Exploring the diverse, cross-cultural perspectives of Asian cosmology and spirituality

Organized by the Asian Art Museum located in San Francisco in collaboration with the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, a new exhibition explores the complex, diverse, cross-cultural perspectives of Asian cosmology and spirituality through a compelling interplay of some truly amazing artworks alluding to both the past and present. Curated by Mami Kataoka in collaboration with Allison Harding, the event is woven around four broad themes:

• Asian Cosmologies: Envisioning the Invisible
• World, Afterworld: Living Beyond Living
• Myth, Ritual, Meditation: Communing with Deities
• Sacred Mountains: Encountering the Gods

Expressing the museum’s aspiration to ‘awaken both the past and inspire the future’, the historic building is undergoing a transformation so as to meet the challenges of the major exhibit, starting with a 24-ft installation just outside, moving into its public courtyards, and finally throughout the special exhibit and collection galleries.

Among the artists from India who form part of the show is Varunika Saraf, inspired by the Mughal miniature painting tradition. She recasts subjects from mythology and nature as players in an imagined, otherworldly cosmos that also draws from her own subconscious. Born in Hyderabad, India, she has a BFA in painting from the J.N.T.U. College of Fine Arts and an MFA in painting from the Sarojini Naidu School of Fine Arts, University of Hyderabad.

In 2011, she was a visiting fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Saraf is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She divides her time between Hyderabad and New Delhi. Uniting imagery from throughout the world, her paintings reference such masters as Frida Kahlo, Hieronymus Bosch, Marc Chagall, and Katsushika Hokusai.

In the details of her mysterious, dreamy spaces lurk skeletons and monsters that navigate disparate eras and cultures. On the other hand, what started as the artist's conversation with the hard-edged simple works of the 60s and 70s for Prabhavathi Meppayil, it has gradually evolved into a much more personalized expression that emphasizes on the 'crafting' of the art object, stimulating the definition of minimalism itself.