Debasish Mukherjee, Floating Nights (set of 4), 2023, acrylic on wood, 45 x 40.5 in.

This week Akar Prakar opened two new exhibitions in New Delhi with innovative artworks by two important contemporary Indian artists.

Debasish Mukherjee: Whispering Lanes
February 18-March 17, 2023
Akar Prakar New Delhi
Curated by Siddhi Shailendra

The concept of spaces is often defined by the lines and limitations placed in a three-dimensional area, but what these primary geometrical definitions neglect to take into consideration is our inhabitation of these spaces. The weight of our experiences and memories within the walls of one’s home or the street crossed too often are woven into the fabric of the place. In his latest solo exhibition, artist Debasish Mukherjee (born 1973) makes use of these limitations, the elemental aspects of the spaces, the line, the architecture and the everyday objects to create visual metaphors in an effort to uncover the dormant stories of his past.

An aesthetic that combines the language of abstract expressionism and structural minimalism, Mukherjee experiments with the medium of sculptural installations, paintings, and textile-based works employing a purposefully limited color palette. The silhouettes of the ghats, the lanes, the structures, and the steps take on the manifestation of the city of Benares, a place that is his muse and a mystery yet to be solved. Having spent years of his childhood at his maternal grandmother’s house in Benares and then again as a student of painting at the Banaras Hindu University, he spent some of the most formative years of his life in the city.

A remembrance of the days gone by and the reality of its present, the essence of the city forms the premise of the suite of works displayed in this exhibition. With a history of countless cycles of destruction and revival at the center of its past, the works like Monsoon Fables and Pakka Mahal are a reference to the recurring historical and current displacement and resettlement of the populace. The carved-out bricks and grids of sites and lands, within the motif of the almirah wide open and submerged, connotes the idea of unlocking our memories of the familiar places of the past.

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Jayashree Chakravarty, Rajbari (detail), 2004-2022, oil, acrylic, cotton, tea stain, grass, seeds, roots, jute, synthetic glue on canvas, 42 x 192 in.

Jayashree Chakravarty
India Art Fair 2023
Booth A4
at NSIC Ground Okhla, New Delhi

Jayashree Chakravarty (born 1956) is a Kolkata based Indian visual artist, working with the medium of paintings, and large-scale installations of paper with mixed media. Rooted in the themes of ecology and nature, her works often include organic materials such as grass, roots, leaves and seeds with paper.

“The Worlds of Bernice Bing”: Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
In person program, February 11, 2pm

An exploration of Bernice Bing’s art, life, and enduring legacy, featuring some of the Bay Area’s most accomplished Asian American women artists and activists.

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Kyohei Inukai (1913-1985), Striped Cat with Purple Background, circa 1978-1984, watercolor painting with charcoal and pastel, 13 5/8 x 11 in. (34.5 x 27.9 cm.). Provenance: Estate of Kyohei Inukai

Kyohei Kats: Paintings, Drawings & Woodblock Prints by Kyohei Inukai
Scholten Japanese Art
Online exhibition, February 2023

Scholten Japanese Art is pleased to announce an online exhibition featuring fabulous and feisty felines by the Japanese American artist, Kyohei Inukai (1913-1985).

Born in Chicago in 1913, Kyohei Inukai was the son of the notable Western-style Japanese American painter, Kyohei Inukai (1886-1954). The younger Inukai studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and The National Academy of Design and The Art Students League in New York. Inukai exhibited his first one-man show at the California Arts Club in 1934, followed by subsequent works exhibited at museums in the United States and in Japan. He was multi-talented artist, actively working as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. His works are found in the collections of the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, Rose Art Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the Wichita University Museum of Fine Art in Kansas.

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Sun Xun, The Time Vivarium-16, 2014, acrylic and ink on paper mounted to aluminum, Pizzuti Collection

Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions,
Asia Society Texas
In person event, opening reception, February 10, 2023:
5:30pm Conversation with Artists
6:30–8pm Reception and Gallery Opening

The show highlights work by over 30 contemporary artists of Chinese descent who reinterpret traditions in dynamic and innovative ways.

To celebrate the exhibition, join guest curator Dr. Susan L. Beningson for a conversation with featured artists Zheng Chongbin, Zhang Jian-Jun, Wu Chi-Tsung, Kelly Wang, and Bingyi. Discussing their art on view in the exhibition, the artists will guide the audience through their respective practices and a reflective conversation on the essential themes of Summoning Memories, including how each artist explores, changes, and subverts various aspects of Chinese art historical traditions to forge new artistic ground.

Mayumi Oda, White Tara as Dharma Daughter,

Sarasvati’s Gift: The Art & Life of a Modern Buddhist Revolutionary
Tibet House US
Concludes February 10, 2023

Known as the “Matisse of Japan,” Mayumi Oda is a painter, environmental activist, and Buddhist practitioner whose life reflects both the brilliance and shadows of modernity. Sarasvati’s Gift explores her tremendous artistic talent and inspiration drawn from her Buddhist practice and her commitment to healing the planet.

“Sarasvati’s Gift, Mayumi Oda’s great gift—how wonderful to receive it in this beautiful, heartfelt, honest book. Sarasvati, the goddess of art, the Lady of the River of Beauty, is the cleansing divine flow of the waters of truth and beauty, and she emanates to heal and cleanse our stressed-out lives on our stricken planet through the undaunted art and golden heart of Mayumi Oda.” — Robert A.F. Thurman

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), Ichikawa Kodanji in the Rain With Sword in his Teeth, 1860, woodblock print, ôban 36 x 24.7 cm

Los Angeles Fine Print Fair, Egenolf Gallery
In person exhibitions, February 11-12
Pasadena Hilton
168 S. Los Robles Ave, Pasadena

The Los Angeles Fine Print Fair (LAFPF), now in its 34th year, is the longest-running fair focused exclusively on original Fine Art Prints. As the only fair of its kind in Southern California, LAFPF offers collectors a unique opportunity to view thousands of prints and learn from ten of the field's leading experts, all in a relaxed environment.

