ASIA WEEK

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.

A.E. Kozeliski, Purple Rain, 2025, Chinese brush painting on Double Xuan using eastern watercolors and Japanese “Sumi” ink. On loan from the artist

Portraits in Passing: Contemporary Chinese Brush Painting by A.E. Kozeliski

Closing Sunday, June 21, 2026
College of Central Florida, 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd. Ocala, FL

There’s still time to discover Portraits in Passing: Contemporary Chinese Brush Painting by A.E. Kozeliski at the Appleton Museum of Art before it closes on June 21. Kozeliski, a Tallahassee-based artist, turns her brush toward the people most of us pass without a second glance: wanderers, the unhoused, the forgotten faces of everyday life. Through her brush, these fleeting figures become thought-provoking reflections of contemporary society. Displayed in the Balcony Gallery for Florida Artists, the work invite viewers to engage personally and to find their own stories within the faces and gestures portrayed. As subtle details reveal themselves, the once unseen become visible, gaining presence and dignity through the artist’s hand.

Rooted in the ancient traditions of Chinese brush painting, Kozeliski’s process draws on the discipline’s four foundational strokes (dot, line, hook and wash), along with a refined mastery of brush pressure and water-ink balance. Careful selection of handmade paper is also essential to her practice. The paintings are created in the Mogu, or “boneless” style, which forgoes outlines and instead uses washes of ink and color to define form. Through this approach, she seeks to capture not physical likeness, but the subject’s energy, or qi.

Kozeliski notes, “I have embraced an ancient art form and through the depiction of contemporary subject matter I have made it my own while respecting its traditions.”

To learn more, click here.

Torii Kiyotada (Japanese, active c. 1716–51), The Main Gate, New Yoshiwara, c. 1745, hand-colored woodblock print; toku-oban yoko-e, beni-e, 43.4 × 63.9 cm (17 × 25 1/4 in.), Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1939.2152

A significant shift is underway this week in the Art Institute of Chicago’s print galleries! On June 24, The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection opens, inviting visitors to explore the museum’s fine ukiyo-e holdings in a fresh and celebratory presentation. Before the new show arrives, there is still time to catch Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori — the Japanese master’s hauntingly precise mezzotints are on view through June 22. Plan your visit to make the most of both!

The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection
June 24 – September 6, 2026
Gallery 107

The ideology that would become known as the floating world (ukiyo) developed following the great fire of 1657 in which vast portions of the city of Edo (now Tokyo) were destroyed.

Just a few years after that fire, in 1665, author Asai Ryōi described what this attitude was: “living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maples, singing songs, drinking wine, and diverting ourselves just in floating, floating, caring not a whit for the poverty staring us in the face, refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: This is what we call ukiyo.”

Pictures of the floating world (ukiyo-e) subsequently became essential portrayals of city life in the 17th century. Prints and paintings of women wearing elaborate kimonos appealed to urbanites’ sense of fashion and style, while depictions of Kabuki actors and their hedonistic existence provided excitement. Courtesans, who played a significant role in a society that glorified their appearance and glossed over their reality, were also a frequent ukiyo-e subject.

Prints were a profitable way to give the public the images they craved as mementos of their experiences or their fantasies. The appeal of ukiyo-e continued for almost 200 years, and the printing technology that developed as a result, especially color printing, reached heights unknown in the rest of the world.

This presentation brings together about 40 ukiyo-e prints, many given to the museum by a major collector and an early supporter of the Art Institute, Clarence Buckingham.

The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Arts of Asia.

To learn more, click here.

Hamanishi Katsunori (Japanese, born 1949), Spring – Canola Flowers Field, 2022, color mezzotint on wove paper; Ed. 2/50; One of a series of four prints: 69 × 135 cm (27 3/16 × 53 3/16 in.). Gift of Hamanishi Katsunori. © 2022 Hamanishi Katsunori

Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori
Closing Monday, June 22, 2026
Gallery 107

Over a long and distinguished career, Japanese artist Hamanishi Katsunori (born 1949) has focused on making mezzotint prints, perhaps the most demanding of all print techniques.

