After looking at 2021 art agenda in the USA, now let’s have a glance at the other big part of the world: China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

It has been not so easy to summarize 2021 best art shows in a so large geographical space, but we thought that a review like this was fundamental.

China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong are becoming leading nations for cultural programs, art fairs and auctions. Contemporary art collectors are increasing year after year as noted by important auction houses which open new branches in the southeast.

Therefore let’s start our journey from China.


1. Huang Rui: Ways of Abstraction


UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Bejing
September 25, 2021–December 19, 2021


UCCA was founded as Ullens Center for Contemporary Art by collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in 2007. Since then it has been China's leading contemporary art institution with more than 140 major art exhibitions. “Huang Rui: Ways of Abstraction”has been the largest solo exhibition in recent years by the artist and co-founder of pioneering avant-garde “Stars Art Group”, from the beginning of his career to the present day.






2. Observatory. Marina Perez Simão


Sifang Art Museum. Nanjing
November 5, 2021-February 27, 2022


In addition to supporting the development of contemporary art in China, Sifang Art Museum is also committed to bringing cutting-edge art creations from around the world to Nanjing, to promote dialogue and understanding among cultures and people. “Observatory” is the first major institutional solo exhibition in China of the Brazilian artist Marina Perez Simão. Her paintings take us into seductive thresholds of an alien world, spiraling through the outer limits of expression into forcefields where colors seem to become verbs and where lines vibrate with a musical resonance.







3. Echo: Greetings from Nature and Urban Space


MoCA Pavilion, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art
April 25, 2021-June 6, 2021


A Sino-Swiss collaborative project, the exhibition “Echo: Greetings from Nature and Urban Space” presented 16 sound art artworks: 8 choosen by Christian Zehnder from the Swiss Alpine Museum’s 2019 exhibition; the other half selected from “Mapping Echoes,” an open-call Chinese program.







4. Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging - 16 Women Artists from around the World


Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
April 22, 2021-January 1, 2022


The exhibition focuses on 16 female artists in their 70s or older, from across the globe, who continue to embark on new challenges. They are originally from 14 different countries and equally diverse in their current locations. Nonetheless, what these women share regardless of recognition or evaluation by art museums and the art market is a determination to pursue their own distinctive creative paths in turbulent environment and times. Showcasing their wide array of powerful works from paintings, video, sculptures, to large-scale installations and performances, about 130 works to total, this exhibition contemplates the nature of the special strength or what one may call the driving force: “another energy”. The artists are: Etel Adnan, Phyllida Barlow, Anna Boghiguian, Miriam Cahn, Lili Dujourie, Anna Bella Geiger, Beatriz González, Carmen, Kim Soun-Gui, Suzanne Lacy, Mishima Kimiyo, Miyamoto Kazuko, Senga Nengudi, Nunung WS, Arpita Singh and Robin White.







5. Viva Video! The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota


Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
November 13, 2021 – February 23, 2022


This exhibition will be the first major survey of the art of Shigeko Kubota (1937-2015) in Japan nearly in three decades. Born in Niigata and educated in Tokyo, Kubota moved to New York in 1964 to join the Fluxus movement. Kubota became internationally known as a pioneering artist for her “video sculpture,” which integrated video into three-dimensional structures. Her contribution to contemporary art, however, has yet to be adequately evaluated.







6. Strandbeest. Theo Jansen


Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto
July 3, 2021-September 12, 2021


Strandbeest is the machine that runs on the sandy beaches of the Netherlands with the wind as the power source. The entire body is shaped with a yellow plastic tube, and its physics-based movement is smooth and organic, as like living things. They were created by Dutch artist Theo Jansen (1948–) to solve the problem of rising sea levels in his homeland. Aiming to survive on the sandy beach independently even after the artist's death, Strandbeest will acquire functions such as walking, turning, and danger detection, and will acquire a system for adapting to various environments. This exhibition introduced more than 10 works including a strand beast with a total length of over 10 meters.







7. FEMINISMS


21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
October 16, 2021-March 13, 2022


Feminism in Japan from the 1990s onward was linked to popular culture, focused on girls and young women in Europe and the US, and was disseminated through the media. Young women’s activities in Japan were also featured in the media, particularly a brand of feminism that became known as the “Girly Movement.” However, in Japan’s case it cannot be denied that in some ways the movement was less a call for change than it was fodder for the media, turning images of women into objects for consumption. Now, in the 2020s, social changes are stirring as small voices raising dissent connect through the Internet and gain strength. Feminism, which was thought of as only for women, is extending a helping hand to anyone who feels out of place in society. In this exhibition artworks by nine artists, each with their own perspective, offer a window into expressions of feminism in Japan, and how artists perceive gender, the body, society, and what lies beyond.







8. Ai Weiwei: Defend the Future


National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul
December 11, 2021–April 17, 2022


“Ai Weiwei: Defend the Future” is an exhibition of Ai Weiwei (born in 1957) that is dedicated to the artist's numerous artworks on the themes of freedom of expression and the lives of refugees. The artist has been highly active in a wide range of areas: from painting and photography to film, installation, architecture, public art, ceramics, and publication. Ai Weiwei is also highly praised as a leading artist for his active communication via various social media channels—including his blog, Twitter, and Instagram, among others—representing today's digital era.







9. Human, 7 questions


Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul
October 8, 2021–January 2, 2022



With “Human, 7 questions” the Leeum Museum of Art endeavors to examine the meaning of being human and to assess the future. This exhibition is organized in the form of posing seven questions about humans through approximately 50 artists and 130 artworks, both domestic and international. Beginning with the postwar art of the mid-20th century, when introspection on human existence became widespread, the exhibition proceeds to examine more recent artworks that have emerged together with discussions on the crisis of humanism and the posthuman. The artists are: Artists: Alberto Giacometti, George Segal, Antony Gormley, Ron Mueck, Andy Warhol, Joo Myung Duck, Yook Myong shim, Shirin Neshat, Yves Klein, Lee Kun-Yong, Kim Atta, Ana Mendieta, Zhang Huan, Sonia Khurana, Choi Man-lin, Ryu In, Kader Attia, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Lee Dongwook, Damien Hirst, Robert Longo, Joanna Rajkowska, Kim In Sook, Jung Yeondoo, Kim Oksun, Nikki S. Lee, Kim Sanggil, Kim Heecheon, Yasumasa Morimura, Elmgreen & Dragset, siren eun young jung, Choi Haneyl, BLINDNESS, Nam June Paik, Lee Bul, Lee Hyungkoo, Jeong Geumhyung, Stelarc, Matthew Barney, Ho Tzu Nyen, Cécile B. Evans, David Altmejd, Kim Ayoung, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Max Hooper Schneider, Bruce Nauman, Dustin Yellin, Rebecca Horn, Yeom Ji Hye, Pierre Huyghe.







10.Contemplation: Highlights of the Donation of the Jingguanlou Collection


Hong Kong Museum of Art
November 26, 2021-February 16, 2022


Jingguanlou is a private art collection primarily on 20th century Chinese painting and calligraphy, compiled by the local connoisseur Dr Leo Wong Kwai-kuen. Dr Wong has generously donated to the Hong Kong Museum of Art a total of 1,108 priceless works of art from various categories. In this exhibition, about sixty sets of precious artworks from the main categories of the donation will be displayed: works by masters of the Shanghai School namely Zhu Qizhan (1892-1996), Xie Zhiliu (1910-1997) and Chen Peiqiu (1923-2020); a collection of couplets, folding fans and albums, dating from the Qing dynasty to the modern era; a series of purple clay teapots with rubbings; and Dr Wong's own photographic works.