Art hopping in NY

12/26/2022

Art, Ask a Mongolian, Celestial Gallery, Out & About, Reflections, Spiritual

Alex Katz, art hopping, Asia Society Museum, Asian art, Asian artists, Buddhism, Chinese Identity, Mandala, MSCHF, multidisciplinary art, Nam June Paik, new media works, New York, Nick Cave, Nick Doyle, Perrotin Gallery, sacred arts, soundsuits, Stand Burnside, Thangka art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Rubin Museum, video art, web3, Yang Fudong

I managed to catch some great exhibitions in NY before the new years. I started @ the Guggenheim Museum with Al ex Katz: Gathering and Nick Cave: Forothermore. I enjoyed seeing Alex Katz’s retrospective from his intimate early sketches, large color planes, abstracted landscapes to freestanding cutout works.

I came to gug to see Nick Cave whom I admired since his soundsuits. I loved seeing his dynamic oeuvre of multidisciplinary works featuring sculpture, installation, video, and rarely seen early works. Each discipline shared similar symbolic tropes and an meticulous attention to detail. Cave is such a master of materials and color, his installation with black arms grabbing onto black arms creating an arm chainlink was powerful and held quite a heavy presence in the space.

I visited Asia Society Museum and saw Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity and Visionary Legacies: A Tribute to Harold J. Newman. Most of the exhibits featured new media works in video, web3, interactive and installation. I especially enjoyed seeing Nam June Paik’s robot tv video sculpture and the black & white 35mm short films of Yang Fudong.

Perrotin had three levels of stellar exhibits from MSCHF: NO MORE TEARS I’M LOVIN’ IT, Stan Burnside: As Time Goes On and Nick Doyle: Yes Daddy. I really enjoyed Stand Burnside’s dark moody paintings.

As a Buddhist whose father makes Thangka paintings, the sacred arts has remained a dominant stylistic influences in my art. I finally got to see The Rubin which featured over six floors of art and interactive stations based on Buddhism and mindfulness themes ranging from historic Thangka paintings and sculptures, the Praying Room, Shrine Room, Mandala Lab and ancient Thangka murals. It was interesting to note the influence Mongolia had on the history of Buddhism and the sacred arts. I found some rare Thangka paintings and a deity sculpture from 13th century Mongolia. I loved seeing the different Thangka deity variations from different Asian cultures over time, especially the evolution of the Green Tara depicted over time by different cultures. How wonderful there is a museum solely dedicated to the Buddhist arts.