KNN Culture Desk | November 3, 2026 — Beginning November 7, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., plans to present an exhibition pairing late-imperial Chinese textiles with contemporary Japanese metalwork. The show, Woven and Cast, explores how different crafts can share a visual language of shine, texture, nature and movement.
Materials divided by centuries, connected by skill
The featured pieces come from collections donated or bequeathed by Shirley Z. Johnson, an art collector and museum trustee who lived from 1940 to 2021. Chinese textiles from the Ming and Qing dynasties will appear alongside works by modern Japanese metal artists. The pairing encourages visitors to compare embroidered threads, feather and metal embellishments with objects shaped through casting and hammering.
The museum says imagery drawn from animals, birds, natural landscapes and water creates connections across the traditions while leaving their distinct histories intact. Its presentation includes explanations of technique rather than assuming that viewers already understand specialized artistic vocabulary.
Videos will show how the objects were made
According to the Smithsonian, gallery video includes commentary by textile conservators and footage from metal artists Ōsumi Yukie and Tanaka Terukazu. Those demonstrations are part of the planned museum experience; no independent video of the exhibition is represented here.
Woven and Cast: Chinese Textiles and Japanese Metalwork from the Shirley Z. Johnson Collection is scheduled through November 28, 2027, in the museum’s East Building, Gallery 22. As of November 3, the exhibition has not yet opened.
Sources: Smithsonian exhibition information and the museum’s September 30 announcement.
