In May 2012 nearly thirty leading contemporary artists from throughout Asia will present arresting and provocative work at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Art objects from the museum's extensive collection of traditional art will be juxtaposed with the contemporary works--not so much to compare the past and present as to expand our imaginations beyond space and time into the spiritual world and the afterlife.

Phantoms of Asia, the resulting publication, is a unique and intriguing exploration of the concept of Asia not as a block of political and economic interest but as an...

What does it mean to be gorgeous? This art book--as its cover, evocative of a popular fashion magazine, suggests--offers a provocative and entertaining approach to this question. It accompanies an exhibition of works from SFMOMA and the Asian Art Museum in stimulating new contexts. The goal is not a comparison of East and West but rather a collaborative venture into beauty at its extreme: the grotesque, the sad, the scary, the awe-inspiring, the comical. The artworks encourage readers to form their own responses to the question "What is gorgeous?"

Highlights include works by Marcel...