China
This page displays all Asia Society content on China in reverse chronological order. For more Asia Society work on China, please visit the Asia Society Policy Institute, the Center on U.S.-China Relations, China Learning Initiatives, the U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum, and the online magazine ChinaFile. Asia Society opened a stunning public space in Hong Kong in 2012.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Current Exhibitions
COAL + ICE
Asia Society is proud to present COAL + ICE, an immersive photography and video exhibition accompanied by a series of related programs. COAL + ICE visualizes the causes and consequences of the climate crisis and foregrounds creative solutions.
Throughout the run of the exhibition, climate change will take center stage at Asia Society, including speaker events, performances, films, and more. Asia Society has joined forces with a network of partner organizations across New York City’s five boroughs to concurrently present exhibitions and events, expanding the conversation to inspire deeper engagement on how the climate crisis affects our global and local communities.
COAL + ICE is co-curated by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and international exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries, and led by Orville Schell, Asia Society Vice President and Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations.
Above: COAL + ICE installation view of David Breashears's Mount Everest, Main Rongbuk Glacier, Tibet, China, 2007. Photograph by Leah Thompson
Asia Society present this immersive photography and video exhibition, which brings to life the environmental and human costs of climate change, while also highlighting the innovative solutions that provide hope for a more sustainable future. At once intimate and universal, the powerful images capture the human face of climate change across the globe.
Comprising the work of more than 30 photographers from China and around the world, the exhibition traces a photographic arc from deep within coal mines to the melting glaciers of the greater Himalaya and across the globe, where rising sea levels and extreme weather events are wreaking havoc. The imagery in COAL + ICE is drawn from diverse materials, from glass-plate negatives to smartphone videos, spanning more than a century. Through intimate portraits and vast altered landscapes, these photographs document the consequences triggered by our continued reliance on fossil fuels.
The third floor of the exhibition takes things a step further to reflect the innovative ideas for climate solutions that have germinated most recently, with Maya Lin, Jake Barton (of Local Projects), and Superflux contributing to the actions we can take collectively. Maya Lin’s project What Is Missing? comprises videos and a visually stunning and in-depth website, focusing attention on species and places that have gone extinct or will most likely disappear within our lifetime if we do not act to protect them. Jake Barton’s CarbonVision Cards provides visitors with take-home postcards. Organized by categories from fashion to finance to local government to K–12 schools, the postcards list fundamental changes that are needed.
Superflux, the London-based international award-winning design firm co-founded by Anab Jain and Jon Arden, has created New York, 2050: A Possible Future, a fully-immersive, multi-sensory, installation, in the final section of COAL + ICE. As visitors enter the space, experience what New York actually looked like in 2023, when Canadian fires coated its skies with a thick orange smog. The second space is a 360-degree, slow-moving, visual rendering of what the city could look like in 2050, with utopian views of self-sustaining rooftop, balcony, and indoor farms, pedestrian walkways and riverboats in place of cars, and wind and solar energy in place of coal and gas. New York 2050 invites viewers to take a step into New York in 2050 and beyond to experience what a hopeful future can look and feel like.
COAL + ICE is co-curated by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and international exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries, and led by Orville Schell, Asia Society Vice President and Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations.
History
COAL + ICE was first developed by Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations for exhibition at Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing in 2011. After publishing numerous policy reports on the urgent need for the U.S. and China to collaborate on climate issues, Orville Schell, the Center’s director, began looking for other methods of change: “In recognizing that policy alone could not solve this crisis, we began asking, how else can we go at this problem? One way was visually. If we could present something that was telling at the same time that it was beautiful, then maybe we could get people to look.” The exhibition traveled across China, and was on display at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Paris during COP 21 before finally coming to the U.S., to Fort Mason in San Francisco and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Through the curatorial vision of Susan Meiselas and Jeroen de Vries, the imagery in the exhibition has continued to evolve along with the climate crisis, most significantly with the addition of a growing set of works that visualize the human consequences of climate change, including droughts, floods, fires, and migration. That said, COAL + ICE is not a comprehensive photographic overview of the climate crisis, but rather a presentation of imagery curated from long-term, authored bodies of work, which demonstrate each photographer's commitment to capturing our changing environment and its human toll. Ultimately, COAL + ICE is about humanity, the resilience of the coal miners and their families, and also of those already dealing with the consequences of climate change.
