Asian art exhibition: Two Asias, Two Europes at the Duolun Museum of Modern Art

Two Asias, Two Europes: An International exhibition of Contemporary Art
Nov. 4, 2005 - Dec. 28, 2005, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art

The Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art is pleased to present Two Asias, Two Europes, an international exhibition of contemporary art to be launched on Nov. 4, 2005. The exhibition will showcase the latest works of 37 top artists from 14 countries and regions in Asia and Europe in order to present what “Two Asias” and “Two Europes” really means from the view of contemporary art.


Two Asias, Two Europes, theme statement of chief curator Gu Zhenqing

How were the definitions of Asia and Europe made? How do the two continents define each other?

Asia and Europe these two continents boast ancient civilizations, whose evolutions have created a number of art, literature and philosophy systems - varied in styles but mutually correlated - and left a huge and profound impact on man’s life. The present progress of globalization has promoted the codependency between the different political and social mechanisms under different cultural backgrounds. To face the common challenges, people are intensifying the close cooperation and prompting common interests.

The attitude towards Asia agrees with the attitude towards Europe; rather, the issue of Europe and that of Asia are two angles of the same issue.

In 2004 the worldly known outbursts of warfare in Asian region like the counter-terrorism war in Afghanistan and Iraqi war, which took the form of civilization conflicts, are in essence the challenges posed by unilateralism against the post-war world order. With NATO’s eastern expansion, borders between east and west Europe have been wiped out. In the view of Conservatives, the continent is separated into the old and the new- since the days of the old Europe passed away, the future will be a stage for new bloods. In Asia, a continent yet more multicultural, the confrontations between socialist and capitalist camp have been gone as a memory. Does this bring into being a new order? The diversity of culture and the religious frictions hinder the coming of the new order in Asia. In this new century global attention is caught by two Asias, one with rapid growth and the other with sluggish development, even going backwards; the increasing gap between the two will return this continent to public focus and discussion.

The museum establishment, censuses and maps, in the wake of the modern nationalism, come to serve as efficient tools to enhance the cultural self-identification and clear the heterogeneous culture formation. The spontaneous fusion of cultures has been replaced by the political discourse of cultural exchange, a demand raised among nations, and moreover, the exchange patterns bring forth conflicts of civilizations. People of the past would never handle, in the name of cultural exchange, those overseas goods with attached exoticism that was absorbed by the local society years after its introduction. Hence, the detailed analysis reveals the formation of modern European civilization, influenced by the Asian counterpart, contains elements of many other cultures. Regarding the modern Asia, there has been an evident trend of studying or even copying the western culture and institution since the cultural migration. Therefore, the two Asias refer to the Asia per se and its mirror in the histories and social realities of the European countries while the two Europes relate to the very continent and a Europe fancied by the asian countries during the course of their imitation towards the real one.

Rather than the further legalization of orientalism, existing classification and consented plan, the “Two Asias and Two Europes”, through the persistent investigation of two continents’ histories and realities, has made clear the dazzling plural forms of Asia and Europe. Melting away the agreed borders, it brings once again the Europe and Asia to a perilous predefined stage, a zone of uncertainty.

By driving the artists to a worldwide platform in which neo-conservatism prevails, the international contemporary art exhibition Two Asias and Two Europes will form a forum where the contemporary art under the global context can be experienced as a down-to-earth imagination or a rehearsal. Though the globalization progress carries unilateral forces, it is semi-cooked and sees possibilities of any kind. And the future relies on what we are about to doing instead of its current status.


Exhibited European and Asian artists:
Belgium: Wim Delvoye, Koen Vanmechelen
China: Qu Yan, Jin Jiangbo, Song dong, Shen Shaomin, Song Tao, Xu Tan, Yue Luping, etc.
France: Emmanuel Biger, Nina KovachevaฃซValentin Stefanoff
Germany: Alexander Steig, Christianne Oppermann, Dieter Jung, Echardt Westermeier, Harro Schmidt, Susanne Knecht, Susanne Winterling, Timm Ulrichs, Ursula Neugebauer
Holland: Tiong Ang
Japan: Miwa Yanagi
Korea: Jeon Joon-Ho, Lee Han-su
Norway: Marianne Heske, Mette Tronvoll
Poland: Artur Daniel Grabowski, Izabela Gustowska, Jacek Jerzy Staniszewski, Konrad Jakub Kuzyszyn,Slawomir Sobczak, Tomazs Wendland
Singapore: Sookoon Ang
Sweden: Annik Larsson
Taiwan, China: Peng Hungchih, Yao Jui-chung,Vincent J.F. Huang
Thailand: Manit Sriwanichpoom
U. K.: Roger Bourke

