Chizuko Yoshida (1924-2017), Butterflies with Water Lily (Suiren ni Asobu), self-carved, self-printed; titled and signed at lower right, Suiren, Chizuko, with red artist’s seal Chizuko; titled and signed in pencil on the bottom margin, Suiren asobu, Chizuko Yoshida, ca. 1985, 20 3/4 x 16 1/4 in. (52.8 x 41.2 cm)

Chizuko Yoshida: A Vibrant Legacy
Summer 2025
Online

Scholten Japanese Art is honored to announce the gallery’s most recent works by Chizuko Yoshida (1924-2017) received from the Yoshida Family Collection and available now on their website.

Before marrying Hodaka Yoshida, Chizuko Inoue led a life steeped in the arts—studying violin, dance, and traditional Western-style painting. After graduating from Sato Girl’s High School in 1941, she trained at the Hongo Art Institute and with woodblock printmaker Kitaoka Fumio. In the late 1940s, she joined the avant-garde Century Society (Seiki no kai) and shifted from academic realism toward abstraction.

In 1956, Chizuko co-founded the Joryu Hanga Kyokai (Women’s Printmakers Association) together with nine other printmakers including Minami Keiko (1911-2004), Iwami Reika (1927-2020), Enokido Maki (b. 1938), Shishido Tokuko (b. 1930), and Kobayashi Donge (b. 1926). Active through 1965, this group was a crucial platform for female printmakers.

Chizuko Yoshida (College Women’s Association of Japan)

From the mid-1980s, she received major commissions, including seasonal butterfly-themed prints for a major construction company. Issued in limited editions of 100 and displayed in hotels and offices, the entire run was purchased by the company—leaving only 10 to 15 artist’s proofs of each design, as such only proofs were ever available directly from the artist.

In 1985, a new high-end mail-order company commissioned large-format butterfly and floral prints from Chizuko, marketed as luxury collectibles in limited editions of just 20 to 40, with the artist perhaps retaining the other half of the edition.

Later in her career, Chizuko pioneered a fusion of photoetching and traditional woodblock printing, contributing to the prestigious One Hundred Views of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century, a decade-long project featuring 100 prints from 100 artists, which was conceived and published by the Japan Print Association starting in 1989.

Don’t miss out and explore these remarkable works today by clicking here.

Installation view, Craft Garden: Landscape of Japanese Art

Craft Garden: Landscape of Japanese Art
Closing Saturday, June 28, 2025
35 N Moore Street, NYC

Don’t miss the final days of Craft Garden: Landscape of Japanese Art at Ippodo Gallery before it closes on June 28! Featuring around twenty living artists who envision the philosophy of the Japanese garden in ceramics, lacquer, bamboo & plant fibers, glass, metal, wood, and painting, this mesmerizing exhibition is not to be missed.

The Japanese garden, amongst the pond, trees, rocks, and moss, is a place to discover the fundamental attitude of coexistence between nature and humans. In the face of common natural disasters, this relationship defines the harmonious, yet resilient, Japanese lifestyle. Classical architecture such as the sitting veranda engawa connects inside and outside spaces. There is a closeness to nature; at a low viewing angle, aromas are most fragrant, shadows create beautiful vignettes, and sounds of the river current are peaceful. From this vantage, the sensory experience draws focus to craftsmanship where a glaze holds an entire cosmos.

The passage of time and change of the four seasons transpire with imperfection. A unique character emerges with appreciation for decay, weathering, asymmetry, or the ‘kiln-effect.’ The inextricable link between fine art craft and the garden is articulated as the transient wabi-sabi aesthetic; these artists exemplify this through different approaches.

To learn more and catch a glimpse of this poetic show, click here.

Josephine Shuk-Fong Cheung, Untitled, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 167.5 x 127 cm (66 x 50 in)

Josephine Shuk-Fong Cheung: A Commemorative Exhibition
June 24 – July 3, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 26, 2025, 6-8pm
120 East 65th Street, NYC

Alisan Fine Arts is pleased to present Josephine Shuk-Fong Cheung: A Commemorative Exhibition, dedicated to the late Hong Kong-born artist whose compelling body of work has remained largely unseen by the public for nearly four decades. The exhibition opens June 24, with an evening reception on Thursday, June 26.

Despite her brief yet prolific career from 1981 to 1989, Cheung’s artistic practice demonstrates a constant evolution—marked by her fearless experimentation with form, color, and composition. Her paintings deftly navigate the liminal space between abstraction and figuration, ultimately achieving a deeply personal and embodied visual language.