The first presentation of COAL + ICE in Beijing was now over a decade ago, and yet the urgency to combat the climate crisis is more pressing than ever. What will ultimately move the needle? This exhibition, and our related programming series during its six month run, are an ongoing creative experiment to help catalyze more effective action
Visit coalandice.org for more information about the project and its history.
Song Chao
Miners - No. 7, Shandong Province, China, 2002
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
Geng Yunsheng
Zhenxiong, Yunnan Province, China, 2002
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
Noah Berger
California, USA, 2020-2021
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
Darcy Padilla
California, USA, 2017
from the After the Wildfires series
Photograph
Courtesy of Agence VU’
Camille Seaman
Iceberg in Blood Red Sea, Lemaire Channel, Antarctica, 2016
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
David Breashears
Mount Everest, Main Rongbuk Glacier, Tibet, China, 2007
Photograph
Courtesy of GlacierWorks
Clifford Ross
Nazaré Wave IX, Portugal 2022
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
Gideon Mendel
João Pereira de Araújo, Taquari District, Rio Branco, Brazil, 2015
from the Submerged Portraits series
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
Meridith Kohut
Mexico, 2019
Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
Ingka Group (IKEA)
with Superflux (est. 2009, London, UK)
Detail from New York, 2050: A Possible Future, 2023
Video, sound, and scent installation with four-channel video
Duration: 3 minutes, 30 seconds
Courtesy of Ingka Group (IKEA)
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS HERE
Participating Artists and Photographers
Jake Barton
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Daniel Beltrá
Noah Berger
Matt Black
David Breashears
Jimmy Chin
Bruce Davidson
Cameron Davidson
John Davies
Willem Diepraam
Anna Filipova
Geng Yunsheng
Lewis Hine
Jane Hirshfield
Joris Ivens
Dolf Kruger
Meridith Kohut
Maya Lin
Dana Lixenberg
George Mallory
Gideon Mendel
Niu Guozheng
Darcy Padilla
Gordon Parks
Clifford Ross
Camille Seaman
Vittorio Sella
Nichole Sobecki
Song Chao
Jamey Stillings
Henri Storck
Superflux
Peter van Agtmael
Major E. O. Wheeler
Witho Worms
Yu Haibo
Additional Contributors, Galleries, and Archives
Agence VU'
Louis Andriessen
British Antarctic Survey
China Features / China Photo Archive
Decaneas Archive
EUMETSAT
Fondazione Sella
Fonds Henri Storck
GlacierWorks
GRIMM
Ingka Group (IKEA)
L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York
Library of Congress
Magnum Photos
Royal Geographical Society
SK Stiftung Kultur
Tamasa Distribution
The Gordon Parks Foundation
The National Archives
University of Louisville Digital Collections
VII
COAL + ICE has joined forces with a wide range of artistic, environmental, and service organizations. While COAL + ICE is on view at Asia Society, these organizations will concurrently present climate-related programs to diverse audiences across the five boroughs and beyond. These collaborations aim to inspire deeper engagement and meaningful dialogue on how the climate crisis affects our global and local communities.
visit our Climate Action Partner page
(in alphabetical order):
American Museum of Natural History
Billion Oyster Project
Bronx River Alliance
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
Brooklyn Grange
Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation
City of Water Day
Climate Fresk
Climate Film Festival New York
The Climate Museum
Dysturb
Fotografiska New York
French Institute Alliance Française
Hudson River Foundation/NY NJ Harbor & Estuary Program
Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center
International Center of Photography (ICP)
LA MAMA
Lincoln Center
Magnum Foundation
Melting Metropolis
National Sawdust
New York Botanical Garden
The New York Public Library
New York WILD Film Festival
NYU Gallatin WetLab
Park Avenue Armory
THE POINT Community Development Corporation
Queens Public Library
Staten Island Museum
The Trust for Governors Island
Waterfront Alliance
Working & Learning Together Electronics (WALTER)
The “Map of Memory” section of Maya Lin's What Is Missing? highlights ecological histories of habitats, species, waterways, and cities—with timelines, videos, historic accounts, conservation success and disaster stories, and user-submitted personal memories.
