ASIA WEEK NEW YORK, MARCH 15-23, 2013 By Polly Guerin

Moon on Laurel, Annysa Ng: China 2000, Fine Art

New York’s essential event 'Asia Week New York,' an extraordinary eight-day extravaganza invites New Yorkers, art enthusiasts, collectors and scholars to take a first-hand look at the artistry, ingenuity and antiquities from China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. In a rare and cultural opportunity visitors will interact with international art dealers in 43 galleries, who have put out the blue and yellow welcome mat at their front doors announcing their Asia Week affiliation, kicking off with an open house weekend, Saturday March 16 and Sunday March 17. Also participating are major auctions houses, museums and Asian cultural institutions with exhibitions, lectures and symposia and special events. Here’s the scoop!!! Selected Highlights!!!

CHINA 2000, FINE ART, 177 East 87th Street features paintings, Scholar objects and furniture. In ‘Moon on Laurel,’ the faceless portrait by Annysa Ng, the ink drawing figure is clothed in combination of European and traditional Chinese costume with Elizabethan collar that seems to reference Hong Kong void of identity. The faceless figure therefore evokes the message, “Never Going to Lose Face.” Scholar objects include a stunning Qiyang Stone table screen with Zitan stand, 18th/19th century; the green layer in the stone is skillfully utilized to depict grasses and shallow water, while the darker outer layer of the stone is carved in the textured shell of two lively crabs.

A Court Beauty Kishangarh, Rajasthan, early 19th C, Prahlad Bubbar

PRAHLAD BUBBAR at Arader Galleries, 1016 Madison Avenue, returns to New York to present his recent acquisitions of Indian paintings with important discoveries from the Mughal, Deccani and Rajput courts. The exuberance of Rajput painting from the Hindu courts of Rajasthan, with its rich colors and stylized forms, is found in a lively court scene from the region of Jodhpur includes an elegant portrait of a court beauty from Kishangarh. A manuscript detailing the exploits of the Asian warrior Timur, displays exquisite portraiture and rich pigments for which this celebrated Mughal painting is known.

Yagi Kazuo, 'Spring Cat': Joan B Mirviss

SEVEN STAGES OF CERAMICS at Joan B. Mirviss Ltd, 39 East 78th St. The exhibition features the work of seven Japanese masters of clay who are enormously popular in Japan who transformed and surpassed the classical standard of classical standard of functional ceramic excellent—devotion to the ancient Chinese traditions of allegiance to the late 16th century Momoyama tea wares, thought to be the golden age acme of Japanese ceramics---and brought to their oeuvres a new, modern and highly influential sensibility. Breaking free from traditional ceramics, Yagi Kazuo (1918-79) looked beyond the medium of clay to poetry, music, surrealism, cubism, ancient art forms for points of departure. In his asymmetrical glazed stoneware vessel, pictured here, Kazuo’s ‘Spring Cat,’ a tiered rounded vessel with irregular rim. Serving as a clay canvas, the surface is covered with powerful Zen-like calligraphic brushstroke, both bold and expressive, capturing the sense of a cat about to jump.

TAISHO PERIOD SCREENS AND SCROLLS at ERIK THOMSEN GALLERY, 23 East 67th Street. ‘Vying Peacocks” by Ishizaki Koyo (1884-1947) is a breathtaking pair of 6-panel folding screens in eye-popping mineral colors with subtle sandy beige silk backgrounds that are backed with gold leaf to evoke a unique feeling of serenity. Contemporary sculpture by Sueharu Fukami has streamlined articulation in pale-blue glaze porcelain reaching for the sky as if on flight. Scholar pieces like a carved lacquer suzuribako writing box is exquisitely carved as is a Yoshio Okada, dry lacquer box with inlaid gold-foil sun.

There are many more wonderful venues to visit this weekend plus courses and lectures at Christie’s, Korea Society, Asia Society and Japanese Art Society of America. Further info at www.asiaweekny.com