupying the entirety of INKstudio’s ground floor, Observing My Distant Self 73°40′E～96°23′E 34°25′N～48°10′N, 2019-2023, is an expansive eight-part multimedia project responding to Kang’s childhood dream in the form of a metaphorical pilgrimage to the Western Regions. Eight 6’6”-long videos place an aspect of Kang’s artistic practice in spatial dialog with a location in Xinjiang selected by Kang for its historical, sociological, and cultural significance. On her pilgrimage Kang makes eight stops: the Kumtag Desert, Lop Nur, Bosten Lake, Tarim Poplar Forest, Kuqa Old Town, Tianshan Grand Canyon, Kizilgaha Beacon, and the Kizil Caves. Throughout her journey, Kang explores the boundaries between place, history, memory, self and creativity, conceiving them not as rigid territories but as expansive areas for exploration, exchange, synthesis and transformation.

On INKstudio’s third floor, Kang debuts new works in her Post-Modern synthesis of historical Central and East-Asian polychrome painting styles. In the latest works of her signature Sumeru series, she continues her alchemical exploration of mineral and organic red pigments through the form and metaphysical theme of the fold.  In The Hidden Protagonist: Mount Fuchun she transgresses the traditional boundary between xieyi or “calligraphically expressive” and gongbi or “meticulously descriptive” painting while interrogating the dialogical relationship between self and history through the landscape.

Kang Chunhui is a female visual artist born in Urumqi and educated in Seoul who has entered the hallowed grounds of the literati landscape—populated since its inception exclusively by men—to assert herself as a contemporary artist with an uncompromising, distinctly feminine vision. She describes her approach as a form of homage, not to the masters of the past, but to her own emotional connection to nature itself. In the end, Kang Chunhui, undeniably herself, ends up her own “hidden protagonist.”

To learn more and view her works, click here.

Minouk Lim, Portable Keeper Sea, 2020, HD video and sound in loop, 5 minutes 22 seconds, ⓒ Minouk Lim; Courtesy Asia Society

Artist Talk: Minouk Lim
Friday, May 17, 6:30-8pm
Members: $8; Non-Members: $15
Students & Seniors: Use coupon code SENSTU for discount at checkout
725 Park Avenue, NYC

Join Asia Society for a conversation with multimedia artist and 2024 Asia Arts Game Changer Awardee Minouk Lim as she discusses the evolution of her artistic practice over the last twenty years. She will be joined in conversation by Yasufumi Nakamori, Director, Asia Society Museum and Vice President of Arts and Culture, Asia Society.

Minouk Lim (b. 1968) is an artist of many forms, creating works that are beyond the boundary of different genres and media, and deepening the scope of questions while encompassing writing, music, video, installation and performance as her means of artistic expression. Lim’s work recalls historic losses, ruptures, and repressed traumas. Her sculptures, videos, performances, and installations don’t replay past events, rather, they elevate the experiences, memories, and feelings of those sidelined by the political violence of the Korean war and its ensuing process of modernization.

To purchase tickets and learn more, click here.

Image Credit: © MFA BOSTON

Hallyu! The Korean Wave
The Curatorial Roundtable
Thursday, May 16 at 5pm EDT

The Korea Society (NY) is pleased to host an online curatorial roundtable for Hallyu! The Korean Wave exhibition currently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through July 28th. First presented at Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the show will travel next to the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Today, South Korea is a cultural superpower—a global trendsetter producing award-winning films like Parasite, riveting dramas like Squid Game, and chart-topping music by K-pop groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK. But behind the country’s meteoric rise to the world stage, a phenomenon known as the Korean Wave, or hallyu, is the story of remarkable resilience and innovation.

Hallyu! The Korean Wave explores this rise of South Korea as a cultural superpower over the last century following its occupation by Japan and the Korean War. It’s the first major exhibition to explore the origins, evolution and incredible impact worldwide of Korea’s pop culture.

The exhibit features approximately 250 objects—costumes, props, photographs, videos, pop culture ephemera, and contemporary works—providing an immersive and multi-sensory journey through a fascinating history, and a celebration of a vibrant creative force that bridges cultural, societal, and linguistic divides and continues to reach new heights today.

Join the exhibit’s three curators—Rosalie Kim, Victoria and Albert Museum; Christina Yu Yu, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Yoon-Jee Choi, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco—as they discuss this captivating exhibition.

To view the talk, click here.

Installation view, Light, Space and Time, Alisan Fine Arts, New York City

We are excited to shine our Gallery Spotlight this week on one of our newest Asia Week New York dealers, Alisan Fine Arts, who opened their first US gallery space on the Upper East Side of Manhattan last November.

