Mari L'Esperance reads a poem she wrote in response to seven paintings by Fuyuko Matsui in the exhibition "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past" (on view at the Asian Art Museum from May 18-September 2, 2012). For more information: http://www.asianart.org/phantoms/ This presentation was part of MATCHA: Phantoms Arise! For more information: http://www.asianart.org/matcha/pastevents.htm#m2012 Co-presented by Litquake.

Born in New York, Palden Weinreb’s Tibetan heritage speaks through his strikingly spare works. Weinreb is inspired by sublimity: motion, space, and mystery. For Phantoms of Asia (on view at the Asian Art Museum from May 18-September 2, 2012), Weinreb’s minimalist works (including paintings and light boxes) are meditations on existence and the universe. By reducing visual components to their simplest forms, Weinreb’s work explores how all things may be interconnected. For more information: http://www.asianart.org/phantoms/

Japanese artist Takayuki Yamamoto doesn't just make hell fun and educational. His co-created art installations with elementary school children apply youthful imagination to explorations of "the particularities of social systems and customs by which people are raised." For "Phantoms of Asia" (on view at the Asian Art Museum from May 8 to September 2, 2012) he has worked with San Francisco's Bayview area elementary school students to build cardboard dioramas of their personal hells along with a companion video commenting on their structures. His work is entitled, "What Kind of Hell Will We Go."

Heman Chong imagines a future of dystopian stillness with "Calendars (2020--2096)," an installation of 1001 photos, each a calendar page capturing a moment of complete emptiness in today's bustling areas of Singapore. View this work for yourself at the Asian Art Museum during the exhibition, "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past" (on view from May 18-September 2, 2012). For more information: http://www.asianart.org/phantoms

A Berlin-based artist, Veronika Beckh has exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe. Her work invites viewers to disconnect from the noise and chaos of everyday life and to find light, tranquility, and contemplation. Beckh used her residency at The Studio to expand her practice beyond smaller objects and ensembles toward room installations. She experimented with scale, combining blown pieces with float glass and mirror to integrate with and respond to space, light, reflections, and the viewer.

John Chamberlain: Choices
February 24–May 13, 2012

Episode #151:  Filmed in 2010 at Lari Pittman's dual exhibitions "Orangerie" and "New Paintings" at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, the artist discusses the common misconception that his work is preplanned. Though he understands how audiences reach this conclusion, Pittman explains that his paintings result from a series of spontaneous decisions.

Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program at the University of California, San Diego at the San Francisco Asian Art Forum for Museum Directors at the Asian Art Museum (November 8-9, 2011)