From major Chinese archaeological finds to modern Asian American masters at the Asian Art Museum

In 2022, the Asian Art Museum delves deep into the past with fantastic archaeological treasures, celebrates the innovations of women artists within the traditional craft and modernist movements, explores the role of gender and sexuality across cultures and centuries, and updates the canon of contemporary art to include overlooked Asian American masters.

This diverse and exciting array of exhibitions follows the completion of the museum’s multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to transform the visitor experience through a significant expansion and enhancement of its campus and galleries and a broad investment in digital learning tools both on-site and online. As part of this transformation, the museum successfully unveiled the new Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion with the blockbuster teamLab: Continuity exhibition, which continues to break museum records for attendance and engagement.

“Our transformation has given us a bigger, broader platform to display art from regions and creators that have historically been less well represented, not only in our collections and exhibitions but across museums generally,” says Dr. Jay Xu, The Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum. “Our audiences want vibrant encounters with incredible art and, through this art, to understand the world around them, to understand how the past connects to the present, and to participate in conversations about today’s most critical issues. That’s exactly what we can promise in 2022: the Asian Art Museum firing on all cylinders.”

Weaving Stories
Dec 17, 2021–May 2, 2022

More than 40 outstanding examples of textiles and garments from across Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and Malaysia, are brought together to consider how fabrics are woven not only into the daily lives but the cultural foundations of these communities. MORE

Seeing Gender
Jan 21–Oct, 2022

Fluid, rigid, subversive, transformative. Gender expression spans culture, time, and place. By journeying across the spectrum of gender in Asian art, from the ancient to the contemporary, from the sacred to the carnal, Seeing Gender reveals long-standing creative possibilities beyond a male-female binary. MORE

Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision
June 17–Oct 22, 2022

The first-ever retrospective of the iconic Filipino American artist and educator Carlos Villa (1936-2013), this exhibition showcases vibrant, large-scale works that have not been seen in decades. MORE

Into View: Bernice Bing
Sept 29–late winter, 2023

Bernice “Bingo” Bing (1936–1998) was a master of eye-catching Abstract- Expressionism whose contributions to the movement have been marginalized for decades. A San Francisco native, Chinese American, and lesbian, Bing looked across the Pacific as much as to New York and Europe for inspiration. MORE

Lost Kingdoms of Ancient China
Sept 22, 2022–late winter, 2023

Lost Kingdoms of Ancient China showcases recently discovered archaeological splendors — new finds that have never before traveled overseas — introducing audiences to the rise and fall of these two remarkable, mysterious kingdoms, and their quest to dominate southern China at the end of the Bronze Age. MORE

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