Chief Curator: Gu Zhenqing; Co-curators: Harro Schmidt, Tomazs Wendland
Art Director: Shen Qibin
Assistant Curator: Pan Huimin, Yue Luping
Public Relation: Zhao Song
Project Director: Wang Chunshan, Sheng Shanyuan, Bao Zhengyuan


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Asian art Traditions Unbound at the Asian Art Museum

Traditions Unbound: Groundbreaking Painters of Eighteenth-Century Kyoto
December 3, 2005–February 26, 2006, Part I: December 3, 2005–January 8, 2006, Part II: January 11–February 26, 2006

Eighteenth-century Kyoto saw the blossoming of an urban culture of richness, diversity, and originality, in which Japanese art works of the highest quality were produced. The remarkable range of styles that Kyoto embraced in this period is the result of creative transformation and tasteful commercialization of the courtly arts, the selective adaptation of foreign styles from China and the West to traditional Japanese painting, and fearless recognition of the individuality and originality hidden in the minds of artists.

Traditions Unbound: Groundbreaking Painters of Eighteenth-Century Kyoto is a two-part exhibition featuring 61 painted screens, sliding door panels, and scrolls by eight innovative artists who lived in or were active in Kyoto during the eighteenth century. The artists showcased--Watanabe Shiko, Ike Taiga, Yosa Buson, Maruyama Okyo, Goshun, Nagasawa Rosetsu, Soga Shohaku, and Ito Jakuchu--are considered novel because their fresh images and independent spirits are clearly manifested in their paintings.

These artists relentlessly pursued new styles, techniques, and visions by disregarding traditional artistic norms. Contemporary art critics regarded them strange or odd (ki), its meaning can be extended to include “individualists,” “expressionists,” even “eccentrics.” In the end, the painters succeeded in expressing themselves in startling new images.

The artworks on view in Traditions Unbound are borrowed from prestigious museums and private holdings in Japan as well as the United States, and seven works are designated by the Japanese government as Important Cultural Properties or Important Art Objects.

Please note: The artworks in this exhibition are divided into two separate installations. The first grouping of paintings is on view December 3, 2005 through January 8, 2006. The second grouping is on view January 11 through February 26, 2006. The galleries will be closed on Tuesday, January 10 to accommodate the installation of the second grouping.

Organized by the Asian Art Museum, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, and the Kyoto National Museum.



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Asian art exhibition: Tokyo – Berlin / Berlin – Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

Tokyo – Berlin / Berlin – Tokyo, A Tale of Two Cities
Exploring a Mutual Fascination that Has Shaped the Art and Culture of Tokyo and Berlin for Over a Century
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 28 January (Sat) – 7 May (Sun) 2006


A joint project and exhibition planned by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin is to be shown in Tokyo from January 28 to May 7, 2006 and in Berlin from June 7 to October 3, 2006. This exhibition examines for the first time the cultural contacts between the two capitals from the end of the nineteenth century until now, a time in which both cities have become established as centers of avant-garde art and literature.


The exhibition combines fine art, nihonga, prints, design, architecture, film, photography, video and computer art borrowed from leading German, Japanese and other public and private collections. The installation at the Neue Nationalgalerie, with its close link to Japanese architecture in Mies van der Rohe’s design, will echo the proportions and style of traditional Japanese art. The exhibition in Tokyo will fall within the remit of the Germany in Japan year 2005-2006 and presents an entirely new view of the development of modern Japanese art, photography and architecture


Japan’s interest in Berlin begins with the Die-Takeuchi Mission to Europe including Berlin in 1862, the employment of German technical specialists and the first students it sent to the Humboldt University during the latter half of the nineteenth century; more than six hundred Japanese students had studied there before the First World War. From the 1880s Berlin architects Hermann Ende and Wilhelm Bockmann were in Tokyo designing official buildings for the Japanese government and their Ministry of Justice (1887) can still be seen. On return to Berlin they incorporated a number of “exotic” Japanese elements in their designs for the Berlin Zoo.


For Berlin, the capital of German Impressionism, Expressionism, New Objectivity and Bauhaus, the abstract qualities of Japanese art and architecture, were both an inspiration and an ideal that extended far beyond the ‘fever for Japan’ of the nineteenth century to encompass an aesthetic of simplicity and fitness for purpose that have been an inspiration to many leading artists, architects and designers from the 1920s to the present.


