We explore the many facets of East Asian and Islamic art, emphasising cultural exchange, artistic transformation, and the lives of objects across borders and centuries. Jin Xu’s study of the Tang dynasty horse paintings Night-Shining White and Man Herding Horses argues that the former represents a deliberate synthesis of Central Asian realism with indigenous Chinese aesthetic priorities.
Itakura Masaaki and Yukio Lippit examine the Chinese painting collection of Japan’s Ōhara family, revealing through technical analysis that their Five Oxen handscroll is a modern forgery by Zhang Daqian, while Shuo Sue Hua traces Zhang’s mid-century networks in Hong Kong, showing how the city served as a critical hub for artistic exchange and documentation during periods of political upheaval.
Shilei Zeng surveys Ming dynasty textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum to show how they embodied imperial authority, Buddhist devotion, and early globalised trade between China and Portugal. Melanie Gibson reconstructs the Islamic art collection of the Victorian painter Frederic Leighton, using archival photographs and exhibition catalogues to piece together a dispersed assemblage of Iznik ceramics, carpets, and tiles that once filled his celebrated Arab Hall.
Joe Nickols discusses how samurai from the Kamakura to Edo periods used portraiture, fantastical helmets, Nō theatre, and even playing cards to project authority and cultural refinement. Michele Bambling and Tamae Sagi present the first US solo exhibition of the Japanese mingei potter Kawai Kanjirō, tracing his evolution from technical mastery of Chinese glazes to the production of modernist wood sculptures, while emphasising the communal life of his Kyoto home-studio. Barbara Banasik introduces the Warsaw Asia and Pacific Museum’s collection of Mithila painting from Bihar, India, focusing on works produced during the formative ‘Holi colours’ period (c. 1967–88). 
Tong Su examines a 14th century Ilkhanid silk tapestry illustrating how Mongol rulers drew on Persian, Sogdian, Chinese, and Assyrian motifs—from lotus blossoms to lamassu guardians.