Please share your own memory of the natural world, helping to make a global memorial something personal and close to home
By texting the phrase Future Me to 1 (877) 763-1612, you can talk with your “future self,” and hear about the impact of the climate actions you are going to take.
The chatbot is part of The Accelerator 2050, a time machine inviting visitors to see, talk, and inhabit a conditional future, one that is still in flux and undecided, from artist Jake Barton.
COAL + ICE is funded by the generous contributions of The Schmidt Family Foundation, Janet Ross, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Frank and Susan Brown, Adobe, Jerome Dodson, Stephanie Hui, Denise and Andrew Saul, Carlo Mormorunni and Magdalena Gross, and Anonymous Donors. Additional support is provided by Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal, Laumont Editions, and Jane Shaw.
Support for Asia Society Museum is provided by Asia Society Council on Asian Arts and Culture; Asia Society Friends of Asian Arts; Arthur Ross Foundation; Sheryl and Charles R. Kaye Endowment for Contemporary Art Exhibitions; The Hazen Polsky Foundation; The Mary Griggs Burke Fund, and Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
Xu Bing: Word Alchemy assembles more than 50 of Xu Bing’s most important woodcut prints, videos, drawings, installations, and other ephemera representing almost 50 years of the artist’s creative output. Starting with Xu’s early engagements with social realism and Western art historical traditions alike, the exhibition charts the evolution of the artist’s linguistic experiments which challenge and expand not only the history of Chinese landscape painting, but the canons of contemporary art.
Born in China and now working in both Brooklyn and Beijing, artist Xu Bing (b. 1955) is widely considered to be one of the most important artists to emerge from China in the 20th century. Focusing on the artist’s longstanding engagement with words and language, Word Alchemy is the most comprehensive exhibition on this theme so far, and around one-third of the objects in the exhibition are being shown in the U.S. for the first time.
Highlights of the exhibition include Xu Bing’s early works, never-before-exhibited notebooks, landmark prints including the Series of Repetitions handscroll, a new Background Story with a connection to Zhao Mengfu’s famous Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains handscroll, a new Texas-themed Square Word Calligraphy, and a new installation of Monkeys Grasp for the Moon in Asia Society Texas' Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall.
On the occasion of the exhibition, Asia Society Texas will publish a full-color exhibition catalogue and host a symposium on Xu Bing's art on February 23, 2024.
Public Hours
Wednesday・10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thursday・12 p.m. – 7 p.m. | Free Thursday exhibition admission presented by Regions Bank
Friday–Sunday・10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Admission
When planning your visit, please consider purchasing or reserving admission in advance. We welcome walk-up visitors.
Purchase or Reserve Your Admission
Louisa Stude Sarofim Gallery Admission Only
$8 per guest
Free for guests ages 6 and under and for Asia Society members
More to See!
Discounts
Seniors, students, military personnel, and guests with disabilities receive a 20% discount on onsite purchases of Explore Asia Admission and Louisa Stude Sarofim Gallery Admission.
Photography
Photography is permitted. Flash photography and use of tripods and selfie-sticks are not allowed.
Xu Bing was born in Chongqing, China in 1955 and raised in Beijing. He enrolled in the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1977, completed his studies in 1981, and later joined the faculty. He went on to earn a master's degree from the same institution in 1987. In recognition of his accomplishments, he was invited to the United States as an honorary artist in 1990. Xu Bing's career has been marked by a variety of notable achievements. In 2007, he returned to China and assumed several leadership roles at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, including Vice President, professor, and supervisor of doctoral students. Since 2014, he has served as the head of the institution's Academic Committee. Currently, he divides his time between Beijing and New York, where he lives and works.
