GCM | By Vivien Liu | Nov. 6 · NEW YORK
On Friday evening, a gallery on West 43rd Street, a short walk from the neon of Times Square, filled with paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, prints and drawings by artists from both sides of the Pacific. From 6 to 8 p.m., a reception there opened “Common Roots Across the World,” a joint exhibition of Chinese and American artists.
The show, which runs in two venues through mid-December, is organized by the Asia Education Beijing Forum, the New York Art Association and the Hong Kong Academy of Fine Arts, with sponsorship from Fortune Time 1413, LLC. It is the central cultural event of the 2026 U.S.-China Education Summit. At a time when exchanges between the two countries have been uneven, its organizers describe it as a conversation conducted through art rather than through statements.
Rex Rivolo, president of the New York Art Association and a collector, served as master of ceremonies. Chen Weimin, president of the Hong Kong Academy of Fine Arts and the exhibition’s curator, and Yang Yan, chairwoman of the board of Beijing’s 21st Century School, were among those who spoke. Their remarks centered on education: cross-cultural arts teaching, the preservation of intangible cultural heritage and the training of talent for the creative industries.
The evening’s most closely watched moment was the donation of a Qing dynasty textile known as xilankapu, a brocade woven by the Tujia ethnic minority of central China. The craft, prized for its dense geometric patterns and saturated colors, was placed on China’s first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006. A piece of folk weaving more than two centuries old, hung in a Manhattan gallery, made a quiet case for the exhibition’s title: that the work of celebrated masters and of anonymous weavers springs from the same impulse.
The participating artists include established figures from China and the United States, among them members of the sponsoring institutions. Ink and oil, chisel and brush share the walls, inviting visitors to compare two ways of seeing in a single room.
Related summit forums and visits are taking place at Columbia University and other sites, pairing classroom debate about education with the practice on display in the gallery.
The Manhattan installation runs through Nov. 15. The exhibition then moves to Long Island, reopening Nov. 18 at the New York Art Association Museum in St. James, near Stony Brook University, where it remains on view through Dec. 18.
If You Go
- Nov. 6–15: Fushimi Times Square gallery, 311 West 43rd Street, Manhattan
- Nov. 18–Dec. 18: New York Art Association Museum, 1 Flowerfield, Suite 15, St. James, N.Y.
