Ceiling (26 April 2026)

 The ceiling above Shiota's show was also vivid, but more geometric.

Blood and biology at Chiharu Shiota show (26 April 2026)

I work at a cancer medicine company, and some of the art by this artist, who was treated for a cancer, really resonated with me!

 

June Highlights: Asian Art Museum (15 June 2025)

I dropped by the Asian on a hot afternoon, and refreshed myself with gorgeous art.

 

Paintings on a Green Wall

 I love the lighting and the colors in the galleries at the Asian...

The left piece is Mountain Beyond Mountains by Liu Guosong from 1967, and feels completely contemporary to me.

The middle piece is Landscape in Clouds by Li Huayi from 2007, and has amazing textures that make me realize why granulation in watercolor is increasingly popular.  

The right piece is also great, but the leftmost pieces felt most relevant to me.

Egg Woman II by SoHyun Bae (SF Asian Art Museum)

The blues have an iridescent sheen that isn't visible from this angle.  I like this piece very much. 

Three layer hat

I remain fascinated by transparent, geometric hats.  How did this convey any sort of authority?

Green, such a gorgeous green

And the sheen on it...  *swoon*  (oh look, I already have a tag for hanbok in my directory, who knew...)

Hallyu: Neon

San Francisco's Asian Art Museum wasn't too crowded today, so I was free to wander through Hallyu! The Korean Wave and enjoy its many charms (though I wasn't willing to go into the room where you could try dance moves from K-Pop bands, for the safety of others who might hurt them selves collapsing with laughter at the sight of me).

Weird Neon

 The last installation from the Takashi Murakami exhibit remains and makes the east window pop!

Bell (detail)

 

Fun at the Asian Art Museum 2

The show of Bronze artifacts from China is well staged, artfully lit, and quite impressive.  I explored other parts of the musuem as well. 

Fun at the Asian Art Museum 1

Scenes from a stimulating afternoon at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum.  I especially enjoyed a series of prints by Mayumi Oda (mayumioda.net) such as the one in the upper right hand corner, which are so contemporary while evoking traditional symbols.  (The rodents have adorable little aprons AND the interview text on the wall is delightful.  Go see her work!) 

Textile Fun at the SF Asian Art Museum

I was delighted to spend this afternoon at the Asian exploring Weaving Stories, an exhibition of textiles from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The textures and colors were GREAT!

There were multiple videos screening which showed the complex techniques used to make the different fabrics...  There's a lot of work in pattern design, yarn-making, dyeing, loop preparations, resist-applications...  It's all fantastic to see.  There is some amazingly gorgeous work, and it's great to see videos of the artisans who have these wild skills.

I dress very plainly, but I appreciate the technical and creative brilliance that went into these fabrics.

Jayashree Chakravarty's Personal Space (at the Asian)

This is an amazing piece to experience up close!  This is a small collage with two details of Jayashree Chakravarty's installation Personal Space.  (If you click the link, you can see the artist speaking about her work and showing her layering approach, which is really helpful to see to understand.). It has depth, texture, abstract and representational drawings, translucency, interesting play of light and shadow...  The more you look, the more you find!

Gorgeous suspended sculptures (detail) at the Asian Art Museum

(Collage showing partial light/shadows on small parts of these two sculptural installations, not the entire work, which you'll really want to see in person!  GO!) 

One of these installations I've visited repeatedly, and the other is new to me!

Lia Jianhua's Collected Letters (left) is a long time favorite; Afruz Amighi's My House, My Tomb (right) is new to me and on the right.  If you follow the link, you'll get to see a video of Amighi's other work, and hear her discuss it.  It's a great installation, and I love the story behind it. 

Antique gold tones at the Asian Art Museum

Antique gold is a lovely, almond-milk-latte color, and is lovely as the background in so many antique silk paintings.  I've used brown kraft and toned paper as a background for art before, but it hasn't been as lovely as this color...  I've also watched the videos at the Asian on how to prepare silk for painting, and it's too much work for me to start!  But I will think over whether there is room in my barely-extant painting practice to use antique gold...  (Toned paper doesn't come in pads, and none are exactly the color I'm looking for, but I think I can manage it...)

Special standouts in this collage of gorgeousness are:

Upper right corner: Autumn Mountain by Chen Jialing, 1990.  This doesn't have a gold base, but fits nicely with the other landscape/nature paintings.  It is also completely contemporary in feeling in a way I really like.  The use of reds is just outstanding.

Lower left corner: Cloudy Peaks at Dawn in Spring by Li Huayi, 1999.  I love the falls, and the form of the tree in the foreground.  It's just magnificent.  I spent some time just standing in the alcove, appreciating it.  It is a lovely use of monochrome, and a really skilled use of tones.

(Yes, you can search the SF Asian Art Museum's collection online if you have details!  That's how I got to these links - I photograph the interpretive signs so I can find things again.)

Great morning at the Asian Art Museum

I had a wonderful morning at The Asian (asianart.org), and it truly felt like a vacation day!

The special exhibit, teamLab's Continuity, pulled me in, but I also toured the permanent collection, because I love it.

In this collage, which captures a small sample of what I enjoyed: 

• top left: Woman's Robe with Dragon Medallions, 1850-1900, China gallery
• top center: scene from Continuity
• top right: visitors enjoying Yun Suknam's work, in Korea gallery
• center: Sekino Jun'ichiro's Fujieda: Wheat Field at Twilight, 1962, in the Japan gallery, and I am very excited by this artist's prints: there is a thing he does with elevation (a straight-on view) that we do in drafting school, and that my favorite documentary photographers also do with buildings, that this artist does with color in a way I REALLY LOVE, so I need to see more
• bottom left: horse decoration in the permanent collection, which I like to scope out for things to sketch in person
• bottom center: another scene from Continuity
• bottom right: Xu Xi's Night Market in Old Chongqing, 1982, China gallery.  I love her use of density, the way she filled the background (non-traditional in an exciting way), the urban density and mood she portrays...  it's just GREAT!

Continuity was even better than I expected.  There are various 'immersive' art shows out there based on projection, but this one was (a) quite interactive, as in I enjoyed watching a school of fish part and pass around walking visitors, and touched kanji to watch them transform into other images, (b) technically sophisticated from a programming, projection, and equipment standpoint, as some of the images moved through the galleries in a nearly seamless way, which involves lots of complex ceiling-wall-floor geometries, (c) really beautiful - the images, colors, and movements were quite lovely.  The other visitors were also DELIGHTED.  I recommend it highly.

Cool tones

For someone who wears so much burgundy, I sure do like cool-toned work.  (Still at the Asian.)

Wisdom fire details

I like the very idea that wisdom creates flames around you!  It would be lovely if we were all so clearly labeled...  I also like the happy phoenix in the sculpted wisdom fire on the right.

Yes, I was at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum to see Awaken, a show on the theme of Tibetan Buddhism's path to enlightenment.  It is a good show, and I also took a turn around the second floor.

(The new expansion is coming together well: the space on the first floor already was set up to be a party room, so it MUST be nearly done!)

Beyond ordinary basketry

My parents love visiting the SF Asian Art Museum, and especially love the baskets.  I think my father returns home from visits with dozens and dozens of basket photos...  the collection is quite remarkable.

Really, I love the entire museum.  I loved the building when it was the SF Main Library; I love Gae Aulenti's revision of it to accommodate the Asian Art Museum; and I love the colors of the rooms, the contemporary art intermingled with the antique art that it is referencing; and the depth of the sculpture collection.  There is a lot to love!