Co-founded in the 1980s by Alice King, Alisan Fine Arts is one of the first professionally run galleries in Hong Kong and a pioneer in the field of Chinese contemporary art and new ink art. With this recent expansion to New York City, they continue their legacy of bridging East and West bringing a piece of Hong Kong’s art history to a new audience while continuing to honor the artists that have shaped their legacy.

Their current group exhibition, Light, Space and Time, demonstrates their commitment to working with Chinese American and other Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) artists, as it features the work of California-based Asian American visual artists Julie W Chang, Summer Mei-Ling Lee and Zhang Jian-Jun.

Influenced by the Californian coast and the Light and Space movement, Chang, Lee and Zhang approach light and space through a different lens and additional dimension. Informed by historical-cultural perspectives, their practices add a “time” element to the works in the exhibition. One view through June 22nd, this show also opened in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Be sure to visit Alisan Fine Arts and partake in the richness of Chinese diaspora artistry on offer!

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, KOGEI and Art, Onishi Gallery; Photo by Tymel Young

KOGEI: Japanese Design and Craft with Daniella Ohad, Ph.D
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Closing Reception: 6-8pm
Gallery Talk: 6:30-7pm
521 West 26th Street, NYC

Onishi Gallery is pleased to celebrate the official launch of KOGEI USA, an American nonprofit organization whose aim is to raise awareness of Japanese traditional arts outside Japan, at their NYC gallery.  At this reception, they will welcome Daniella Ohad PhD, Design Historian and Connoisseur, to give a talk on the subject of KOGEI: Japanese Design and Craft.

Originally coined to translate the word “craft,” today the term KOGEI has a higher significance, denoting works that, even at their most innovative, use materials and methods that have stood the test of time and reflect an unrivaled dedication to technical perfection and refinement, from generation to generation over many centuries.

With official links to sister organizations in Japan and endorsement from several “Living National Treasures,” KOGEI USA will build a nationwide collaborative network of museums and galleries, with its focus on emerging and mid-career artists. KOGEI USA will mount exhibitions, facilitate gifts of art to leading international museums, and sponsor artist workshops and other outreach programs, with the support of the Government of Japan.

To RSVP to the talk and reception, click here.

To learn more about the exhibition and KOGEI USA, click here.

Laura de Santillana, Space II, 2002⁠, hand-blown, shaped and compressed glass, metal leaf⁠, H17 1/8 x W14 5/8 x D1 3/8 in⁠ (H43.5 x W37 x D3.5 cm⁠), photo courtesy of Enrico Fiorese⁠

Laura de Santillana: Echoes of Her Gaze
Impressions of Tokyo and Kyoto in Glass
Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 15, 5-8pm (RSVP required)
May 15 – June 29, 2024

Ippodo Gallery proudly presents Laura de Santillana: Echoes of Her Gaze, Impressions of Tokyo and Kyoto in Glass, the artist’s second posthumous solo exhibition in New York comprised of a curated presentation of over 25 glass artworks evoking the dichotomy of Tokyo’s neon lights and subdued glow of Kyoto’s aesthetics. Representing the later years of her career, this collaboration between the de Santillana Estate and Ippodo Gallery includes artworks traveling from Venice and those which were exhibited exclusively in Japan. Deeply inspired by the ingenious craftsmanship of Japanese architecture, this series of glass tablets draws together the vibrant colors that de Santillana saw in Tokyo’s bustling nightlife districts with the traditional modesty of Kyoto, where she felt a natural fondness for ancient Japanese culture analogous to the grand history of Venice.

The great bridging power of de Santillana’s glass is the sensuality of her artistic vision; she saw within glass beauty and tenderness nary another has brought to life with such vivid effect. A transformation occurs as light is diffused in color or passes through the translucent glass. What was once light becomes distorted, refracted, or purified. De Santillana’s works, imagined first in sketches and then executed at her direction, are the product of maestros and engineers who blow and manipulate the folded glass at extreme temperatures. Meticulously formulated colors made from natural pigments or metals are inserted during the firing process, only realizing their true brilliance once pulled from the fire.

Laura de Santillana’s (1955–2019) innovated Venetian-Murano glass techniques were passed down through the lineage of her grandfather, the legendary Paolo Venini. Under his tutelage, de Santillana developed her own vision of what could be expressed in glass. De Santillana’s sculptures, including her tablet-shaped Tokyo-ga series, use innovative techniques, masterful compositions of colors, and several formal and artistic gestures explored during her early career in Murano, and which she later perfected with collaborators in the Czech Republic and the United States.

Be sure to RSVP for the opening reception of this thrilling artist by contacting [email protected] or by phone at (212) 967-4899.

To learn more, click here.