Heman Chong
Charwei Tsai
The first-ever Asian Contemporary Art Week (or ACAW-SF) is currently in full swing with events happening all over the Bay Area, and the proceedings kicked off yesterday with a "Day of Dialogue" at the Asian Art Museum that tied in with their upcoming show Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Art Awakens the Past. If you've seen Choi Jeong Hwa's giant crimson Breathing Flower that has suddenly sprung up in front of City Hall you've already gotten a taste of the exhibit which contextualizes the work of artists from all over Asia by juxtaposing it with historical objects. The symposium yesterday brought together seven of those artists (Charwei Tsai, Jagannath Panda, Jompet Kuswidananto, Adeela Suleman, Adrian Wong, Heman Chong, Takayuki Yamamoto) for a closer look at their respective practices, and I also took the opportunity to seek out the pieces for the show that have already been installed amongst the historical displays in the museum's upstairs galleries. The work I've seen so far is outstanding, and Phantoms is frankly a giant leap forward for the Asian, true to their renewed commitment to exhibiting contemporary art from Asia. See the show after it officially opens later this week, and make sure you get to another ACAW-SF event or two too.
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