Japan has a long history of influencing the West through art, specifically woodblock printing (ukiyo-e) during Impressionism. Japanese artists today are usually recognized for their contributions to anime, a genre of cartoon. Motoi Yamamoto utilizes a natural material: Salt.
Salt’s history in Japan comes down to importing. While other countries have grand salt stories, Japan never reached that mark. Due to scarcity, salt became highly valued, mostly in food and funerary practices. Japanese funerary traditions explain that bodies are cremated, with the bones passed on long chopsticks by family members into an urn. Afterwards, the mourners purify themselves by rubbing kiyome shio (funerary salt) on their hands to ward off evil spirits from their homes.
Yamamoto first started using the salt after losing his then twenty-four year-old sister to brain cancer. Ever since, his use of salt continues to amaze viewers of his work. In 2012, Yamamoto presented an exhibition called Return to the Sea. This exhibition included one big saltwork in the main room and his prints in the second room. The title reflects how Yamamoto takes the salt from these installations and releases it back into the ocean. Yamamoto uses this cycle as a metaphor, since salt is present in all beings and ecosystems. In Return to the Sea: Saltworks by Motoi Yamamoto, “[e]ach grain of salt contains its own history and trajectory…[which] becomes a metaphor of the evanescence and transience of human life.” (pg. 13).
South Korea displays many great accomplishments: K-Pop, National Ceramic Treasures, and incredible architecture. Korean fine artists blend Eastern and Western traditions. But, what styles are considered “foreign?” How can anyone tell if a style came from a “foreign” place? Enter whimsical and witty Jiha Moon to tackle that question!
Moon made her appearance at the Halsey in 2015 with her exhibition Double Welcome, Most Everyone’s Mad Here. To address the elephant in the room, the title does take inspiration from Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland. Moon extracts the quirky imagery from the book into the questions posed earlier. She approaches her work through mixed media. For canvas, she uses hanji, Korean silk, and she paints with acrylic and ink. She also creates ceramics, ranging from porcelain to earthenware. She takes an interest in Southern folk art like Native American bead dolls, because she moved to Atlanta from Daegu, South Korea.
Moon blurs the iconography of “East” and West.” She portrays symbols having different meanings depending on the cultural lens, and encourages viewers not to identify an image with a certain tradition. In fact, Moon points out many traditions that are identified as “foreign,” but were actually created by inspired Western artists. For example, blue willow China patterns were created in England, and fortune cookies were created in California. Still the motif and food are labelled as “Asian.” As Amy Moorefield stated, “[Moon] [reminds] us that our preconceived notion of “others” is not a true manifestation of actual identity” (pg. 8).
China, out of all the countries described here, has a more artistically-known history. From the beginning of Chinese society, their fine arts have always been glorified by Europeans, along with other Asian countries. However, China only considered three disciplines to be “true art”—painting, calligraphy, and poetry. This explains why most Chinese paintings contain Mandarin characters in beautiful handwriting, mainly done by Emperors. Yu Hong combines poetry and art in a modern light.
Hong came to the Halsey in 2003 with her exhibition A Woman’s Life. Her oil paintings depice routine life with her family, friends, and young daughter, Liu Wa. Like poetry, her paintings are meant to pause time and appreciate the smaller details. To appreciate friends, love your family members, and enjoy the quiet moments within the routine.
Vietnam’s history contains multiple complexities. Americans usually think of the Vietnam War, mainly the protests and demands for ceasefire and peace, but the country contained many struggles long before the sixties. Vietnam was part of French Indonesia in 1877 which included five other countries. The Japanese even took control over the country, which gave rise to movements like Viet Minh. After the Vietnam War, many fled from the regime, risking piracy and possible death to get to refugee camps in neighboring Asian countries to get to America. Still, despite having a complicated history in the 20th century, the country took religious elements of Christianity, along with other Eastern religious practices, to create Caodaism, a syncretic religion, in the 1920s. Kenny Nguyen’s grandmother was a member and practitioner of this religion. Along with acknowledging the diaspora, Nguyen uses these connections to inspire his artwork.
Nguyen came to the Halsey in 2025 with his exhibition The Divine Eye. He places strips of silk on pallets of poured acrylic paint, attaches the strips to canvas, and shapes the paintings on the wall. For this exhibition, Nguyen created works to mirror the image of a CaoDai temple, which are colorful and elaborate, including woven columns suspended from the ceiling. Along with these silkworks, he also had sounds playing on a loop in the background: stalls in Vietnam, his mother singing in Viet, and small instruments from Vietnam. All these combine to create an image of his home. The use of silk even hints at how, despite the diaspora, Vietnamese culture continues to thrive outside the country.
If this article has given any reader inspiration to look into more contemporary Asian artists, then come to the Halsey look at In Kyoung Chun’s exhibition Make Room, on view through July 25, 2026. Like Nguyen and Yamamoto’s work, Chun’s work comes from her personal experience of immigrating to America, making a “new home.” And like Moon and Hong’s work, Chun notes that people need to be accommodating for immigrants who may not understand the culture, and to appreciate the small moments that happen within the home.
If any reader wants to learn more about contemporary Asian artists, here is a small list of popular contemporary artists, ranging from China, Thailand, India, and more! One piece of their popular work will be listed, along with their name and nationality. This author encourages every reader to do their own research when examining these artworks.
Lastly, this author wants to let readers know that the Halsey offers publications! The Halsey has many publications, including Yamamoto and Moon’s. If you want a copy of one, please come to the Institute and purchase one today, or order online here. These books are also available to explore in our library. Here are some publications to consider:
By Amy Griner, Halsey Institute Intern