Ten days of Asian art in New York City

The annual Asia Week New York presented with non-stop, event-filled exhibitions, auctions and lectures of Asian art kicked off in New York City. This year's even draws art collectors, scholars and enthusiasts from around the world.

The 10-day show works with nearly 20 museums and cultural institutions, including Asia Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery. Now entering its ninth year, Asia Week New York has become one of the leading events for showcasing Asian art. It features 45 free public exhibitions with an intriguing array of the rarest and finest Asian works of porcelain, jewelry, paintings, ceramics, and jades from China, India, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, Japan, and Korea.

Blue-and-white Chinese ginger jars from the Qing Dynasty.

One of the highlights is the Chinese art. Chinese civilization has 5,000 years of history, and the country’s art is well represented in the Asia Week. In an exhibition called "Freedom of Brush: Chinese Export Blue and White Porcelains" – a pair of blue-and-white ginger jars from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) caught special attention.

Still, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there are almost 100 objects ranging from silk embroidered textiles to lacquered vessels show how animals were depicted throughout late imperial China.

Embroidered silk of a dragon robe.

Among the collaborated cultural institutions, China Institute also held an inaugural Gallery Open House on the opening day. Founded in 1926, the nonprofit organization launched a visual exploration "Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer’s Lens", which features contemporary photography as an aesthetic counterpart to information on the geography and history of the landscape in China.

Japanese wooden lion and guardian dog.

The 2018 Asia Week New York opened on March 15 till Sunday.

(CGTN)