At the turn of the century, fascinated by the exoticism, elegance and craftsmanship of Japanese art and design, Berlin artist Emil Orlik and japanologist Fritz Rumpf came to Tokyo to take a closer look. At the same time Japanese artists like Kobayashi Mango traveled to Berlin where they found out about western methods of painting and ways of seeing. In architecture too, the proportions and structural methods of traditional Japanese architecture strongly influenced Berlin modernist architects of the 1920s and 1930s including Walter Gropius, head of the Bauhaus, Erich Mendelsohn, Mies van der Rohe and Bruno Taut. Taking refuge from the National Socialists Taut lived in Japan from 1933 to 1936 and stayed for a time in Tokyo where he wrote his famous book on Japanese art and architecture “Ich Liebe die Japanische Kultur” [I love Japanese Culture].


Paris was traditionally regarded as the art capital of the world yet we can now also see that Berlin also played a vitally important role in Japan’s cultural development. In 1914 the avant-garde Berlin gallery Der Stürm held a seminal exhibition in Tokyo and during the chaos that followed the end of the First World War a number of young Japanese artists led by Murayama Tomiyoshi moved between Tokyo and Berlin participating in the Dada movement as well as in experimental theatre, dance and architecture. Murayama’s MAVO group was extremely influential in establishing modernism in Tokyo. German Expressionist film also made a considerable impact in Tokyo at this time as did the “New Photography” of the mid and late 1920s. FIFO, the Film and Photo exhibition that had previously been shown in Stuttgart and Berlin traveled to Tokyo in 1931.


During the dark years of dictatorship and militarism during the 1930s and early ‘40s the best art in both cities is marked by a sense of freedom and resistance. After the devastation of war both cities had to struggle to rebuild their fabric and create their own “economic miracles” and artists had to find new ways of working that were not compromised by the past. Split between East and West Berlin became a divided city; the west favored abstract art often on an American or French model, the East produced more heroic realistic work influenced by Soviet Socialist Realism. Clear cultural links were again established in the Subjektiv Fotografie of the mid-1950s and the Fluxus movement at the beginning of the 1960s that brought together a number of German and Japanese members.


In Tokyo the exhibition will end by concentrating on the diversity and vitality of the Berlin art scene today. In Berlin the ground floor of the Neue Nationalgalerie will be devoted to an equally stimulating display of the contemporary Tokyo scene.


The following German and Japanese artists will be represented in the exhibition:
Akasegawa Genpei, Hijikata Yoshi + Murayama Tomoyoshi, Ishimoto Kikuji, Kawabata Ryushi, Kawara On, Kishida Ryusei, Kitadai Shozo + Otsuji Kiyoji, Kon Wajiro, Okamoto Taro, Saito Yoshishige + Otsuji Kiyoji, Takizawa Mayumi, Tamamura Hokuto, Teshigahara Sofu + Otsuji Kiyoji, Tsuchiura Kameki, Yamada Mamoru, Yamaguchi Bunzo + Yamaguchi Eichi, Yamaguchi Katsuhiro + Otsuji Kiyoji, Yamawaki Iwao, Max Beckmann, Marcel Breuer, David Burliuk, Hermann Ende ＆ Wilhelm Böckmann, Raoul Hausmann, Erich Heckel, Hannah Höch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Ludwig Meidner, Erich Mendelsohn, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Wilhelm Morgner, Max Pechstein, Hans Poelzig, Horst Strempel, Bruno Taut, and many others.



An international team of specialists has prepared the exhibition and a fully illustrated catalogue will be published in Japanese and German editions.

A supporting program of films, performances, lectures and symposia will be held in connection with the exhibition.

Organizers: Mori Art Museum; SMB, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Asahi Shimbun
Under the Auspices of the Embassy of The Federal Republic of Germany in Japan
Supported by: Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc.; Toei Company
Additional support by: Committee for 2005/2006 Deutschland in Japan

Curators: Berlin: Angela Schneider, Gabriele Knapstein, Andres Lepik and Tokyo: David Elliott, Nanjo Fumio, Hirose Mami, Kataoka Mami

For more information, contact the Mori Art Museum:
Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-6150 Japan
Tel: 03-5777-8600


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Asian art gallery in Northern Thailand: the Nan Riverside Art Gallery

Founded by a famous Thai artist to promote Northern Thai artists

Nan Riverside Art Gallery was founded by Winai Prabripoo, a famous Thai artist, with the objective to give experienced and emerging Thai artists residing in Northern Thailand the opportunity to present their works outside the Thai art capitals of Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Located on the banks of the Nan river (on Thawangpha road, kilometer 20 between Muang and Thawangpha districts), the off-the-beaten tracks gallery is nested in a gorgeous landscape of mountains and water.

