Gallery sights in Asia
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National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum is home to what could quite easily be termed the world's largest and finest collection of Chinese art; it is unfortunate that the overall interior setup of the museum does not match with the grandeur of the collection. The museum's interior is poorly lit and for the most part its grand collection is laid out with little sense of theme or design, giving the museum a stagnant feel overall. This is especially strange in light of the fact that the exhibits are rotated frequently; the vast collection (much of it liberated from mainland China during the last retreat of the KMT) is far too large to exhibit at any given time. Nonetheless, the sheer volu…
reviewed
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Ketna Patel Studio Gallery
Ketna Patel and her husband Jonathan run a home gallery best described as a ‘residential laboratory for like-minded people’. The studio’s specific goal is to promote dialogue between developed and developing nations, using art as the means of communication. While the gallery is open by appointment only, like-minded artists visiting Singapore should consider contacting Ketna (ketna@ketnapatel.com) to find out about ongoing projects and happenings.
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Hong Kong Museum of Art
Southeast of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the excellent Hong Kong Museum of Art is a must for lovers of the fine as well as the applied arts. It has seven galleries spread over six floors, exhibiting Chinese antiquities, Chinese fine art, historical pictures and contemporary Hong Kong art; it also hosts temporary international exhibitions. The seventh gallery houses the Xubaizhi collection of painting and calligraphy. Highlights include some exquisite ceramics in the Chinese Antiques Gallery; the Historical Pictures Gallery, with its 18th- and 19th-century Western-style paintings of Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou; and the Gallery of Chinese Fine Art, which combines cont…
reviewed
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National Museum of Contemporary Art
A large and impressive art gallery spread over three floors, this museum also has sculptures in the garden. The outstanding exhibit is The More the Better – a 1988 installation of 1000 flickering TV screens piled up into a pagoda shape by leading Korean video artist Nam June Paik. Viewing this exhibit is like channel hopping without a remote. Other exhibits by the same artist include a piano jukebox – log onto www.paikstudios.com to learn more about this artistic pioneer. The international section contains a sculpture made of dice and another one utilising squashed petrol cans. Overall, the permanent collection of Korean modern art is disappointing, a mishmash of pictures…
reviewed
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Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery
Sometimes called the Fine Art Gallery, it contains a large and impressive display of modern and uniquely Mongolian paintings and sculptures. It has a mixture of depictions of nomadic life, people and landscapes, ranging from impressionistic to nationalistic. The Soviet romantic paintings depicted in thangka style are especially interesting, but the most famous work is Tsevegjav Ochir's 1958 The Fight of the Stallions.
The entrance is in the courtyard of the Palace of Culture. The main gallery is on the 3rd floor, there are temporary exhibits on the 2nd floor and a shop on the 1st floor.
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Leeum Samsung Museum of Art
In Museum 1 visitors start on the 4th floor and descend a white staircase, a decor that contrasts with the black galleries, where the ancient Korean ceramic metal and art treasures are superbly lit to bring out their inner beauty. Museum 2 has an entirely different look, with outdoor lighting, natural construction materials and a collection of 20th-century Korean and international art. Museum 3 is reserved for special exhibitions. An audio guide costs W2000. Tours in English (free) start at 3pm on Saturday and Sunday.
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National Gallery of Modern Art
This gallery occupies the maharaja of Jaipur’s former place, and includes all the great modern Indian masters, with beautiful works by Amrita Sher-Gil, the Tagore family, and India’s most famous contemporary artist, MF Husain. Photography isn’t allowed.
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CIMA
For cutting-edge contemporary Bengali art visit CIMA a well-lit, six-room gallery with an eclectic giftshop.
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Wanshou Temple & Beijing Art Museum
Ringed by a red wall, the Ming dynasty Wanshou Temple was originally consecrated for the storage of Buddhist texts. From Qing times the imperial entourage would put their feet up here and quaff tea en route to the Summer Palace. Wanshou Temple fell into disrepair during the Republic, with the Wanshou Hall burning down in 1937. Things went from bad to worse and during the Cultural Revolution the temple served as an army barracks.
