Join MATCHA for excerpts from Makrokosma Bali, a new work from composer Wayne Vitale in collaboration with Sekaa Gong Taruna Mekar—a renowned gamelan ensemble from Bali under the direction of I Made Arnawa—and US-based visual and set designers. The work combines new music for gamelan orchestra with projected video and still imagery, digital-audio soundscapes, and an integrated lighting and set design. Makrokosma Bali contrasts the cultural values and cosmology of Bali with those of Western origin, exploring a range of scales from macro (galaxies) to micro (a human cell).

Dubbed “one of Southeast Asia’s leading contemporary artists,” Jakkai Siributr is noted for his detailed tapestries and installations that comment on the religious, social and political issues facing Thailand today. Asian Art Museum Art Speak interns sat down with Jakkai to discuss his three works in the exhibition Here/Not Here: Buddha Presence in Eight Recent Works (on view at the Asian Art Museum from April 1–October 23, 3011) and his perspectives on politics, art school, free time, and much more.

Commissioned by industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller and his wife Xenia Simons Miller in 1953, Miller House expands upon an architectural tradition developed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe—epitomizing the international Modernist aesthetic—with an open and flowing layout, flat roof and stone and glass walls. The rooms, configured beneath a grid pattern of skylights supported by cruciform steel columns, are filled with textiles that feature strong colors and playful patterns.

In June 1888 Vincent van Gogh visited the fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer where, in a matter of days, he produced two seascapes: one a spontaneous work and the other more considered. Van Gogh Museum's curator of paintings Leo Jansen explains the difference.

Vincent van Gogh made only a few portraits. Agostina Segatori is one of them. Van Gogh Museum's senior researcher Louis van Tilborgh talks about the lesser known aspects of this painting.

Exclusive Episode #140: Artist Cao Fei discusses her multi-media theatrical work "PRD Anti-Heroes" (2005), a play performed by non-professional actors. Investigating the "anonymous and unsung heroes" of the Pearl River Delta or "the factory of the world," Cao's production incorporates elements of traditional Chinese legends, Hong Kong soap operas, and Cantonese farces.