Originally constructed as Winai Prabripoo’s residence and art studio, the building was later developed to accommodate a gallery, presenting both his paintings created during the last 22 years and other Thai artists creations. Most works presented are from modern Thai artists, and include abstract and semi-abstract creations from great Thai art masters.

Whether you are a serious Asian art collector or curious to learn more on Thai contemporary art, a visit to the Nan Riverside Gallery is highly recommended, not only for the quality selection of paintings on show, but also for the gorgeous and serene landscapes and the beautiful buildings combining teak wood and river polished stone.

Location and opening hours
The Gallery is easily accessible by road transportation form the City of Nan, and opened Wednesdays to Sundays from 10.00 am to 5 pm.


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Asian art Gallery in Bangkok: La Lanta

Connecting to art

La Lanta was founded with the objective to introduce art into people’s everyday life, whether art skills, art images or other art media and art experiences.

La Lanta values the talents of Thai and international artists. They are an active promoter of Asian arts and their activities range from organizing paintings and sculptures exhibitions by Thai and Asian artists to offering art workshops and promoting licensed art prints from international artists.

They regularly showcase exhibitions, in their gallery as well as other locations in Thailand, to present and promote Thai artists and other Asian creators, both emerging and established talents. Among the emerging Thai artists they represent are: Viroj Rattabajamcharoen, Wiwat Nantirak, Chaiwat Kamfung and Alonkorn Siprasert.

La Lanta also offers an extensive collection of licensed fine art prints of international and Asian artists, as well as custom framing services and various art related items such as ready-made frames, books and notebooks.

True to their mission of connecting people to art, they organize different art classes, led by experienced Thai art teachers, for beginners as well as more experienced painters. Art classes are offered every week throughout the year and new attendees can join at anytime. To encourage a better learning experience, classes are limited to 5-8 attendants per session.

La Lanta art gallery is conveniently located in downtown Bangkok at the All Season Place Retail Center on Wireless Road.

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Asian art gallery in Singapore: HeinArt Gallery

Bringing art closer to the people in Singapore

HeinArt Gallery opened in April 2004 with the mission to bring art closer to the people.

They firmly believe that education and sharing are important elements in bringing art to the people. They also believe strongly in supporting new and up-coming Singaporean artists and encouraging Asian art new talents to pursue their creative passions.

The artworks presented by HeinArt are contemporary Singaporean art and other Asian artworks in oils, acrylic, watercolor, sculptures and ceramics.

HeinArt Gallery started with participation at ART Singapore, the contemporary Asian art fair at the SUNTEC Convention Centre, and has held numerous exhibitions at its gallery since then.

Among the Singaporean and other Asian artists recently exhibited at the art gallery are the painters Tiong Tian Tong, Chen Chong En and Tay Bak Chang; Singaporean sculptors Ken Kua and Lim Guan Huat; and Singaporean ceramic artists Ya Chye and Ken Kua.


Location and opening hours:

HeinArt Gallery at Chinatown Point is located next to the historic district of Kreta Ayer in Chinatown, and at the fringe of the Central Business District and in close proximity to Raffles Place, the financial hub of Singapore. There is an underground car park and the Chinatown MRT station is just besides the building.

The gallery occupies an area of 800 square feet of display space, designed in a minimalist and friendly interior style.

It is opened everyday except Mondays, from11 am to 7 pm.

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Asian art news: Regional judges announced for 2006 Sovereign Asian art prize

The Sovereign Art Foundation has confirmed six judges for the 2006 Sovereign Asian Art Prize giving representation from around the region.

Judges for the 3rd annual Asian art prize are now confirmed as Ark Fongsmut (Thailand), Dr Alice Guillermo (Philippines), Claire Hsu (Hong Kong), Fumio Nanjo (Japan), Dr Gao Shiming (China) and Enin Supriyanto (Indonesia).

These highly acclaimed judges will bring the broadest possible expertise across the region to find the best of Asian contemporary art and provide critical insight to and understanding of the regions best works.

The Sovereign Asian Art Prize invites the regions best artists to compete for the first prize of US$25,000. Those who make the shortlist of the top 30 best works will enjoy an exhibition in a major public space in Hong Kong and perhaps other cities around the region. Later an auction and gala dinner will be held in association with Sotheby’s in Hong Kong with all proceeds going to assist the charitable work of the foundation.

The Sovereign Art Foundation would like to thank Cathay Pacific Airways for sponsoring the flights for the judges and the prize-winning artist to come to Hong Kong.