Born in Hong Kong and trained in Canada, Cheung began making art at 19 and quickly rose to prominence, earning prestigious scholarships and exhibiting internationally throughout the 1980s. Her early abstract expressionist style gave way to deeply humanist figuration, influenced by her time in New York and exposure to street artists like Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat. A turning point came in 1983 when her work as a social worker with Indochinese refugees infused her paintings with psychological depth and emotional resonance.

Her late work, including The “I” Series and In Limbo, reveals a more introspective, contemplative vision—marked by bold lines, subdued tones, and intimate scale. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 1989, Cheung passed away at just 35. Her archive remained dormant until 2021, when renewed interest followed the death of her partner, artist Andrew Lui.

This exhibition marks the first major presentation of Cheung’s work in decades, offering a powerful rediscovery of an artist whose voice continues to resonate.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Giving Form to Color: New Work by Sawada Hayato

Giving Form to Color: New Work by Sawada Hayato
Closing Friday, June 20, 2025
39 East 78th Street, Suite 401

These are the last days to experience this vibrant exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD before it closes on June 20! Giving Form to Color is the long-anticipated international solo debut for artist Sawada Hayato featuring exciting new works created exclusively for this show.

Sawada’s unique forms—which can be angular and multi-planar or rounded and curvilinear—are further highlighted by the application of boldly contrasting surface patterns, which are themselves richly textured.  Using traditional techniques like hand-building and his own “raw inlay” method, he creates layered, multi-fired works that come to live as three-dimensional abstract paintings.

In describing his approach to ceramic art, Sawada uses the language of classical music, another passion of his. Just as musicians bring centuries-old scores to life by infusing the music with their own contemporary sensibilities, Sawada creates ceramics that exude modernity while employing the ancient techniques of hand-building, slip glazing, and inlay.

Don’t miss the chance to experience these extraordinary works today!

To learn more and view the online catalog, click here.

Kimura Kōsuke (b. 1936), Present Situation (Framing B) (detail), Japan, Shōwa era, 1971, screenprint and lithograph; ink on paper, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Purchase and partial gift of the Kenneth and Kiyo Hitch Collection from Kiyo Hitch with funds from the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment, S2019.3.982, © Kosuke Kimura

Come see what’s new at the National Museum of Asian Art this summer! Opening June 21, Cut + Paste: Experimental Japanese Prints and Photographs showcases 17 artists from the museum’s collection who redefined printmaking and photography, blurring the boundaries of memory, reality, and perception. Then, on June 27, join artist Park Jinwoo for a talk on the history and modern evolution of Korean calligraphy, followed by hands-on workshops on June 28 and 29 where you’ll create your own expressive works using traditional materials. All events are free with registration.

Cut + Paste: Experimental Japanese Prints and Photographs
June 21 – November 30, 2025
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery | Gallery 25

Leave your assumptions about prints and photographs behind. In this exhibition, flat surfaces expand outward. Images aren’t simply printed—they are worked, reworked, and then reworked again. Paper artworks accumulate layers of unusual materials like plastic, foam, glue, and tape. In our era of media endlessly copied, reproduced, and loaded to screens, these photographs and prints beg to be viewed in person.

Cut + Paste showcases seventeen Japanese artists who pushed the limits of printmaking and photography. By combining techniques, these artists created multilayered images that challenge distinctions between mediums, art-making traditions, and notions of fine art and commercial design.

Spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and drawn entirely from the museum’s collection, these works blur reality and memory, space and time—inviting you to look closer and experience each piece from your own unique perspective.

To learn more, click here.

Artist Talk: Korean Calligraphy, Past & Present
Friday, June 27, 2025, 12-1pm
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery | Gallery 27

Get a primer on Korean calligraphy, both traditional and experimental, from artisan Park Jinwoo. Delve into the history and practice of calligraphy as a long-standing art form in East Asia. Then learn about the artists in the field who are merging calligraphy with contemporary art, including Jinwoo himself! Want to put what you’ve learned into practice? Follow up with hands-on calligraphy workshops on June 28 and June 29 (see below).

To learn more and register, click here.

Artist Workshop: Korean Calligraphy
Saturday, June 28 or June 29, 2025, 1-3pm
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery | ImaginAsia Studio

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use traditional calligraphy materials and create works that express your personal story. Calligraphy has been a medium for communicating one’s own story since ancient times, and some of the most famous calligraphic works in East Asia are examples of this: Wang Xizhi’s Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, Yan Zhenqing’s Draft of a Requiem to My Nephew, and Kim Jeong-hee’s Sehando. Open to all ages, no experience necessary. Materials provided; space is limited.

To learn more and register, click here.

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.