Topic Archives: Museums

While not strictly related to contemporary or visual art in Asia, we thought this social media experiment undertaken by Powerhouse Museum in Sydney was worth highlighting. The museum took part in Ask a Curator Day, a global activity that utilises the wonders of social media as a primary avenue for museum curators and audiences to interact. While Twitter is generally the favoured communication platform on this day, Powerhouse made the decision to focus on Facebook instead – Twitter’s 140 character restriction was revealed to make any real discussion difficult. Continue reading →

Celebrated for his “gunpowder drawings,” in which different types and colors of gunpowder are ignited against a surface, creating ethereal and smoky images, Cai Guo-Qiang executed “Odyssey”, the largest gunpowder drawing he has ever made to date, on the span of 42 panels totaling 10 by 162 feet, commissioned by Museum of Fine Art Houston (MFAH) early this October. Continue reading →

SOUTH KOREA CONTEMPORARY ART INTERVIEW CURATOR Art Radar Asia recently spoke with German-born curator Tobias Berger, who currently holds the position of Chief Curator at the Nam June Paik Art Center, about the Center’s exhibition “The Penguin that goes to … Continue reading →

TIBETAN CONTEMPORARY ART NEW YORK MUSEUM SHOWS Until October 18, Rubin Museum, usually New York’s home for traditional art of the Himalayas, will run the first Tibetan contemporary art show in the city. Titled “Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond“, this … Continue reading →

PHOTOGRAPHY INSTALLATION LIGHT BOXES MUSEUM SHOWS RUSSIA ISRAEL ITALY Artist Lena Liv takes her shots in the early morning, capturing various Moscow subway stations before people crowd the architecture. Her interest in these Stalin-era “palaces for the Proletariat” may stem … Continue reading →

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART PUBLICATION Asia Art Archive (AAA) and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrate the completion of two documentary projects that are essential to a deeper understanding of the history of contemporary Chinese art: AAA’s Materials of the … Continue reading →

JAPANESE KOREAN ARTIST MUSEUM OPENINGS MODERNISM An article by The Japan Times covers the opening of a brand new art museum in Japan dedicated to the Korean-born artist Lee Ufan. The article features an extensive interview in which the artist … Continue reading →

KOREAN CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS EMERGING ARTISTS “The Penguin that goes to the Mountain“, an exhibition of contemporary art by young and emerging Korean artists, recently finished up this month at the Nam June Paik Art Center (NJPAC). It took … Continue reading →

ART TOURS TIPS AND RESOURCES MUSEUMS TOUR GUIDES In a recent blog post, Nina Simon, author of The Participatory Museum, a book that talks about practical innovations to enhance community and visitor participation in the museum experience, looks at the simple yet effective model … Continue reading →

INTERVIEW ASIAN ART MUSEUM CONTEMPORARY ART PAKISTANI ARTISTS Revolutions come far and few in between in the museum world. This season promises to be different. The Musée Guimet, France’s leading ancient Asian art museum, has opened its doors to contemporary Asian … Continue reading →

KOREAN ASEAN CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION Created to showcase the range of dynamic contemporary photography coming from Korean and Southeast Asian artists, “Emerging Wave“, currently on view at the GoEun Museum of Photography in Busan (South Korea), features works from 27 artists … Continue reading →

YOUTUBE GUGGENHEIM VIDEO ART ONLINE BIENNIALS The world’s most popular online platform for video sharing, YouTube, will soon be put to the test as a potential new platform for art expression in joint initiative with the Guggenheim Museum. Launched this year, … Continue reading →

HONG KONG ART MUSEUMS The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) seems to be taking its plans to develop a world-class cultural district in Hong Kong seriously. After appointing ex-Barbican (London) Artistic Director, Graham Sheffield as the CEO of the … Continue reading →

A look at Shanghai – visual culture of a city mapped over 160 years that charts its transformation from a humble port town to a bustling cosmopolitan city. At the Museum of Asian Art, San Francisco. Continue reading →

INDIAN ART AMERICAN ART MUSEUM COLLECTIONS This year, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has acquired three major works on loan from the Harmony Art Foundation: Anish Kapoor’s Halo (2006), Francis Newton Souza’s Birth (1955)and Paritosh Sen’s Amhedabad scene (1984). “We … Continue reading →

HONG KONG CURATOR INTERVIEW For a place that has been repeatedly touted as a cultural desert, Hong Kong has managed to attract arts practitioners from many walks of life who are dedicated to working with the challenging realities present within … Continue reading →

It is now 30 years since the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Korea, held its first Young Korean Artists exhibition. The exhibition, founded in 1981, quickly became a fundamental one within Korea and around the world, renowned for … Continue reading →

Ai Weiwei is first artist from Asia Pacific to create installation in Tate’s Turbine Hall   Prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will be the next artist in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall for the Unilever series (12 Oct 2010-25 Apr … Continue reading →

PAKISTANI ART IN UNITED STATES The Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan exhibition presented by the Asia Society Museum has recently wrapped up in New York City, but you can still get a taste for the show in this video, … Continue reading →

Taipei Arts Awards celebrates works of talented up-and-comers Four winners have been selected from 380 submitted works in the Taipei Arts Awards 2009. Ni Xiang, Chang Li-ren, Chang Huei-ming and Tao Mei-yu won with large-scale mixed-media installation pieces. The judging … Continue reading →

Taiwan’s top painters represented in Touring Taiwan: Highlights from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum Collection As part of a cultural exchange between Taiwan and Korea, the Busan Museum of Art is currently showing Touring Taiwan: Highlights from the Taipei Fine … Continue reading →

CHINESE ART AND POLITICS China wants its own version of  Hollywood. An intriguing article in the Toronto Star examines China’s growing recognition that media and culture can be a powerful tool to spread political, social and economic ideologies beyond its borders much … Continue reading →

QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO SINGAPORE’S CULTURAL TREASURES Singapore is home to a diverse offering of heritage attractions ranging from arts, history, culture, lifestyle, science, to healthcare. According to the Renaissance City Plan III developed by the National Heritage Board, as … Continue reading →

CHINESE ARTIST PROFILE Ai Wei Wei is vying with Cai Guo Qiang to become the most famous contemporary Chinese artist in the world claims Artinfo in its must-read quote-dense 4 page profile produced on the occasion of  Ai Wei Wei’s first … Continue reading →

RUSSIAN ART MUSEUMS Two new contemporary art museums are planned for Moscow reports Artinfo. National Centre for Contemporary Art Mikhail Mindlin and Leonid Bazhanov, directors of the National Centre for Contemporary Art in Moscow, initiated the plan to establish a … Continue reading →