Cycle 2, Version 3 by Sopheap Pich, 2008. Photo credit (c) The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For the next several months, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka The Met) has quite a few great special exhibits open that I would recommend seeing. My two favorites from a visit to The Met last week are titled “Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich” and “Birds in the Art of Japan,” both on the second floor in the Asian Art section.

In the first exhibit, Pich uses wire, bamboo, rattan, and a couple other materials to craft beautiful abstract or representational sculptures, which are presented, as you can see in the picture on the left, with great lighting to create superb shadows around the piece. Pich and his assistants had to boil the rattan and bamboo cane in diesel oil to remove insect eggs, prevent fungal damage, and preserve the cane from discoloration.

“Umezawa Manor in Sagami Province,” from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei, Sōshū Umezawa zai) Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, Tokyo 1760–1849 Tokyo). Photo credit (c) The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the second exhibit, around one hundred and fifty different works in a myriad of mediums are on display, all from Japan and representing birds or their flight in some way. One thing I learned is that the phoenix in Japanese culture (which was passed down from the Chinese) is not a fiery or golden bird that is eternally born from its own ashes as it is in the Western conception. Instead the phoenix is a fantastical bird with traits from many existing–and some fictional–avian species, to be represented by different artists as they please.

Note that by clicking on the pictures here you can access The Met’s page for each exhibition, and if you look toward the bottom of the ‘Exhibition Images’ section on the left you’ll see a link to ‘View All’, which I highly recommend doing if you won’t be able to make the trip out to The Met by July. When you click on an individual image, you can zoom in and enjoy the incredible detail in each piece of art.