Yayoi Kusama's huge yellow and black pumpkin sculptures can be spotted in the most unlikely of places across Japan, and now one stands outside The National Art Center, Tokyo. It's there as part of her large-scale retrospective My Eternal Soul, which brings together over 250 works spanning her entire career. Kusama, alongside artists such as Takashi Murakami, has become one of the faces representing Japanese contemporary art internationally, especially since the turn of this century and a major show at the Tate Modern in London, which sparked a run of exhibitions across the globe. more...
Pictorial Photographer of San'in: Teiko Shiotani at the Shimane Art Museum
Alice Gordenker
How is it that one of the most influential Japanese photographers of the early 20th century is also one of the least known? Teiko Shiotani (1899-1988) devoted his life to photography, producing hauntingly beautiful images of the landscapes and people of his native San'in region, an area of Western Japan that faces the Japan Sea and comprises Tottori and Shimane Prefectures. Yet even in his homeland few people today are familiar with his work. Fortunately, a grand-scale exhibition is now bringing an unprecedented number of Shiotani's photographs to a modern audience. more...
Deconstructing Borders: A Timely Installation by Chim Pom
Alan Gleason
Amid the current global epidemic of anti-immigrant hysteria, the process of crossing international boundaries has never seemed so fraught. Though much is said about art as a medium that transcends such artificial constructs, few artists incorporate actual land borders into their work. Understandably so, since the attempt might entail less than cordial treatment at the hands of immigration bureaucracies, border patrols, and worse. more...
