Asia Society Museum To Present (Re)Generations: Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and Howardena Pindell amid the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection

A doll-like figure is dressed in a brown and pink fitted jacket, full skirt of red, gold, and green and a large brown hat with pink flowers and white and orange ribbon and thread. The figure appears to be a woman and is holding what looks like an elephant tusk. She stands atop dark, brassy colored beast-like feet.

Rina Banerjee, Native, migrant naturally, 2018. Courtesy of artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London. Photography by Mark Blower

On view starting March 4 through August 10, 2025, this exhibition reintroduces key works in Asia Society Museum's Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of pre-modern Asian art through the lenses of three leading contemporary artists, Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and Howardena Pindell. Each artist has selected a number of works in the collection within which to situate their own new and existing works, approaching historic objects in the collection through their practices and from multiple cultures, heritages, and positions. Creating dialogues across multiple histories and places, these artists offer a range of new insights and entry points into the collection.

Rina Banerjee uses elements of South Asian iconography and assemblage in her mixed media sculptures and installations, and in her work she reflects on extensions of the body and its refuse; she has set her own works amid Indian deities and a Tang-dynasty (618-907) spittoon, among other works.

Byron Kim foregrounds the ”presence” of historical objects, from Goreyo-dynasty (918-1392) foliate bowls and saucers to a 17th-century Mongolian White Tara deity, as a potential mirror to his own conceptual practice. His works in the exhibition include the iconic ongoing series Synecdoche, an abstract portrait of sitters’ skin tones, as well as two other “figural” works and a new large-scale canvas painted to reflect the pigment of a ceramic in Asia Society Museum's permanent collection.

Howardena Pindell, the senior artist of the three, traveled to Japan and India beginning in the 1970s, leading to a body of work in the 1980s termed Autobiography, reflecting the sites, deities, and visual culture she encountered during these impactful journeys. Here she reframes her work with Japanese screens, Indian sculptures, and other works, building a recursive dialogue with the collection objects.

As part of the exhibition, Yang Fudong’s seminal and visually arresting five-part video Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, held in the Asia Society Museum Collection, will be installed in a black box gallery. The work follows seven young men and women on journeys in search of their identities and ideal lives, reflecting the many urban, ideological, and economic transformations across China today.

Concurrently on view with this exhibition will be Imperial Treasures: Chinese Ceramics of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties from Asia Society’s Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. Known for exquisite porcelain production and expansive trade, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) represents a period of Chinese imperial rule between the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and the rise of the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The approximately 20 works selected for this exhibition demonstrate how early Ming ceramics inherited the rich and culturally diverse legacy of the Mongol rulers by adopting foreign influences from a vibrant trade with the Islamic and Central Asian worlds and combining them with indigenous Chinese traditions. The exhibition will be on view February 18 to August 10, 2025.

Asia Society Museum presents a wide range of pre-modern, modern, and contemporary exhibitions of Asian art and Asian diaspora art, taking new critical approaches to familiar masterpieces and introducing under-recognized arts and artists. The Asia Society Museum Collection comprises a pre-modern art collection, including the initial bequests of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, and a modern and contemporary art collection, launched in 2007. Through exhibitions and public programs, Asia Society provides a forum for the issues and viewpoints reflected in Asian and Asian diaspora art, culture, and society.

Find out more at AsiaSociety.org/NY. Connect with us on Instagram @AsiaSociety, on TikTok @Asia.Society, and on Facebook and X @AsiaSocietyNY.

Image: Rina Banerjee, Native, migrant naturally, 2018. Vintage silk wedding sari with gold thread brocade, vintage brass claw furniture cap, steel, copper leaf, copper nails, wood, silk, cotton, sequins, gourd, polyester threads, wax, cowry shells, Victorian doll, eyelashes, silk trim, pheasant feathers on felt hat plates. 26 x 13 x 24 in (66 x 33 x 61 cm). Courtesy of artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London. Photography by Mark Blower