LuxArtAsia

Asia Society Museum presents an exhibition of 227 photographs taken by Ai Weiwei, capturing the history, culture, and atmosphere of 1980s New York . They are also a poignant and powerful chronicle of Ai’s artistic vision and emerging political consciousness during his time there.



Louboutin's ad campaign

George de la Tour - Magdalen and the Flame

Not Asian Art, but I couldn't resist posting those photos from the latest advertising campaign of Christian Louboutin, next to the originals.

Young Taiwanese artist Chou Chu Wang's children may have angelic features, but they are also full of mischief.

TAKASHI MURAKAMI 3-Meter Girl, 2011 © Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Prototype of work to be exhibited: modeling by BOME, original rendering by Seiji Matsuyama

Murakami’s latest group of paintings explores his complex ambivalence to the legacy of cosmopolitan painter Kuroda Seiki, who brought yōga or Western-style painting to Meiji- period Japan. Kuroda broadly promoted the genre of history painting, as well as the validity of the nude figure as a subject for art.

“ANGELS FACE TO THE FUTURE”, 2007, Heri Dono

Trans-Figurations - Indonesian Mythologies is a new exhibition at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris which invites visitors to discover an energetic and effervescent generation of Indonesian artists, primarily living in Yogyakarta, a hive of artistic creativity. On display are eleven artists whose works have either be especially produced for the show or reconfigured for it.

CITY DNA NAPA, 2011

 Lu Xianjian paints aerial views of cities on Google Earth reconfiguring architecture, landscape and human activities into short exclamatory lines, circles and squares, woving them into a colossal networks.

A new exhibition by a Hanoi-based painter Le Thong present a romantic ideal of Asian beauty. Like a poem on a canvas, the figures exist in a world between dream and reality, the delicate face and slender hands drawn in minute detail, while the figures are half hidden behind a textured surface suggesting the soft, luxuriant folds of silk fabric.

Acording to ArtTactic, the Indian Modern and Contemporary art market continues the negative trend as other global art markets are on the rise.

CHENG RAN Ghost of Tundra #1, 2010

Over the past decade, while the West consumed new art from China, a new generation of Chinese artists also imagined America as the center of contemporary art discourse.  "Catch the Moon in the Water: Emerging Chinese Artists" - at James Cohan Gallery- showcases a group of young Chinese artists and their thoughts and responses to America as an exotic and remote source of inspiration.

Marc Zuckerberg, the latest source of inspiration for artists?

During the Edo Period (18th century) the great Japanese urban centers of Tokyo and Kyoto experienced a cultural efflorescence that lead to significant developments in art and aesthetics. The Etsuko and Joe Price Collection in one of the finest of Japanese art of the period and is now showing at the Bowers Museum in California.

The oil paintings of Alex Shou are as much about capturing a mood and atmosphere as they are about recording actual imageries.

The total sales value of Chinese contemporary works increased from $106.2 million in autumn 2010 to $156.3 million in spring 2011 - a 47.2% increase, which shows that the contemporary Chinese art market is rapidly gaining back the momentum, which was lost in 2008 and 2009.

An ingenous and creative take on Louis Vuitton's small leather goods.

Eighty year old U Lun Gywe is regarded as Burma's most prominent master painter. A new exhibition at Thavibu Gallery in Bangkok, starting on the 17th, and a limited edition coffee table book celebrate his talent.

Opera Gallery Singapore is opening Thursday “K-Pop Art,” an exhibition focused on Korean artists who are primarily expressing themselves (though not exclusively) in Pop Art style.

Working the System

For his first solo exhibition, Singaporean graffiti artist TraseOne also known by his tag TR853-1 continues his jeux de mots and use of sewn red strings on his witty canvases.

OHD Museum of Modern and Contemporary Indonesian Art

Villus　2009

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents "Kohei Nawa: Synthesis" - a solo exhibition presenting the work of Kohei Nawa (1975-), who develops sculpture and spatial expressions utilizing the concept of the ‘Cell’.

Xiao Hong's solo exhibition at MOCA, Museum of Contemporary is opening tonight.

Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India's best-known artists, died of a heart attack at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London on Thursday. He was 96.

Two high end art galleries have opened in Singapore in as many weeks and the latest one is centrally located and right across from the Peranakan Museum on Armenian Street.

The Crowing with Thorns

The Pace Gallery, Beijing will open this week a solo exhibition of Yue Minjun's recent works.

Alfredo Aquilizan

"Stories of Dreams and Realities - Contemporary Art from the Philippines" is a new exhibition opening today at Rossi and Rossi art gallery in London, in collaboration with The Drawing Room Gallery in Manila. 

