Events

Drawing on the objects and photographs of the main donors to the Korean collection at the Oriental Museum, Knitted Together details Richard and Joan Rutt’s 20 years living in South Korea in the immediate aftermath of the Korean War (1950 – 1953).

Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of when Richard first arrived in Korea as a missionary in 1954, and 50 years since both Richard and Joan Rutt left Korea in 1974, the exhibition focuses on the influences of Korea on their lives, and the wide-ranging legacies of the couple. 

The exhibition is set in three parts – a photography exhibition of Richard Rutt’s photographs of Korea taken between 1954 – 1974 that show the changing country and his life in South Korea first as a missionary, and then as Anglican Bishop of Daejeon. An installation in the permanent Korea Gallery focuses on the impact of the Rutt collection on the development of the Korean collection at the museum. This is complemented by a special temporary exhibition that focuses on the legacies that the Rutts’ had both as a result of their time in Korea, but also extending beyond this into literature, church history, and knitting.

The objects and photographs on display are from the permanent collection of the Oriental Museum, donated by Richard and Joan Rutt in 1991 and 2011, with additional pieces generously borrowed from the Rutt family archives.

The Inaugral Tsinghua Alumni London Art Exhibition.
Nancy Zetian Zhang x UKTA.

At a time when technology has penetrated every aspect of our daily existence, it transforms itself from the tools of our craft into a pervasive force of human experience, affecting the way we see and feel, the way we create and interact and come to terms with beauty. The digital age raises crucial questions about the nature of art and its role within society. How does technology affect our sense of beauty? What new forms does it bring to creativity?

The way technological innovation both guides and is inspired by artistic endeavour is a major theme of the exhibition Ubiquitous Technology: The Science of Aesthetics. Art has always reflected and engaged with the technological environment of the time, from the use of perspective in Renaissance painting to the use of industrial materials in modern sculpture. Every technological advance has provided artists with new ways of expressing themselves and new ways of challenging existing paradigms.

Amid the ubiquity of technological culture nowadays, artists are invited to explore ideas previously beyond their reach. Digital media, interactive installations and virtual realities offer an unprecedented range of avenues for artistic expression. These mediums allow for a dynamic interaction between artwork and viewer- in which the viewer becomes an active participant. Such interactive experiences raise questions about the position of the observer, the essence of what it means to be art, and the nature of human connection in a digital age.

Under Construction, a solo exhibition by Geumhyung Jeong (b. 1980, Seoul) features a newly commissioned installation of sculpture and video, and series of live performances. Working from her background in choreography and a studied interest in the role of objects and technology in our lives, Jeong uses her body and animatronic figures built from DIY parts to parse the uncanny relationships between people and machines.

Meet the Yoshida dynasty of artists. Featuring over 75 exquisite prints, this exhibition journeys from the rich, nostalgic landscapes of the prolific artist and patriarch of the family, Hiroshi to the abstract work of the family’s later and current generations.

The first of its kind in the UK – and Europe more widely – this exhibition shines a spotlight on three generations of woodblock print artists including Yoshida Hiroshi, Fujio, Tōshi, Hodaka Chizuko and Ayomi, tracing the evolution of Japanese printmaking across two centuries.

The exhibition will culminate with a new site-specific installation of cherry blossom by Yoshida Ayomi, Hodaka’s and Chizuko’s daughter.

Dreams, Desire & Daoism:
Jizi and pioneers of contemporary ink from China
Co-curated by Chunchen Wang and Katie Hill

An undulating cosmic scene sweeps across a horizontal plane, swirling clouds, an immersive vortex of movement leading into a central sphere. 

Lit up at intervals, the whole vision is one of light and darkness, floating perspectives of constant movement and change. Jizi’s (1941-2015) world bridges the known and the unknown, the spiritual and the real, the inner heart and external forces.

This exhibition provides a rare glimpse into the ordinary lives of people long ago through the remarkable contents of the ‘Library Cave,’ part of the Buddhist cave complex of Mogao, where a wealth of manuscripts, documents and artworks remained sealed for nearly 900 years. Detailing life in and around Dunhuang during the first millennium CE, the documents include personal letters and wills encompassing multiple languages, faiths and cultures including Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity; and span topics as diverse as literature, astronomy, medicine, politics and art.

26th September 2024 to 23rd February 2025 

This continent-spanning exposition unravels how the journey of people, objects and ideas formed an expansive web of trade routes that shaped cultures and histories.

Working with 29 national and international partners to present objects from many regions and cultures alongside those from the British Museum, the exhibition offers a unique chance to see objects from the length and breadth of the Silk Roads. From Indian garments found in Suffolk to Iranian glass unearthed in Japan, they reveal the astonishing reach of these networks. 