The highlight of a visit to this restored temple is its prized collection of bronze Buddhist statuary in the 'Buddhist Art Exhibition of Ming and Qing Dynasties', located in halls on either flank just before the Mahavira Hall. The displays guide y…
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50 Moganshan Road Art Centre
Chinese contemporary art has been the hottest thing in the art world for the last few years and there's no sign of the boom ending, with collectors paying record prices for the work of top artists. Traditionally Běijīng dominates the art scene in China. But Shanghai has its own thriving artistic community, centred on this complex of industrial buildings down dusty Moganshan Rd and edging up Suzhou Creek in the north of town.
Put aside a day to poke around the many galleries here. There's some challenging, innovative art, as well as work that won't last, and there are places to sip a coffee alongside the gallery owners and the artists themselves. A confusing series of si…
reviewed
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Origami Kaikan
This multistorey exhibition space and workshop is dedicated to this quintessentially Japanese art. In a shop/gallery on the 1st floor and a gallery on the 2nd, many of the works are so sculptural you’d mistake them for wood, and with patterns so intricate you’d mistake them for fabric, while on the 4th floor is a workshop where visitors can watch the process of dyeing and painting of origami paper. Although admission is free, origami lessons (offered most days in Japanese) cost ¥1000 to ¥2500 for one to two hours, depending on the complexity of that day’s design. First-timers would do well to try for a class with the centre’s director, Kobayashi Kazuo. It’s best to reques…
reviewed
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Art Galleries
An increasing number of galleries are moving out of Central Tokyo to an edgy space such as you might expect in New York or Los Angeles. The building faces the Sumida-gawa (Sumida River) on one side and a cement plant on the other, and downstairs are loading docks for a department store. But no matter: the gallery owners present some of the city's most cutting-edge work. Galleries are on the 5th through 7th floors.
Taka Ishii Gallery (03 5646 6050; www.takaishiigallery.com; free entry), Shugoarts (03 5621 6434; www.shugoarts.com; free entry) and Tomio Koyama Gallery (03 3462 4090; www.tomiokoyamagallery.com; free entry) should give you a good start. Check for exhibitions …
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National Gallery
The National Gallery contains a mix of historic pictures and paintings by modern Afghan artists. Like Kabul’s other cultural institutions, it didn’t escape the Taliban’s zealous attentions, as the cabinet displaying ripped up watercolour portraits attests. Amazingly, however, the gallery’s staff fought back as only artists could. Knowing the Taliban’s juncture against images of living things, many of the exhibits were over-painted with watercolours, hiding a horse behind a tree, or turning a person into a mountain view. Over 120 paintings were saved from destruction in this way when the zealots came with their knives.
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Nadiff a/P/a/R/T
You never quite know what’s going to be on show at this arts foundation (its name is an abbreviation for ‘New Art Diffusion’), but you can be sure it will reflect the latest in Japanese style and taste. In its contemporary building hidden in Ebisu’s backstreets, there are gallery spaces upstairs and down and a little cafe-gallery-event space on the 4th floor, while the ground floor is home to a bookshop of arts and architecture. With your back to the Aoi Sompo building, head down the street and follow the signs on electrical poles to the alley to your left.
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National Art Gallery
Squashed between Jln Tun Razak and the park is the worthwhile National Art Gallery. A striking mural, Graffiti, by Mahadhir Masri, covers the walkway wall leading up the gallery, the interior of which is dominated by a swirly Guggenheim Museum–style staircase. Among the works to look out for in the gallery’s permanent collection, which was only started in 1958, are paintings by Zulkifi Moh’d Dohalan, Wong Hoi Cheong, Ahad Osman and the renowned batik artist Chuah Than Teng. The gallery also hosts many temporary exhibitions.