Mezzotints are known for their dark and atmospheric appearance. This is because the starting point for any mezzotint is the creation of a roughened surface, which produces a solid black background when printed. To draw the image that emerges from this dark background, the artist uses a series of burnishers and scrapers; the deepest gouges print as white areas on the finished print.

This presentation includes earlier, smaller-format works done without color, as well as more recent larger work that boast many hues. Among the earlier monochromatic prints is Hamanishi’s 1997 Viva Chicago series, which focuses on the city’s beloved public monuments like the Picasso and Miró sculptures. As the artist recalled, “When I first came here, I was unprepared for the impact this city would leave on my mind, such a vivid impression etched deep in my memory… . This is my ode to Chicago.”

The exhibition also celebrates several important gifts to the museum. Hamanishi’s 2022 Four Seasons series—shown at the museum for the first time—is a recent gift from the artist. Each work in the series is reminiscent of the panels of a folding screen and features seasonal floral imagery.

Many works in the show come from the 2013 gift to the museum from the Ninion and Sheldon Landy Collection, which gave the Art Institute the largest collection of Hamanishi’s prints in the world.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view of Pacita Abad: Door to Life at Tina Kim Gallery, NYC

Pacita Abad: Door to Life
Closing Saturday, June 20, 2026
525 West 21st Street, NYC

There is still time to experience Door to Life, the third solo exhibition at Tina Kim Gallery dedicated to the visionary artist Pacita Abad (1946–2004), before it closes on June 20.

The exhibition centers on a remarkable body of work inspired by Abad’s trip to Yemen in the spring of 1998—a journey that profoundly shaped her practice in the years that followed. Drawing from the country’s architecture and decorative arts, Abad created works across a range of scales and media that reflect her deep engagement with local visual traditions.

Bringing together the Door to Life series in its entirety for the first time, the exhibition also marks the debut of Abad’s never-before-seen qamariya paintings, inspired by the intricate stained glass windows of Sana’a. On view are both intimate and large-scale trapunto paintings, alongside works from her Door Made of Straw series, in which she painted on woven mats and incorporated textiles. The qamariya works, painted on collected stencils, extend her dialogue with regional craft practices.

Together, these works underscore Abad’s enduring commitment to centering cultural materials and artistic traditions beyond the frameworks of Western art markets and institutions, offering a vibrant and deeply considered vision of global interconnectedness.

Abad was a pioneering artist known for her rigorous political engagement and radical embrace of global arts and crafts practices, which she encountered throughout decades of extensive travel. Born to a politically-active family in Batanes, the northernmost province of the Philippines, Abad came to the United States in 1970 where she studied at Lone Mountain College in San Francisco before embarking on her decades of nomadic travel to 62 countries across Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Africa. Although she took courses at The Art Students League and the Corcoran School of Art, Abad stated, “Traveling for me is my art school.” Abad’s practice was distinctly porous, accumulating layersof material, technical, and formal influences throughout her 32-year-long career. Her practice was profoundly influenced by the artisans, seamstresses, craftspeople, journalists, and everyday people she met across her travels. Abad considered her practice to be global rather than defined by any single artistic style or national identity.

To learn more, click here.

Palampore or Canopy (detail), Coastal Southeast India, for the domestic market, 1775–1800, cotton, hand-drawn, mordant-dyed, resist-dyed, 211 × 177 cm

Summer Exhibition

Francesca Galloway‘s summer online catalogue is out now and they are pleased to present a selection of paintings, textiles, and objects from India and Persia. It features textiles produced for domestic and international markets, including a liturgical stole made for an Armenian patron (cat. 9). The paintings feature a Mughal folio of the so-called ‘Burnt Edge’ Ramayana (cat. 1) and two Ragamala folios from a Chamba set (cats. 12a & b). Two varying examples depicting the peoples of India are exemplified by a group of clay figurines (cat. 22) and six studies from the Parlby Album (cat. 23).

Download your copy to view these extraordinary works by clicking here.