Asia Week NY Announces 8-day extravaganza of Gallery Open Houses & Museum Exhibitions

Written by Barry Holland Tuesday, 31 January 2012 21:24

NEW YORK, NY.- For Asia Week New York starting on March 16th, nearly three-dozen galleries will host simultaneous exhibitions to spotlight prized ancient, antique, and contemporary Asian artworks. International and Manhattan dealers will showcase an astonishing array of the best art from China, Japan, Korea, India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. The rarest and finest Asian examples of porcelain, jewelry, paintings, ceramics, sculpture, books, bronzes, prints, photographs, and jades constitute the rich offerings at the 33 specialist gallery presentations, some of which are being unveiled to the public for the first time. With each participating show open to the public, Asia Week New York is organized to welcome Asian Art enthusiasts from around the world.

Carrying forth a mission to celebrate and promote Asian art in New York City, Asia Week New York 2012 is presented through a collaboration of Asian art specialists, auction houses, museums, and Asian cultural institutions in the metropolitan New York area. In addition to the simultaneous Open Houses hosted by 33 art galleries, Asian art auctions will be held at Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle New York, iGavel, and Sotheby’s. At multiple locations, there will also be a variety of other special events related to Asian art, including lectures and symposia by leading experts in the field.

“Asia Week New York demonstrates just how vital New York has become as a leading center for the Asian art market,” says Henry Howard-Sneyd, Chairman of Asia Week New York 2012 and Sotheby’s Chairman, Asian Art, Americas. “In partnership with the renowned cultural institutions and auction houses, the thirty-three participating galleries will offer a unique and extraordinary week of activities and events.”

To launch Asia Week New York on March 16, there will be a private, by-invitation-only reception at The Morgan Library & Museum. “We are absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to host this year’s reception,” says the Morgan’s Director, William M. Griswold. “The Morgan Library and Museum’s collection holds many surprises, and these include a number of Asian manuscripts and works of art. To celebrate Asia Week New York, we are pleased to share with the public several of the Morgan’s fascinating but rarely seen Chinese objects.”

CHINESE ANCIENT THOUGH CONTEMPORARY ART
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, 724 Fifth Avenue, will present as its spring exhibition “A Selection of Fine Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art.” As the title indicates, the collection will feature a choice array of fine Chinese porcelain (Imperial and decorative), as well as jade, pottery, hardstones, and export silver. A notable standout: A fine, very rare Chinese Famille Jaune porcelain vase decorated with floral roundels and ancient dragons; from the Kangxi period, circa early 18th century.

As a first-time participant, Chambers Fine Art, 522 West 19th Street, will show “Seven-Layered Shell.” Included in the exhibition are large-scale installations by Wu Jian’an, one of China’s most celebrated emerging artists. For his creations, Wu Jian’an uses thousands of cut-out forms derived from Chinese mythology.


The Chinese Porcelain Company, 475 Park Avenue, will exhibit “Transcending Reality: New Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou,” showcasing the works of rising artist Tai Xiangzhou. A student of famed artist Liu Dan since 2006, Tai is well-known for his dedication to ancient papermaking and for his exclusive use of 18th-century ink. His deft command of materials is evident in his landscape paintings, in which he reveals the romance between ink and paper. Last year Tai showed in Beijing, New York, Wiesbaden, and at the Sackler Museum at Peking University.

Joe-Hynn Yang, Courage & Joy, Inc., 3 East 66th Street, will present “Serene Glazes, Elegant Forms: A Select Exhibition of Early Chinese Ceramics.” The exhibition includes a pair of painted “Fat Ladies” pottery figures from the Tang Dynasty (617-906 AD). Figures of Tang nobility in the 7th and 8th centuries are often plump, an attribute that became fashionable at the Imperial Court because of the generous proportions of the Emperor’s favorite concubine.

Paris-based Galerie Christian Deydier, exhibiting at Galerie Friedman Vallois, 27 East 67th Street, will present “Treasures from Ancient China IV: The Marcel and Chantal Gerbe Collection.” Included will be a selection of rare archaic bronze vessels from the Shang (1600-1111 BC) and Zhou (1111-265 BC) Dynasties, as well as some beautiful three-color-glaze terracotta figures from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

In a departure from its traditional focus on Chinese porcelains, bronzes and paintings, Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, a new participant with its gallery at 724 Fifth Avenue, will present “In The Valley is Silence,” an exhibition of 24 photographs by Singapore photographer Wee Kheng-Li. Printed on Japanese rice paper specifically produced for archival digital printing and in a limited production run, the images bear the artist’s personal seal made of cinnabar paste. The photographs are mounted on traditional Japanese-size scrolls for hanging in a tokonoma, the alcove found in traditional Japanese homes. Shot with a Leica M8 digital camera, the images were made in the Yanaka district, the oldest neighborhood in Tokyo.

Showing at Mark Murray Gallery, 39 East 72nd Street, Michael C. Hughes LLC will present “Asian Art: Recent Acquisitions,” a number of exceptional and unique pieces ranging from the intimate to the monumental in size. This year, Hughes’ emphasis is on two-dimensional, rather than three-dimensional art, exemplified by a rare two-sided Indian painting, dating from the 17th century, with one side depicting a Muslim nobleman offering a greeting before an armed retinue.

With its “Magnificent Obsessions: China and Japan” exhibition, Kaikodo, 74 East 79th Street, introduces uncommon and unique works to Asia Week, including a large archaic Chinese bronze from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. One of the most important pieces on view is The Ten Bamboo Studio, a rare three-volume set of first-edition pictorial leaves, dating to the Ming Dynasty. It is the most complete example known of the original edition, with all but one pictorial and one poetry leaf. The exhibition also includes an album of flowers, animals, and figures by Ogata Korin, one of the most significant Japanese artists of the 17th century.

J. J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art, 41 East 57th Street, presents “Silver and Gold in Ancient China,” a collection of rare gold and silver vessels, jewelry and objects made for use by the elite, for tribute, and for Buddhist rituals. Over the centuries, war, natural disasters, economic troubles, and changes in fashion, all of these factors have taken their toll on silver and gold objects, most of which were lost, stolen, or melted down. Consequently, ancient Chinese silver and gold are far rarer than ancient Chinese ceramics, jade, or bronze. This exhibition is the largest of its type ever mounted in an American gallery. An exceptionally rare piece in the show is an elaborate openwork Buddhist stupa-form reliquary, which bears a dedicatory inscription as well as a Chinese reign date corresponding to 986 AD.

Pace Prints, 32 East 57th Street, will present its inaugural Asia Week showing with “Chinese & Korean Contemporary Prints—Fang Lijun, Lee Ufan, Yue Minjun and More,” an exhibition of contemporary, limited-edition prints and multiples by 14 artists from China, Japan, and Korea. The featured piece will be The Grassland Series Woodcut 1, Diving Figure by leading Chinese artist Yue Minjun, and also included are woodcuts, known as ukiyo-e, by preeminent Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, and monoprints by Qin Feng.

Together featuring thousands of works of art, the diverse exhibitions during Asia Week New York 2012 will provide an exceptional opportunity to view and enjoy Asian art of the highest caliber.

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