Xu Bing's work has been displayed in numerous prestigious venues around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Sackler National Gallery in Washington, D.C. His work has also been exhibited at the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Museo Reina Sofia, as well as the Joan Miró Foundation. Additionally, he has participated in several international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, Sydney Biennale, São Paulo Biennale, and Johannesburg Biennale.
His works are included in major art history textbooks such as Art Past, Art Present (Boston: Abrahams Inc, 1997) and Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: A Global History (Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 2013).
Xu Bing has been the recipient of several esteemed awards throughout his illustrious career. In 1999, he was granted the MacArthur Fellowship for his exceptional originality, creativity, personal direction, and significant contributions to society, particularly in the domains of printmaking and calligraphy. In 2003, he was honored with the 14th Fukuoka Asian Cultural Award in Japan for his noteworthy contribution to the advancement of Asian culture. In his acceptance speech, Okwui Enwezor lauded Xu Bing as an artist who transcends cultural boundaries, bridging the divide between East and West and expressing his thoughts and realities in a visual language. Additionally, he won the first Artes Mundi Prize in Wales in 2004, and the lifetime achievement award from the Southern Graphics Council in 2006. In 2010, Columbia University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, while in 2015, he received the Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large from Cornell University and the Medal of Arts from the U.S. Department of State.
Opening Reception for Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
Thursday, February 22, 2024
6–8 p.m.
Symposium: Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
Friday, February 23, 2024
10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Wellness Series: Tibetan Meditation in the Gallery
Saturday, April 27, 2024
2–3 p.m.
Super Saturdays at Asia Society Texas
Learn more about Super Saturdays!
Saturday, May 18, 2024
10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Kids Quest: Explore Asia
1–3 p.m. All-Ages Make and Take: Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
Register Now
Saturday, June 15, 2024
10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Kids Quest: Explore Asia
1–3 p.m. All-Ages Make and Take: Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
Register Now
Saturday, June 29, 2024
10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Kids Quest: Explore Asia
1–3 p.m. All-Ages Make and Take: Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
Register Now
- For high-resolution images, please email Stephanie Todd-Wong, VP, Communications and External Affairs: [email protected]
- To download a PDF copy of this release, please click here
HOUSTON, February 15, 2024 — Asia Society Texas (AST) announces the opening of Xu Bing: Word Alchemy, featuring more than 50 of Xu Bing’s most important woodcut prints, videos, drawings, installations, and other ephemera representing almost 50 years of the artist’s creative output. Starting with Xu’s early engagements with social realism and Western art historical traditions alike, the exhibition charts the evolution of the artist’s linguistic experiments that challenge and expand not only the history of Chinese landscape painting, but the canons of contemporary art. Xu Bing: Word Alchemy opens to the public Thursday, February 22, 2024, and remains on view through Sunday, July 14, 2024.
Born in China and now working in both Brooklyn and Beijing, artist Xu Bing is widely considered to be one of the most important artists working today. Focusing on the artist’s longstanding engagement with words and language, Word Alchemy is the most comprehensive exhibition on this theme so far, and around one-third of the objects in the exhibition are being shown in the U.S. for the first time. “Xu Bing: Word Alchemy is a journey through Xu Bing's interwoven strands of his visual-linguistic imagination and Chinese cultural history. His exploration continually looks forward, incorporating new technologies and his own unique creativity to stimulate and challenge us to think in new and unconventional ways" says Susan L. Beningson, Ph.D., co-curator of the exhibition.
According to Owen Duffy, Ph.D., Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions, “Xu Bing: Word Alchemy is the artist's most expansive exhibition to date about words and language. The artist consistently challenges our preconceived notions about how we use language to navigate the world, offering pioneering works of contemporary art that delight and confound. Our world is richer because of his art."
