Asian art exhibit makes a statement at the Las Vegas Art Museum

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.

What: "Asian Art Now: 2000."

Where: Las Vegas Art Museum.

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday; through July 9.

Cost: $3.

Information: Call 360-8000.

It's another first for Las Vegas.

Some say it may be the first in the country.

The Las Vegas Art Museum is hosting the 300-piece contemporary art show "Asian Art Now: 2000" through July 9.

The exhibit has art expert Doryun Chong, curatorial assistant in Japanese art at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, feeling enthusiastic.

"It's 300 pieces? That's huge, that's very, very good," he said. "I'm thinking I'll have to come down and see this show."

Dr. James Mann, curator for the Las Vegas Art Museum, said that the exhibit showcases an astounding range of work that may surprise people with preconceived ideas about Asian art.

"What I myself am learning is how diverse Asian art is," Mann said. "It's clear that they have command of Western art history but we don't have, comfortably, theirs. We should feel a little ashamed of that."

The show gives Las Vegas an opportunity to develop its ties to Asian visitors and can become an important specialty of the museum, he said.

In recent years the United States has seemingly become more interested in Asian art, evident in the number of shows -- and significant artists -- that have come to America.

However, as Mann said: "There is no American art museum that is regularly showing new Asian art."

"It's really a recent phenomenon that there are more shows going up," Chong said.

The Las Vegas show gives the Western culture a chance to see that Asian art is not simply pottery and ink paintings or the traditional content and format of ancient Asian art, he said.

Every Asian country has its own characteristics, and how artists play that out varies, Chong said. The Asian culture is steeped in centuries-old traditions. Now that the Western world has crept into their cultures, Asian artists' influences are less linear.

"In each country, each individual, contemporary artist working always has to contend with the conflict of (using) traditional style, and tradition in general," he said.

Since most Asian cultures have been modernized (i.e. Westernized) artists are trying to make sense of what that means to them while still dealing with their history and culture, Chong said.

If artists choose to work with a traditional art style such as ink paintings, that doesn't mean they are simply following old traditions, Chong said, but are using the past and making it relevant in the time in which they live.

"There are political (influences) and lost traditions, and some (may be) seeking back what (Asians) also think Asian culture is about," Chong said.

The range and diversity of Asian contemporary artists, Mann said, is impressive in what it says of their knowledge of our art history.

Most Asian countries were insular nations until forced to open trade in the early part of the last century, and that introduction to the Western culture has, in some ways, influenced Asian art, Mann said.

"They've made a virtue out of it, how to draw on other cultures -- things cultural as well as methods of business," he said.

Asians are tremendously well-informed about art in the West, which gives them more ideas to draw from, Mann said.

The paintings came 20,000 miles by ship and were intricately and carefully packed with great attention to detail. (The 300 paintings arrived without a wrinkle in brown-paper coverings.)

"I had never seen that done, it was amazing," Mann said.

When the LVAM petitioned the library board to be occupants of the building in 1997 it was agreed that some of the shows would involve artists from the Pacific Rim, an area widely overlooked for contemporary art.

The LVAM is hosting a Japanese artist during the exhibit to educate him about America and help those interested better understand Asian contemporary art.

Katoro Yuki, one of the 150 artists featured in the exhibit, has set up temporary digs at the museum to continue working on his art, a blend of oil paints and metal. He was one of many who assisted in physically bringing the works from Japan to the United States. He arrived in April and plans to head home to Japan at the end of July.

"Everyone here has been so nice, even though I do not speak the language and am from a different culture," Yuki said through an interpreter. "But I am learning a lot from America."

On a recent afternoon at the museum workshop, behind the gallery, Yuki worked on a new painting, partly inspired by his experiences in Las Vegas. He began painting 15 years ago when he felt the need to express his ideas and his personal truths with something more than words.

His whole body, his energy, he said, goes into creating the painting. He moves to the feel of the paint on the canvas and the whimsy of his thoughts as he completes a painting with an electric handsander -- revealing a pale blue swath of color from what was a dark splotch of paint.

This method is part of his expression, Yuki said, unique not only to his personal ideas but also to the way his culture has shaped his sense of art. To find that inspiration, he said, he digs deep.

Americans, he said, show a very strong will in their art. The same cannot be said of their Asian counterparts.

"Their feelings are so strong and confident (but) Japanese artists show confusion, lots of confusion," Yuki said. "They cannot decide what the focus is, even catch their own feelings at all so they go into technical (formats) instead. They are struggling very much (to) find their focus."

To catch a glimpse of that struggle on canvas in person is a rare treat, according to Mann.

The Artists Cultural Exchange Association has expressed interest to Mann in wanting to raise money to have an Asian art museum in Las Vegas.

In the future Mann hopes to organize traveling shows that can originate from the Las Vegas museum, which is slowly etching a name for itself in the art world.

"(Our) permanent collection will be local artists," Mann said. "But it behooves us to seek an identity quickly in the family of American art museums and find a place for ourselves."