Artists & Identity

This video documents the creation of a Buddhist painting by the monk artist, Seol-min (formerly known as Jae-u), who has dedicated her life to keeping the tradition of Buddhist painting alive.

See demonstrations of employing both traditional (no electric needles!) and modern techniques. Joining Horitaka’s diverse, talented crew of tattooists are special guests from Japan — Shige, a powerhouse tattoo artist who has been showcased all over the world; Mutsuo, who’s designed for Bathing Ape and Hysteric Glamour; and Kazunobu Nagashima, a client of Shige who will proudly display his backpiece, which won a 2007 Milano Tattoo Convention award.

Benedicto Reyes Cabrera (or BenCab, as he is more popularly known) is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. Hear a conversation between him and Filipino American author Luis Francia at the 2011 Filipino American History Month Celebration at the Asian Art Museum.

Hailed as one of the most important photographers of our time, New York-based Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect. He approaches his work from many different perspectives, with architecture as one component in designing the settings for his installations. As a photographer of the highest technical ability, with equal acclaim for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work, Sugimoto has created works in his “Five Elements” series that are constructed as shrines to a primordial birthplace. Using geometric symbols from thirteenth-century Buddhism, Sugimoto encases a single image from his iconic Seascape series in each glass structure.

Heman Chong imagines a future of dystopian stillness with Calendars (2020–2096), an installation of 1001 photos, each a calendar page capturing a moment of complete emptiness in today’s bustling areas of Singapore. View this work for yourself at the Asian Art Museum during the exhibition, Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past (on view from May 18–September 2, 2012).

Japanese artist and pop icon Fuyuko Matsui explores the haunted, interconnected realms of traditional and modern aesthetics. As one of the few women to have attained top training and mastery of traditional Japanese painting (nihonga) techniques in Japan, Matsui also cites centuries-old artistic influences, such as the iconoclastic eighteenth-century painter Soga Shohhaku and the fifteenth-century painter Soga Jasoku.

Contemporary Korean ceramic artists Sung Min, Kwon Shin, Kim jin Kyoung, and Park Nae Heon discuss their works.

Asian Art Museum Art Speak teaching artist, Adrienne Skye Roberts, discusses the inspiration behind her work with the Art Speak interns and her own art.

Artist Koki Tanaka discusses his works.

Asian Art Museum education staff, Kenneth Ikemoto, discusses his perspectives on home and identity at the museum’s Art Speak AsiaAlive program.