Saffronart, the indian fine-art auction house, will showcase an important selection of works by modern masters and contemporary artists Jun 15-16.

I have seen artistic collaborations between Chinese artists and watchmakers and even seen panda designs on watches (Titoni’s panda watch with Zhang Qikai), but this unique new watch by MB&F for the Only Watch project is truly special.

Time to reflect on the Christie’s Hong Kong Spring sale and dissect some of those data. Overall the 6-day sale brought in about $470 million .

Chan-Hyo Bae's "Existing in Costume Prince Frog"

With Charles Saatchi planning a major exhibition of Korean contemporary art in London for next year, the international art world is about to discover what Asian collectors already know: Korean art is hot!

Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), Katsura Island, Matsushima from the series Souveniers of Travels, First Collection. Japan, summer 1919

Since ancient times the Bay of Matsushima on the Pacific coast of Japan has been celebrated for its natural beauty. Located at the northern end of Miyagi Prefecture, the coastline curves eastward to form a sheltered bay dotted with more than 260 small picturesque islands covered with pine trees. Literally known as “pine islands,” Matsushima is considered one of Japan’s three most beautiful sites. For centuries poets and artists have journeyed to Matsushima, where they are inspired to interpret the breathtaking landscape in words and images.

On March 11, the most powerful known quake to hit Japan, and a subsequent tsunami, devastated this region. More than fifteen thousand local residents lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands more lost their homes.

Despite its proximity to the epicenter, Matsushima is one of the few places along the Sanriku coast that remained largely intact. Most severely stricken were the areas of Sendai, located to the south of Matsushima, and Rikuzentakata to the north. The islands that stud the natural shelter of the bay acted as a buffer and apparently lessened the full impact of the tsunami’s fury. Zuiganji, the Buddhist temple complex at Matsushima, and much of the surrounding landscape survived. Fishing boats were destroyed and oyster beds were damaged, but locals maintain Matsushima protected their lives

"Waves at Matsushima," on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery through July 5 pays homage to this iconic coastal site. For centuries artists and poets have been drawn to the beauty of Matsushima and its Buddhist temple complex, interpreting the breathtaking landscape in words and images. Their paintings and prints not only record an area now altered by the recent earthquake and tsunami, they also pay homage to Japan, its history and its art, and the resilience of its people and land.

The exhibition features four prints by Kawase Hasui, a painter and print designer who worked to revive traditional Japanese woodblock prints in the early 20th century. Hasui repeatedly depictured the quiet rhythm of life and the cycle of the seasons at Matsushima. His prints present romantic views of Matsushima in the moonlight, fantastical rock formations of Zaimoku Island and snow on the famous Buddhist temple Godaido, which miraculously withstood the tsunami's waves.

Three hundred years earlier, Tawaraya Sotatsu, an artist active in the early 17th century, created pair of screens, also on view, representing waves at Matsushima. The brilliant paintings on this pair of folding screens are considered to be among the masterpieces of the Freer collection, made by one of the Edo period's most talented and innovative artists.

Over the past 20 years, Zeng Fanzhi has made a name for himself in the contemporary art world with his introspective works. His famous Mask series in the 1990s, when he depicted Beijing urbanites wearing white masks to reflect how the members of a new, upwardly mobile generation hide their true selves, brought him international recognition — one painting, Mask Series 1996 No. 6, sold for $9.66 million in May 2008 at Christie’s Hong Kong, a record for a Chinese contemporary artist at the time. Then in the mid-2000s, Mr. Zeng reinvented his style, partly as a result of an injury to his right hand. Holding one or two brushes in his left hand, he started experimenting with chaotic strokes, creating and destroying his images at the same time. He continued with this style even after his hand healed. Now the painter, who is based in Beijing, is on a new creative path, tackling different subjects and artistic disciplines. They were featured in a sculpture and art installation at the Hong Kong Convention Center last week.

Having spent most of his career focusing on the human form and portraits — in his Mask series as well as his “wild strokes” series — the artist has more recently turned his focus to the plight of nature as he explores, in various mediums, mankind’s destructive influences. He presented his first sculptures last year in a show at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. The exhibition opening this week in Hong Kong, “Being,” will feature 36 works, including some of the sculptures shown at Rockbund as well as several pieces on the theme of animals and nature using his “wild strokes” technique. 

Mr. Zeng has visited nature reserves in China to observe species on the verge of extinction, in particular the golden monkey, and he says he is concerned about the ecological degradation and poor animal conservation record in his native country. One of his works in the exhibition, “The Leopard,” was auctioned at Christie’s Hong Kong, and sold for over $4 million. Read the whole story in the  IHT