Ink Dreams: Selections from the Foundation Ink Collection

This exhibition proposes a new view on the global role of one of the great artistic heritages, ink painting. In East Asia, ink painting can be traced back over millennia, expanding into an entity with global reach, through its aesthetics, philosophy, materials, and practice.

Beyond the concrete materials of ink and paper, an intangible spirit unites East Asian ink paintings. It is neither the place of origin, nor the era, nor the material of these works of art that defines the tradition of ink, as artists today have access to new tools and a swiftly globalizing art world. Centuries-old themes have reverberated throughout the timeline of ink-art history, and are now reinterpreted by contemporary artists from around the globe.

Comprising photography, sculpture, video—and, of course, painting—Ink Dreams presents a definition of ink art fit to the contemporary era, one that incorporates soft qualities—like flow, layering, and negative space—from the ink painting tradition, and new adaptations of traditional subject matter, unbounded by traditional materials.

Ink Dreams is the first presentation of artwork from the Fondation INK Collection, a four-hundred-piece collection of contemporary art in the spirit of ink that was promised to LACMA in 2018. The exhibition examines the impact of ink on the global contemporary art world, and features works by artists from Asia, Europe, and North America.