reviewed
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Arte Moris
Set in the vast remains of an Indonesian-era museum, Arte Moris encompasses everything weird and wonderful about Dili. Art students live here while they train in a variety of media; some of best results grace a funky sculpture garden or are on display in a gallery. Although at times whimsical, many of the works address the ongoing tragedy of life in East Timor. Many local artists are in residence, including Bibi Bulak, an inventive acting troupe that performs on stage and screen.
reviewed
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International Design Centre Nagoya
Just a short walk from Sakae, the futuristic, swooping Nadya Park skyscraper houses the International Design Centre Nagoya. It's a secular shrine to the deities of conceptualisation, form and function, from art deco to the present, from Electrolux to Isamu Noguchi, and from Arne Jacobsen to the Mini Cooper. Signage is in English.
Also in Nadya Park is the Loft department store (ロフト), which design-shoppers will find equally alluring. Nadya Park is about five minutes' walk from Yaba-chō Station.
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Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath
This visual arts gallery is Bengaluru’s definitive art institution. A wide range of Indian and international contemporary art is on show at its exhibition galleries (open 10.30am to 7pm), while permanent displays showcase lavish gold-leaf works of Mysore-style paintings and folk and tribal art from across Asia. A section is devoted to the works of Russian master Nicholas Roerich, known for his vivid paintings of the Himalayas, and his son Svetoslav.
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Exhibition Gallery
Quietly sitting east of the Luís de Camões Garden is the beautiful colonial villa of Casa Garden, once the headquarters of the British East India Company when it was based in Macau in the early 19th century. Today the villa houses the Oriental Foundation, an organisation that promotes Portuguese culture worldwide, and an exhibition gallery, which houses exhibits of Chinese antiques, porcelain and contemporary art.
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Kathmandu Photo Gallery
Bangkok’s only gallery truly dedicated to photography is housed in an attractively restored Sino-Portuguese shophouse. The owner, photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom, wanted Kathmandu to resemble photographers’ shops of old, where customers could flip through photographs for sale. Manit’s own work is on display on the ground floor, and the small but airy upstairs gallery plays host to changing exhibitions by local and international artists and photographers.
reviewed
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MR Gallery
The 798 Art District (大山子艺术区), also known as Dashanzi, sits in northeastern Chaoyang; see p16. Some of the most important galleries here include Galleria Continua, which specialises in Chinese installation and video art, and Amelie Gallery, a great place to check out contemporary Chinese painters. Head to the MR Gallery for photography from China and abroad.
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Galleria Continua
The 798 Art District (大山子艺术区), also known as Dashanzi, sits in northeastern Chaoyang. Some of the most important galleries here include Galleria Continua, which specialises in Chinese installation and video art, and Amelie Gallery, a great place to check out contemporary Chinese painters. Head to the MR Gallery for photography from China and abroad.
reviewed
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Amelie Gallery
The 798 Art District (大山子艺术区), also known as Dashanzi, sits in northeastern Chaoyang. Some of the most important galleries here include Galleria Continua, which specialises in Chinese installation and video art, and Amelie Gallery, a great place to check out contemporary Chinese painters. Head to the MR Gallery for photography from China and abroad.
reviewed
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Seniwati Gallery Of Art By Women
The Seniwati Gallery Of Art By Women exhibits works by over 70 Balinese, Indonesian and resident foreign women artists. The information on many of the artists makes for fascinating reading. The gallery and workshop aims to publicise Balinese women artists and to encourage the next generation. The works span all mediums and this place is an excellent example of the kinds of cultural and artistic organisations that can thrive in Ubud.
reviewed
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TC/G Nordica
TC/G Nordica is best described as a gallery-exhibition hall-cultural centre. There's even a relaxing restaurant with Scandinavian and Chinese food. (One founder was Swedish, another Chinese - hence the mix). Do check out Nordica's website for a full slate of performances and exhibitions; most weekends something is happening (though if you wish to eat, at times on Friday or Saturday evenings reservations are required).
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