About Asian Contemporary Art Week (ACAW)

 

Asian Contemporary Art Week connects leading New York City galleries and museums in a citywide event comprising of public programs such as exhibitions, receptions, lectures and performances. The Week focuses on the broad spectrum of artworks produced by Asian contemporary artists working in their home countries and abroad.

ACAW is organized by Asian Contemporary Art Consortium:

Jung Lee Sanders, Art Projects International;
Melissa Chiu and Miwako Tezuka, Asia Society and Museum;
Steve Pacia and Shumita Bose, Bose Pacia;
France Pepper, China Institute;
Ethan Cohen, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts;
Thomas Erben, Thomas Erben Gallery;
Michael Goedhuis, Goedhuis Contemporary;
Joe Earle, Japan Society;
Philippe Koutouzis, Marlborough Gallery;
Esa Epstein, Sepia International, The Alkazi Collection;
Alexandra Munroe and Sandhini Poddar, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;
Jack & Susy Wadsworth, Collectors;
Xiaoming Zhang, China Guardian Auction Houses Co., Ltd.;

Leeza Ahmady, ACAW Director (Independent Curator)

 

ACAC Consortium Member Profiles

 

Art Projects International (API)
http://www.artprojects.com/

Art Projects International (API), founded in 1993, is a New York based gallery specializing in contemporary art, with a focus on works by leading contemporary artists from Asia. As one of the first galleries in New York dedicated to promoting works by contemporary artists from Asia, API is noted for its representation of critically acclaimed artists with broad interests and diverse backgrounds. Through exhibitions, publications, and other projects, API presents art that explores a wide range of artistic media and timely intellectual issues to audiences worldwide.

 

Asia Society & Museum
http://www.asiasociety.org/

The Asia Society is an international organization dedicated to strengthening relationships and deepening understanding among the peoples of Asia and the United States. Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, the Society reaches audiences around the world through its headquarters in New York and regional centers in Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Hong Kong, Manila, Melbourne, Shanghai and, most recently, Mumbai. A nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization, the Society provides a forum for building awareness of the more than thirty countries broadly defined as the Asia-Pacific region—the area from Japan to Iran, and from Central Asia to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Through art exhibitions and performances, films, lectures, seminars and conferences, publications and assistance to the media, and materials and programs for students and teachers, the Asia Society presents the uniqueness and diversity of Asia. The Asia Society is supported by contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals.

 

Bose Pacia
http://www.bosepacia.com/

Established in 1994, Bose Pacia was the first gallery in the West to specialize exclusively in contemporary art from South Asia. Over the past decade, Bose Pacia has held over forty exhibitions and is internationally regarded for promoting the South Asian avant-garde. The gallery strives to foster an active discourse between contemporary Indian artists and the international art community by featuring exhibitions that contextualize contemporary art from this geographic region within its rich artistic traditions and current social tensions. Many of our artists debuted in North America with exhibitions at Bose Pacia. Several are exhibiting in prestigious museums and curated events worldwide (such as the Tate Modern, the Reina Sofia, the Wien Kunsthalle, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the Walker Art Center, Documenta, and the Venice Biennale) and have received significant critical acclaim in such publications as The New York Times, Art in America, and Artforum. These artists include Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya, Anita Dube, Sheela Gowda, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Ranbir Kaleka, Bharti Kher, Bari Kumar, Nalini Malani, Pushpamala N., Manisha Parekh, Gieve Patel, Sudhir Patwardhan, Rashid Rana, Raqs Media Collective, Nataraj Sharma, Arpita Singh, and Zarina Hashmi.

 

China Guardian Auction House
http://www.cguardian.com/english/index.php

 

China Institute
http://www.chinainstitute.org/

Founded in 1926, China Institute is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution that promotes the understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of traditional and contemporary Chinese civilization, culture, and heritage and provides the cultural and historical context for understanding contemporary China. China Institute offers programs, activities, courses, and seminars on the visual and performing arts, culture, history, music, philosophy, and language and literature, as well as children’s programming, business and current affairs programs, and professional development programs for teachers.

 

Ethan Cohen Fine Arts
http://www.ecfa.com/

Ethan Cohen Fine Arts (ECFA) is the first and oldest gallery in the United States to specialize in contemporary Chinese art. Ethan Cohen Projects is a division of the gallery that exhibits and promotes emerging global talent in our NYC gallery and beyond. Our new location at 18 Jay Street in Tribeca will continue to exhibit both Chinese avant-garde art as well as select artists that we work with on a project basis. ECFA exhibits painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, video, calligraphy, and performance. The gallery represents both emerging and established artists from China, including Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Shi Chong, Wu Shan Zhuan, Qiu Zhijie, Lin Tianmiao, Wang Yuping, Zhang Hongtu, Zhou Xiaohu, Qin Feng, Lin Yilin, and Sui Jianguo, among others. Ethan Cohen Projects also works with artists Orly Cogan, Bernard Williams, Carlos Francisco Jackson, Hady Sy, Joshua Abelow, and Elahe Massumi, among others.