November 10, 2023–May 6, 2024 

Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting presents a selection of the museum’s most important paintings that cover six different dynasties, including the modern era. These paintings represent various subject matter, from figures, landscapes, animals, birds, and flowers to religious and historic themes; their dates of acquisition range from the museum’s founding years to the most recent additions, demonstrating a continuous commitment to Chinese painting, a field that has always been the strongest asset of the Chinese collection.  

27 January 2024, Saturday (2:00pm-5:00pm GMT+8)

Alisan Fine Arts

Alisan Aberdeen, Hong Kong

RSVP: assistant@alisan.com.hk

Hung Keung, renowned digital media installation artist from Hong Kong, has been practicing mindfulness meditation for twelve years. In the closing event, Hung will share the methods of mindfulness meditation and guide participants to enter the world of “awareness” through the practices of “art viewing” and “contemplation”. Visitors can engage in meditation with the artist, and immerse in the poetic realm of purifying the mind and harmonising with nature, while personally experiencing the fusion of technology and mindfulness.

Kindly RSVP.

Six spectacular kimonos belonging to the kabuki actor Bandō Tamasaburō V will be on display in the Textiles Gallery for a year. Tamasaburō is the most popular and celebrated onnagata (male actor who performs female roles) currently on stage.

The costumes selected reflect the wide variety of roles in this actor’s long and celebrated theatre career, from court ladies and courtesans to geisha and demons.  

You’ll see beautifully crafted costumes that showcase a range of elaborate textile techniques, including weaving, dyeing, embroidery and hand-painting. 

The over-robe for the courtesan Agemaki in the play Sukeroku, Flower of Edo (助六由縁江⼾桜), shown below, was worn at a performance in June 2004 at the Kabukiza Theatre, Tokyo. It features New Year’s decorations on black satin and the courtesan’s sash has a carp ascending a waterfall embroidered on a pale blue-green satin ground.  

This exhibition celebrates more than 100 artworks by the contemporary Chinese artist Fang Lijun, on loan from his studios in Beijing and Jingdezhen and from private collections. It showcases Fang’s paintings and drawings, and also ceramics produced in the last five years.

Fang Lijun was one of the leading protagonists of the early 1990s Cynical Realist movement, a major art movement in China post-1989. His works captured the disillusionment of his generation and reflected the feeling of helplessness in Chinese society in the early 1990s.

Some of these seminal paintings he became famous for – the large anonymous, shaven heads and blank faces – are in our exhibition, alongside early pencil drawings from his student days and newer ink paintings and a series of intriguing porcelain pieces.

Japanese artist Takahashi Hiromitsu creates dynamic, colourful prints showing exciting moments in kabuki, Japan’s traditional dance-drama.

Hiromitsu’s striking designs are not portraits of actual actors, but visualisations of famous kabuki roles.

In kabuki, performers wearing elaborate costumes and make-up use stylised movement and song to enact melodramatic stories about love, loyalty and the clash between duty and emotion.

Alisan Fine Arts is pleased to announce the new exhibition “Hung Keung: Digital Media Art Installation” at our Aberdeen Gallery. Hung Keung, a renowned digital media installation artist from Hong Kong and grantee of Asian Cultural Council Award (2005), is known for his interactive installations that combine film, video, and digital new media with themes from Chinese classical philosophy, art, and literature.

Alisan Fine Arts is proud to announce the opening of a new gallery location in New York City’s Upper East Side in November, 2023. The inaugural exhibition at the New York location pays homage to Walasse Ting (1928-2010 and this exhibition in New York coincided with Walasse Ting’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States, “Walasse Ting: Parrot Jungle”, which is now opening at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.

Alisan Fine Arts is excited to present an exhibition of Wang Mengsha, an artist who gracefully navigates through the realms of traditional and contemporary art, where the ancient ‘xieyi’ style of painting is reborn through her innovative approach. She harmoniously blends aspects of traditional paintings of daily objects, court maidens and natural elements, all while employing a sense of humour and a vibrant palette that reminds viewers of the natural sceneries in the south-eastern part of China.

The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, and the Royal Asiatic Society are pleased to present an exhibition celebrating the Society’s bicentenary and its involvement in the study of science, literature, religion, and the arts of Asia since 1823.

The exhibition includes rare books, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and maps from the collections and reveals how Asian works of literature, art, and religion made a lasting impression on British culture. This ranges from popular games such as chess illustrated by a 16th-century Persian manuscript and the original game of ‘Snakes and Ladders’ (RAS 051.001) painted by a Maharashtran artist, ca. 1800 CE to celebrated works of literature including the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the Arabian Nights. The exhibition reflects the extraordinary diversity of the collections donated to the Society by its members and other institutions.