Tong Yang-Tze at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Amid the holiday throngs in the Met Museum’s Great Hall, renowned Taipei-based artist Tong Yang-Tze’s monumental calligraphic installation stands out for its stark clarity and gracefully energetic form.  Two canvases present phrases that encourage self-reflection and engagement with the new.  Here, the saying ‘Stones from other mountains can refine our jade’ derives from a 3,000-year-old classical Chinese text originally intended to encourage an embrace of talent from another country.  (On view through April 8th, 2025).

Tong Yang-Tze, installation view of ‘Stones from other mountains can refine our jade,’ ’24 in ‘Dialogue’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nov 2024.

Hassan Massoudy at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

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Iraqi-born, Paris-based calligrapher Hassan Massoudy lauds the ‘gesture of one man towards another man’ as ‘better than pearls and coral’ in this elegant ink and pigment drawing at Sundaram Tagore Gallery. (In Chelsea through March 25th).

Hassan Massoudy, untitled “Better than pearls and coral is the gesture of one man towards another man” – Ibn Al-Habbab 8th c., ink and pigment on paper, 29.5 x 21.7 inches, 2006.

Zheng Lu at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

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Beijing artist Zheng Lu learned the art of calligraphy from his literary family; respect for the written word has extended to his present practice in pieces like this, for which the artist laser cut characters from steel (that originally appeared in historically important texts) fusing them into this elegant, dynamic drip of water. (At Chelsea’s Sundaram Tagore Gallery through Oct 10th.)

Zheng Lu, Water Dripping – Splashing, stainless steel, 181.1 x 131.9 x 114.2 inches, 2014.

Xu Bing in ‘Ink Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Beijing-based artist Xu Bing is a star of the Met’s excellent ‘Ink Art’ exhibition, which features important work by prominent Chinese artists of the past few decades who have maintained a link with China’s traditional calligraphic and painting traditions. Here, Xu’s Book from the Sky submerses visitors in a sea of Chinese characters (with over a thousand unique variations) yet comes to question tradition and the relay of information by the fact that all are illegible. (At the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 6th).

Xu Bing, Book from the Sky, ca 1987-91, installation of hand-printed books and ceiling and wall scrolls printed from wood letterpress type; ink on paper.

Gu Wenda at Chambers Fine Art

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New York based Chinese artist Gu Wenda draws on scholarly Chinese painting for these nine and a half feet tall, ink on rice paper on board drawings, each featuring a landscape and calligraphy and relating to his recent project proposal for a landscaped garden rich with symbolism.  (At Chambers Fine Art in Chelsea through Dec 21st).  

Gu Wenda, installation view of ‘Central Park’ at Chambers Fine Art, Nov, 2013.  (In the foreground:  Central Park – Concept #1:  Winter Snow, chinese ink, rice paper mount on wooden board, 2008).