In addition to more than 15 works never-before seen in the United States, Xu Bing: Word Alchemy features several new commissions and site-specific installations by Xu Bing. Specific highlights of this exhibition include the debut of a new Background Story work, where the artist recreates, out of debris, a famous Chinese landscape painting as a larger-than-life illuminated installation. In this Background Story, Xu Bing brings to life Zhao Mengfu’s famous Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains (1295) handscroll, and, for the first time, the artist will enhance the Background Story with animated projections that show the addition of colophons, seals, and inscriptions over the centuries.
In the Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall, Xu Bing will unveil a new version of Monkeys Grasp for the Moon. Here, suspended over a mirror, a 20-foot string of lacquered primates hangs from the ceiling, and a grouping hangs on the wall nearby. Each of the 21 pieces is composed of the word “monkey,” spelled out calligraphically in a different language: English, Thai, Arabic, and so on. The work references a Chinese folktale in which monkeys, observing the moon's reflection in a pool of water and worried that the moon had fallen, attempt to "grasp" the lunar orb, only to realize what they see is an illusion.
Finally, Xu Bing has created a new Square Word Calligraphy piece – a series where the artist transforms English words to assume the form of Chinese characters – that reinterprets the legendary folk song Deep in the Heart of Texas by Don Swander and June Hershey. Through this new work, Xu Bing graces Texas with this ode to the state's unofficial anthem, passionately sung at events throughout the Lone Star State.
"If my art made with words is still effective, I think it's because words are often seen as cultural representatives,” says Xu Bing. “Their task is to divide and categorize the complex world and record it as knowledge concepts. The core purpose of art is to use some means that have not been turned into knowledge, fresh, irregular, to loosen and blur the knowledge order arranged by language. My works can be seen as: using the form of language, touching the part that language itself cannot express."
On the occasion of the exhibition, Asia Society Texas will publish a full-color exhibition catalogue and host a symposium on Xu Bing's art on February 23, 2024.
Fast Facts:
- Dates: Thursday, February 22, 2024 – Sunday, July 14, 2024
- Opening Reception with the artist: Thursday, February 22, 6–8 p.m.
- Admission: Free for members, $5 for students and seniors with I.D., and $8 for nonmembers. Free Thursdays presented by Regions Bank.
- Hours: Wednesday, Friday–Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Thursdays 12–7 p.m.
About Asia Society Texas
Asia Society Texas believes in the strength and beauty of diverse perspectives and people. As an educational institution, we advance cultural exchange by celebrating the vibrant diversity of Asia, inspiring empathy, and fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world. Spanning the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, our programming is rooted in the educational and cultural development of our community — trusting in the power of art, dialogue, and ideas to combat bias and build a more inclusive society.
Xu Bing: Word Alchemy is co-curated by Susan L. Beningson, Ph.D., Independent Curator, and Owen Duffy, Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions, with Rebecca Becerra, Exhibitions Manager and Registrar.
Lead support for Xu Bing: World Alchemy is provided by Texas Commission on the Arts. Major support is provided by Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, American Friends of the Shanghai Museum, Anne and Albert Chao, and an anonymous donor. Special exhibition support is provided by Michele and Marty Cohen, Judy and Scott Nyquist, Milton D. Rosenau, Jr. and Dr. Ellen R. Gritz, Leigh and Reggie Smith, and an anonymous donor. This exhibition was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Exhibitions and their related programs at Asia Society Texas are presented by Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, and Leslie and Brad Bucher. Major support comes from The Brown Foundation, Inc., the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, The Clayton Fund, Houston Endowment Inc. Generous funding also provided by The Anchorage Foundation of Texas, National Endowment for the Arts, and Texas Commission on the Arts. Free Thursday exhibition admission presented by Regions Bank. Funding is also provided through contributions from the Exhibitions Patron Circle, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional visual art to Asia Society Texas.
Presenting Sponsors
Nancy C. Allen
Leslie and Brad Bucher
Chinhui Juhn and Edward Allen
Program Sponsors
Additional Support for Xu Bing: Word Alchemy