While at the fair, be sure to visit Egenolf Gallery and view their many new acquisitions.

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Refashion Your Wardrobe with Sky Cubacub, Japan Society
In-person event, February 12 at 2pm
In conjunction with the current exhibition, Refashioning: CFGNY and Wataru Tominaga, Sky Cubacub, founder of Rebirth Garments, will lead an interactive workshop on re-envisioning your wardrobe to make it fully celebrate the intersections of all of your identities. Joining live from their studio in Chicago, Sky will facilitate demonstrations on no-sew, zero-waste methods of draping garments and repurposing fabrics that embrace individuality.

Read more ang register, click here.

The Japanese Art Society of America (JASA) hosts an online lecture and a special study trip to Houston this month.

Art Across Borders: Japanese Artists in the United States before World War II
Online program, February 7, 5pm (EST)
Join JASA virtually for a webinar with scholar Ramona Handel-Bajema, author of Art Across Borders: Japanese Artists in the United States before World War II (MerwinAsia Publishers, 2021). She will discuss the wave of Japanese artists who contributed to the establishment of American Modernism, challenged notions of a Japanese aesthetic and flourished in a nation that was at times hostile and other times welcoming. Note: Advance registration is required.

None Whatsoever: Zen Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection
In person trip, February 17-19
On the occasion of the opening of None Whatsoever: Zen Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, join JASA in person for a curated weekend, February 17 to 19, in Houston’s renowned Museum District, focusing on this special exhibition and other key events. Dr. Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okumura Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, is co-curator of the exhibition with Bradley Bailey, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Curator of Asian Art at the MFAH. Note: Sign up in advance is required.

Read more and register, click here

Mandala of the Buddhist Protective Deity Sitatapatra, Tibet, early 16th century, gouache on cloth, Yale University Art Gallery, S. Wells Williams Collection, Bequest of F. Wells Williams, B.A. 1879, by exchange, and bequest of Florence Baiz van Volkenburgh in memory of her husband, Thomas Sedgwick van Volkenburgh, B.A. 1866, by exchange

Buddhas, Guardians, and Guides: How to Read Tibetan Paintings
Denise Patry Leidy, Yale University Art Gallery
Online program, February 8, 12:30pm

Although known as early as the 7th century, there is little visual evidence for Buddhist practice in Tibet until the 11th when paintings and sculptures illustrate an astonishing array of enlightened beings such as buddhas and bodhisattvas, guardians and guides. After introducing the primary types of deities featured in Tibetan practices, Dr. Denise Patry Leidy, the Ruth and Bruce Dayton Curator of Asian Art, highlights a newly acquired, and spectacular, 16th-century Tibetan mandala focused on the protective deity Sitatapatra (White Parasol), a guardian against malign supernatural forces. Recently conserved and on view for the first time, this mandala was produced in Ngor Monastery in central Tibet, famed for its painting workshops. It was commissioned by one of the abbots of this establishment in honor of an earlier teacher.

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L-R: Nampar Gyalwar, Tibet, Bon Religion, 15th century, bronze with copper and silver inlay, Buddhist Art; Bhutanese Royal Guard's Shield, Bhutan, mid 19th-early 20th century, leather, copper alloy, white metal, textile, lacquer, Runjeet Singh; and Domoto Insho, Phase, circa 1960, ink on paper, Shibunkaku

Asia Week New York is delighted to add three dealers to our membership, two returning galleries and one new to our group. Be sure to visit them in March and explore the wonderful art works they offer.

Buddhist Art
Buddhist Images of One Millennium
March 16-21
Arader Galleries
29 E. 72nd St.
Buddhist Art is based in Berlin and has been offering fine Buddhist sculpture for over 15 years. The gallery’s primary focus is on Himalayan Art, with a wide variety of objects from Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia. The second focus is the Art of Southeast Asia, especially Khmer and Thai. You can find masterpieces of Himalayan, Khmer and Thai Art, but the gallery has always made sure to present beautiful objects for beginning collectors at very affordable prices as well. Maintaining a very flexible and innovative approach, Buddhist Art offers works at exhibitions throughout the world and from a private showroom in Berlin. A regular exhibitor at Asia Week new York since 2012, Buddhist Art is returning to Asia Week this season to present exciting new acquisitions of the last 3 Corona years.

Runjeet Singh
Discoveries
March 16-24
Arader Galleries 1016 Madison Avenue
Runjeet Singh, who is based in Warwickshire, returns to Asia Week New York this season with an exhibition of arms, armor, and works of art from all over Asia.

Shibunkaku
The Colors of the Postwar Japanese Abstract Arts
March 16-24
Joan B Mirviss LTD
39 East 78th Street, Suite 401
Joining Asia Week New York for the first time, Shibunkaku will present The Colors of the Postwar Japanese Abstract Arts, a series of colorful artworks created by Japanese artists from the postwar period. The exhibition features abstract paintings by two important artists Yamaguchi Takeo and Domoto Insho, the masters of the Yōga and Nihonga respectively. They will also be showcasing the avant-garde calligraphy by two other great masters, Morita Shiryu and Inoue Yuichi. As another special highlight, they will include a valuable classic piece by a Mid-Edo period Zen priest, Hakuin Ekaku, who has inspired many artists with his Zen ideology and aesthetics, including Morita Shiryu.