Installation view of Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation at Yellowstone Art Museum.
USC Pacific Asia Museum presents Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. This traveling exhibition examines the cosmopolitan, playful, and subtly subversive characteristics of contemporary Asian and Asian American art. Global Asias highlights 45 works from 15 artists of Asian heritage who draw on a rich array of motifs, techniques, and cultural motivations to construct complex identities in a modern global context.
“The artists included in this exhibition open our eyes to what it is like to cross boundaries both real and cultural,” said Jordan Schnitzer, whose family has a longstanding history of championing Asian art and culture. “I hope each viewer is as moved as I am by this exhibition and is challenged and inspired by the art. The power of this exhibition will influence all of us for years to come.”
Guest curated by Dr. Chang Tan, assistant professor of art history and Asian studies at Penn State, Global Asias invites viewers to think about Asia not in singular but plural terms –encouraging audiences to understand Asia as a site of meaning across the globe. The works in the exhibition suggest the plurality and fluidity of “Asia” as a cultural construct and creative practice.
Drawn from the diverse collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, Global Asias is organized into three thematic sections:
Exuberant Forms features works that reshape and challenge conventional views of abstract art by exploring new materials, techniques, and metaphors. The artists highlighted in this section include Kwang Young Chun (South Korean, b.1944), Jacob Hashimoto (American, b. 1973), Jun Kaneko (American, b. 1942), Hiroki Morinoue (American, b. 1947) and Barbara Takenaga (American, b. 1949).
Moving Stories brings together powerful works that reflect on the experiences of migration, both within Asia and beyond with works from Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnamese American, b. 1968), Hung Liu (American, b. China, 1948–2021), Roger Shimomura (American, b. 1939), Do Ho Suh (Vietnamese American, b. 1962) and Rirkrit Tiravanjia (Thai, b. 1961).
Asias Reinvented highlights two- and three-dimensional works that transform styles and motifs of traditional Asian art to engage, probe and critique contemporary popular culture and politics. This section features the work of Takashi Murakami (Japanese, b. 1962) and Mariko Mori (Japanese, b. 1967), Akio Takamori (American, 1950–2017) and Patti Warashina (American, b. 1940), and Manabu Ikeda (Japanese, b. 1973).
Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation debuted at the Palmer Museum of Art and traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee; The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York; Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana; and the final stop on the tour view will be the USC Pacific Asia Museum, where Global Asias will be on view March 10 through June 25, 2023.
A catalog accompanies the exhibition and includes 73 color images and a collector’s statement. Published by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.
Global Asias is organized by the Palmer Museum of Art in association with the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and guest curated by Dr. Chang Tan, Assistant Professor of Art History and Asian Studies at Pennsylvania State University.
Learn more at pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu.
USC Pacific Asia Museum is located at 46 North Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena, California.