For more information: tiffany@sovereignartfoundation.com


2006 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Judges’ biographies


Ark Fongsmut (Thailand)
Born in 1964 in Bangkok, Thailand, Ark received his BA and MA in Political Science from Chulalongkorn University in 1986 and 1989 respectively. He began his career in curatorship in 1996 at Baan Chao Phraya Gallery, a non-profit art space, before taking up an MA course in Fine Art Administration and Curatorship at Goldsmiths College, London in 1999. His curatorial practices play with the diverse meanings of art space both inside the gallery and public space. His previous art projects amongst others include The Month of Photography Bangkok 2 at ten art spaces in Bangkok, Present Perfect at Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art (the dilapidated art centre), the Thai- Filipino Artists Exchange Project, etc.

Besides working as a curator at Bangkok University Gallery, Ark also teaches Visual Art Administrations at several leading universities such as Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University, Silpakorn University, Thammasat University and is a feature writer for magazines, newspapers and art catalogues.


Dr Alice Guillermo (Philippines)
Alice Guerrero-Guillermo studied at the Universite d’Aix-Marseille in France where she obtained her doctoral degree in Philippine Studies. In 1976, she won the art criticism award of the Art Association of the Philippines. She has written widely on art, culture, and politics, and has read papers in numerous local and international conferences.

In 1995-96, she did research in postmodernism in Japanese art under a Japan Foundation Fellowship. In 1999 she was awarded the distinction of Centennial Honoree for the Arts (Art Criticism) by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Among her books are Image to Meaning , a collection of critical essays and reviews which won the Gintong Aklat Award and Protest/Revolutionary Art in the Philippines 1970-1990, an art-historical dissertation which won the UP Chancellor’s Award for Best Book. She is also co-author of Tanaw, Perspectives on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Painting Collection. Dr. Guillermo has taught in the Art Studies Department of the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines where she is now Professor Emeritus.


Claire Hsu (Hong Kong)

Upon graduating with a MA in History of Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Claire moved back to Hong Kong in December 2000 to co-found the Asia Art Archive. As its first executive director, Claire has overseen all aspects of setting up the Asia Art Archive, from fund-raising, communication and marketing to develping the database, website and physical archive.

Claire is committed to raising awareness and understanding of contemporary Asian art and developing Hong Kong as an importat centre for visual art.


Fumio Nanjo (Japan)

Fumio Nanjo (b.1949) is currently the Deputy Director of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. He is also an art critic and a lecturer at Keio University, Tokyo.

Nanjo has organized numerous exhibitions and his main achievements include: commissioner of the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1997); commissioner of the Taipei Biennale (1998); member of the jury committee of the Turner Prize by the Tate Gallery (1998); co-curator of the 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1999); member of the selection committee of the Sydney Biennale (2000); director for the Japan Pavilion at EXPO 2000 in Hanover; artistic co-director of the Yokohama Triennale (2001); a selector of Artes Mundi Prize in Wales, UK in 2004. He has also been appointed artistic director of the first Singapore Biennale.

Advisory positions include: vice president of Association International des Critiques d' Art (AICA); board member of Comité International des Musées d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (CIMAM). Also involved in selection committees of several art awards and artist-in-residence programmes, including the 51st Venice Biennale (jury member of the Leon d'Or Prize).


Dr Gao Shiming (China)

Gao Shiming is an associate professor in the Department of Criticism and Art History as well as the Executive Director of the Center of Visual Cultural Research at the China Academy of Art. His main research interests are the intellectual history of art, visual culture research, curatorial practices, and his recent curatorial projects include serving as assistant curator to the 2004 Shanghai Biennale and executive curator of an investigative project, Edges of the Earth: Migration of Contemporary Art and Regional Politics in Asia. Dr Gao is an active contributor to various publications, journals, and exhibition catalogs.


Enin Supriyanto (Indonesia)

Enin Supriyanto studied at the Fine Art and Design Department in 1984 at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia moving on to work as an Art Director and then Creative Director for an advertising agency in Jakarta. Enin also currently serves as guest curator for Bentara Budaya Jakarta, a cultural centre in Jakarta. Exhibitions he has curated include “Search and Changes: The Works of Mochtar Apin”, Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta (2006), “Equatorial Heat” at the Sichuan Art Museum in China and “The Olympics, Celebrating Humanity”, at the Nadi Gallery. Enin also participated in the Asia-Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Arts, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art as a writer and guest speaker.

Enin has also worked as an editor for “Bentara”, a monthly art and culture special section of Kompas, the largest daily newspaper in Jakarta. His major publications as a writer/editor include: “Perjalanan Seni Lukis Indonesia, dari Koleksi Bentara Budaya” (Short History of Indonesian Modern Art from the Collection of Bentara Budaya) and “Setengah Abad Seni Grafis Indonesia” (Half a Century of Indonesian Modern Printmaking).

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