 

Thomas Erben Gallery
http://www.thomaserben.com

The Thomas Erben gallery focuses on strongly emerging artists who exhibit international relevance and established/mid-career artists who have the promise of historical importance. In addition to the rigorous exhibition schedule, throughout the years Thomas Erben Gallery has actively participated in major art fairs across the U.S. and Europe. The gallery has also fostered ties between other prominent galleries, as well as esteemed public institutions.  Institutional clients in the United States include MoMA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, SFMoMA, The Walker Art Center, MoCA Los Angeles, Fogg Art Museum, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum;  and internationally, The Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal.  Conceptually minded, the gallery strives to either rediscover or expose work that contributes to contemporary discourse and extends the possibilities of the artists’ chosen media. Recent widely acclaimed, pivotal exhibitions at the gallery include: Chitra Ganesh – Upon Her Precipice, 2007; Contemporary Art From Pakistan, 2007; Chen Ke – Li Jikai - Wei Jia, 2007; Ashok Sukumaran - Glow Positioning System and Other Forms of Address, 2008; Dona Nelson - in situ: paintings 1973 – present, 2008; Thomas Erben at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, 2008.

 

Goedhuis Contemporary
http://www.goedhuiscontemporary.com/

Goedhuis Contemporary specializes in both masterworks from the Chinese mainland and the new generation of emerging artists as well as important Chinese artists based in Paris, London, and New York. The eruption of creativity in China constitutes a real cultural revolution and is evidence to Goedhuis Contemporary of unbridled innovation in the contemporary art world.

 

Japan Society
http://www.japansociety.org/

Japan Society, one of America’s leading resources on Japan since its establishment in 1907 in New York, is a not-for-profit and non-political organization, which promotes understanding and cooperation between the U.S. and Japan through a full range of programs in arts and culture, global affairs, and education. These programs create rich encounters and exchanges that increasingly reflect the broader Asian and global context of the U.S.-Japan relationship.

 

Marlborough Gallery
http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/

Founded in London in 1946, Marlborough maintains an international presence with galleries in New York, London, Madrid, Monaco and Santiago. Since 2003, Marlborough Gallery represents Asian artists such as, Chu Teh-Chun, Feng Shuo, T’ang Haywen, Tie Ying, Viswanadhan, Wang Keping and Zao Wou-Ki amongst others. In 2008, apart the exhibition of Viswanadhan organized in New York during the 2008 ACAW, Marlborough will organize in April-May in Chelsea, New York, an exhibition of Feng Shuo a young Chinese painter. In Beijing, China, the NAMOC - National Museum of China - will organize in October/November an exhibition of paintings and sculptures of Manolo Valdés and Marlborough will also initiate in China various events and special projects.

 

Sepia International / The Alkazi Collection
http://www.sepia.org/

Sepia International and The Alkazi Collection uniquely combine a commercial gallery and a privately-owned archive and research center. Exploring photography from its beginning to the present day provides a greater understanding of the development of the medium. Central to our philosophy is the examination of the juncture between photography as art form and as historical document. Artist Listing: Martin Brading, Alison Bradley, Phyllis Galembo, Edward Grazda, Sunil Gupta, Sookang Kim, Miyako Ishiuchi, Richard Lannoy, Jungjin Lee, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, Osamu James Nakagawa, Fumiko Nozawa, Akio Ohki, Katsumi Omura, Neal Oshima, Yukio Oyama, Stuart Rome, Marissa Roth, Ketaki Sheth, Dayanita Singh, Pamela Singh, Raghubir Singh, Vivan Sundaram, Akiko Tobu, Mayumi Urakawa, and Katherine Westerhout.

 

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
http://www.guggenheim.org/

In 2006, the Guggenheim Museum became the first international modern and contemporary art museum in the west to establish a curatorial position for Asian art. The museum’s new Asian art initiative has a three-dimensional strategy: exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational programs. Working with leading museums, academic institutions, cultural organizations and galleries, we aim to stimulate top-level critical discourse, scholarship, and curatorial activity, and to expand the parameters of what defines Asian art today across two related but distinct arenas: the international and the local/ regional. We are working now to bring “the Asian dimension” across virtually all of the Guggenheim’s programs. Geographically, we are focused on the primary centers of contemporary art in East Asia (China, Japan and Korea); Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore); and South Asia (India and Pakistan).Our interest also extends to Iran, whose traditional Persian culture is historically aligned with South Asia, and to artists in Iran and across South and Southeast Asia who are engaged in issues surrounding their Islamic culture and identity. Our focus also includes artists of Asian heritage who live and work anywhere in the world. The initiative is led by Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art, and is supported by Sandhini Poddar, Assistant Curator of Asian Art.