Asian Art Walk
South Asia Through the Veins of Light

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum is delighted to present Asian Art Walk, an exhibition series featuring selected works from its collection throughout the fiscal year 2026. Aiming to provide a friendly introduction to visitors, including those who are new to Asian art, the series features an array of art and culture that is distinctively unique to East, South, and Southeast Asia, as if travelling on a journey across the three regions.

The second chapter of the series focuses on South Asia, introducing the work of artists from seven countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. Along with our museum collections, recent or commissioned pieces created especially for this exhibit will be brought together, making it more special and larger than our usual collection show.

In South Asia, great rivers that originate in the Himalayan Mountains play a fundamental role in the life of the north, while a large part of the south faces the Indian Ocean. Abundant water helped nurture its unique cultural sphere, where diverse ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures intersect. After the mid-18^th century, many parts of South Asia came under British colonial rule, which exacerbated various divisions, including religious strife and social inequalities, which profoundly shape politics, societies, and everyday life in the region to this day. Despite this situation, people unwaveringly sought to express themselves and their values, while preserving their own culture and identity. Their artistic practices in the face of such hardships attest to their creative strength and the power of exceptionally diverse cultures passed down for generations.

The first part features eight representative figures of South Asian contemporary art. Their early works in our collection, mostly from around the early 2000s, will be presented with some of their recent or new pieces, tracing the dynamic artistic trajectories of those who led the contemporary art scene across South Asia for more than twenty years.

In the second part, 200 works from our collection are displayed based on three themes: “Art that Breathes with the City,” “Beyond Conflict,” and “Living in Tradition and the Mythological World.” Delving into people’s lives where the sacred and secular coexist, with individual stories interlaced with manifold values, this second part attempts to unravel the expansive world of South Asian art.

The show immerses itself into invisible connections as if following streams of water flowing deep underground, despite numerous conflicts arising among nations, religions, and overlapping histories. It invites all on a journey through the veins of light: the power of creation inherited throughout the ages in South Asia.

Part I: Leading Artists of Contemporary South Asian Art

Dali Al Mamoon [Bangladesh]   Elimination 2012/2016  Collection of the Artist

Aisha Khalid [Pakistan]   The garden of love is green without limit 2019  Collection of the Artist

Zihan Karim [Bangladesh]  Eye（Ⅰ） 2018   Collection of the Artist　※Reference

Part II: Narratives of South Asian Art

Hema Upadhyay [India]   Bleeding Hearts 2005

Pradeep Thalawatta [Sri Lanka]  Roadscape  2012/2014

Quamrul Hassan(Bangladesh)  Woman  1972

※All Works are collection of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum unless otherwise stated.