EXHIBITIONS /

Robert Rauschenberg and Asia

16 June 2026 – 1 November 2026 

We are delighted to present Robert Rauschenberg and Asia from 16 June - 1 November 2026.

The exhibition, organised by M+ in collaboration with ILHAM Gallery, represents the first comprehensive survey of Rauschenberg's engagement with Asia. After its successful showing at M+ from 22 November 2025 to 26 April 2026, the exhibition travels to Kuala Lumpur as part of a collaboration between the two insitutions,with support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in New York. 

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008, U.S.A) is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the twentieth century. His work foreshadowed many major developments in post-war art such as Pop art, Conceptual art, and installation art. His experimental practice redefined what an art object could be, incorporating everyday items and mass media images into his works, and blurring the line between painting and sculpture. An enthusiastic traveller, he drew inspiration from experiencing different cultures, and collaborating with artists across the world. Rauschenberg saw art as a way to foster mutual understanding, and inspire social change, in an era when the world was less connected.

This exhibition marks the first comprehensive exploration of the artist's many projects in Asia, and forms a key part of the worldwide celebration of his centennial in 2025. Rauschenberg travelled regularly to Asia, finding fresh inspiration for his work and making connections with artists, artisans, critics, and patrons across the region. Between the 1960s and 1990s, he visited numberous locations across the continent for exhibitions, collaborations, research, and personal trips, gathering images and materials that he incorporated into his artworks up until his death in 2008. These Asian-inspired works encompass assemblages, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, photography and drawing, and reflect Rauschenberg's omnivorous apporach to media, contnet and technique.

What Rauschenberg found in Asia was not only an enormous diversity of cultures and landscapes, but fresh and contrasting approaches to materials, from the simplicity and beauty of draped fabrics to combinations of ancient trasitions and new innovations in papermaking and ceramics. He also encountered rapidly transforming societies with complex bureaucratic and political systems and flourishing contemporary art scenes. His openness and willingness to engage with people and places he travelled to were for the most part welcomes. Yet as a prominent American artist in a period when the globalisation of art had barely begun, he was also met with varying combinations of excitement, curiosity and suspicion.

The most prominent manifestation of his Asian engagement was undoubtedly the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), a multu-venue travelling exhibition that ran from 1984-1991. A self-funded and self-initiated project, ROCI included exhibitions in five cities in Asia, including Kuala Lumpur. Rauschenberg was the first Western contemporary artist to have a major solo exhibition in China, the USSR, and Malaysia at a time of global transformation.

It is timely on this centennial of Rauschenberg's birth, and forty years from the first ROCI exhibition in Asia, to consider how these travels expanded the artist's repertoire and how he was received by the artists and communities he encountered. It is also instructive, as the interconnected globe he championed retreats into hardening and more strident nationalisms, to reconsider Rauschenberg's proposition for cross-cultural dialogue and artistic exchange, when an ever-widening world was invited into his creative universe.

Robert Rauschenberg and Asia is curated by Russell Storer, Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+.

The presentation at ILHAM Gallery is co-curated by Rahel Joseph, Gallery Director, ILHAM.

---

ABOUT RAUSCHENBERG100

Robert Rauschenberg’s (1925-2008) strong conviction that engagement with art can nurture people’s sensibilities as individuals, community members, and citizens was key to his ethos. The Centennial celebrations seek to allow audiences familiar with him and those encountering the artist for the first time to form fresh perspectives about his artwork.

A series of global activities and exhibitions in honour of Rauschenberg’s Centennial reexamines the artist through a contemporary lens, highlighting his enduring influence on generations of artists and advocates for social progress. The Centennial’s activation of the artist’s legacy promotes cross-disciplinary explorations and creates opportunities for critical dialogue.

---

ABOUT M+ MUSEUM

M+ is Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture. Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), it is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The landmark M+ building on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbourfront was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup. It spans a total floor area of 65,000 square metres, featuring thirty-three galleries alongside a Learning Hub, Moving Image Centre, Research Centre, and Roof Garden, among other event and programming spaces. The M+ Facade is one of the largest LED screens in the world, showcasing commissioned artworks on the Hong Kong skyline every evening. The museum stewards a multidisciplinary permanent collection that includes objects from regions across Asia and beyond. A highlight is the M+ Sigg Collection, one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Chinese contemporary art. Today, M+ is a nexus for researching and presenting contemporary visual culture, inspiring thought and curiosity.