Our friends at the Asian Contemporary Arts Consortium San Francisco inaugurate Asian Contemporary Art Week San Francisco (ACAW-SF). An unprecedented event in connecting cultural institutions across the Bay Area, ACAW-SF features a variety of programs to celebrate the dynamic of Asian contemporary art practice. 2012 marks the inception of this collaborative effort with 16 participants to present a total of 23 exhibitions, tours, receptions, screenings, panel discussions and more!
Here are a few exciting highlights of events featured at ACAW. View the full lineup of events through their website! http://www.asiancontemporarysf.org/acaw
As part of ACAW-SF and the 8th annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration, the Center for Asian American Media (in coordination w/ 3rd i South Asian Film Festival) is showcasing the Asian Heritage Street Celebration Cinema Showcase (5/19).
PHANTOMS OF ASIA (Launch Party!)
at the Asian Art Museum
May 17, 2012
7:30 PM-Midnight
200 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
www.asianart.org/phantoms/party
Life. Death. The cosmos. What’s it all about? Provocative contemporary art alongside exceptional artworks from the museum’s own collection explore spiritual and supernatural roots, cosmologies, and rituals in Asia. The Asian Art Museum’s newest exhibit, Phantoms of Asia, features more than 60 works by 31 living artists, including Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japan/USA), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), Raqib Shaw (India), Adeela Suleman (Pakistan), and Choi Jeong-Hwa (Korea), alongside 90 objects from the museum’s collections—some dating back 2,000 years Phantoms of Asia challenges visitors to view traditional objects not as relics of the past, but as vibrant connections to the present. Pause and reflect on your own existence in the universe, all while taking in some amazing new art.
The exhibit officially opens on May 18th, but get ready to get down with Phantoms! The Asian Art Museum will be celebrating the opening of the exhibit by dimming the lights and turning up the volume with DJ Vin Sol and DJ King Most for a special evening of mingling, beats, and art. Saddle up to the bar for drinks and nibble on yummy bites. All that gallery hopping and revelry got you feeling hunger pangs? Step into the cafe for substantial refueling. Mix and mingle with artists whose works are on view in Phantoms, and above all, take in some incredible art. An exciting celebration for an exciting exhibition.
SCREENING of SUPER 8
at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
May 17 – 20, 2012
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.ybca.org
Takehito Koganezawa curates the Tokyo series of the YBCA’s Super 8 series, coinciding with Asian Contemporary Art Week. Koganezawa has developed a diverse art practice united by a minimalist aesthetic, and the Tokyo series will be featuring Koganezawa’s SEA OF BILLS (Thursday 5/17), Tatsuo Majima’s CALIFORNIA (Friday 5/18), Yuki Okumura’s ANATOMY FICTION – ZENZBEI’S EYEBALLS (Saturday 5/19), Mai Yamashita & Naoto Kobayashi’s, DOGSLED (also on Saturday 5/19), and Meiro Koizumi’s PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG SAMURAI (Sunday 5/20). View details and showtimes at ACAW’s website.
artMRKT
at the Concourse Exhibition Center
May 17-20, 2012
620 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
www.art-mrkt.com/sf
artMRKT San Francisco, the Bay Area’s premier contemporary and modern art fair will showcase historically important work alongside relevant contemporary pieces and projects, from 70 highly reputable galleries. artMRKT will create an ideal context for the discovery, exploration, and acquisition of art.
GALLERY TALK
at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
May 18, 2012
2626 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94720
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu
Xiaoyu Weng will talk informally about three major works by celebrated Chinese artists that are displayed in the museum lobby specially for Asian Contemporary Art Week. She will explore the multi-valent meanings of the monumental photograph To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond by Zhang Huan; Xu Bing’s Scroll (from The New English Calligraphy series); and Li Jin’s large hand scroll Harvest II. All three artworks are part of the Berkeley Art Museum’s collection.
Xiaoyu Weng is the director of the Asian Contemporary Arts Consortium San Francisco. She is also an independent curator, whose recent projects have been featured at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, and a writer, whose work has been published in Artforum online, Leap, and Art World Journal.
