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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering short reviews of 20 exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout Japan over the past two or three months, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists. |
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Yumiko Sugano
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23-28 April 2007
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Galerie Tokyo Humanite
(Tokyo)
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| During the 1980s Sugano was active both in Japan and overseas as a creator of conceptual solid objects of wood, metal and clay, but she stopped producing new work in 1992. Three years ago, after a decade-plus hiatus, she began painting classically styled oils of ornamental objects, the focus of the present exhibit. |
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| Tulip Flow Project |
29-30 April 2007
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Ooka River and BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama
(Kanagawa) |
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| The NYK studio and gallery are run by BankART 1929, an experimental culture and arts program promoted by the city of Yokohama that utilizes historic buildings in the city. For this event, boats and floating islands were built using 100,000 tulips sent by Niigata city, a sister port on the Japan Sea, and were floated down the Ooka River. |
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The Artists from "Ikebukuro Montparnasse"
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| 17 March - 6 May 2007 |
Itabashi Art Museum
(Tokyo)
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During the 1930s many young artists set up studios in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, earning it the nickname "Ikebukuro Montparnasse." This show brings together works by avant-garde painters of this group, including Saburo Aso, Masaaki Terada, Shunsuke Matsumoto, Iwami Furusawa, Ichiro Fukuzawa, and Kikuji Yamashita.
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Akira Miki: Insect 3DCG and Insect Models
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24 April - 6 May 2007
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Art Space Niji
(Kyoto)
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The artist says: "This is an exhibit of large models and computer graphics of insects. A computer and 3DCG software are tools like a clay knife or a sculptor's chisel. The images I create are modeled three-dimensional photographs; the most interesting aspect to me is the discoveries I make about nature during the modeling process."
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Mitsuhito Wada: Pink x Green Project
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30 April - 9 May 2007
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Ueno Royal Museum Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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Wada creates installations involving minimal operations such as affixing colored sheets to glass facades or painting the walls of buildings. For this project he covered the glass entrance of the gallery with green sheeting and flooded the interior with pink light. The combined effect of the colors creates an atmosphere utterly alien to the space's normal ambience.
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| Spiral Life: 130 Years of Yoshihara-ya |
| 30 April - 12 May 2007 |
Space Kobo & Tomo
(Tokyo) |
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| The artist Yukihiro Yoshihara has brought back to life portrait photographs preserved since the 1870s at his family business, the Yoshihara Photo Studio in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture. Under Yoshihara's direction the newly printed photos bring the history of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras into the present day. |
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| Eri Morimoto |
16 April - 12 May 2007
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Sai Gallery
(Osaka) |
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Morimoto is known for works constructed from tiny (0.5 mm or less) bits of paper and the images she records of them. This exhibit consists of over 20 works she made by hand, ranging from "Forest," a 55-meter chain of several thousand 1-cm paper rings, to two-dimensional works of acrylic dots spaced at 1-mm intervals.
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Takashi Kato
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| 7-12 May 2007 |
Gallery K
(Tokyo)
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Kato is known for his recorded performances that combine his own body and everyday objects in unexpected ways. This show features videos and photos of such actions by the artist as walking with his legs and arms taped together, clipping clothespins to his face, and stuffing dishes in his mouth.
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Shimpei Kawai: Deeper Underground
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| 7-25 May 2007 |
Gallery La Fenice
(Osaka)
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| Kawai's unique works remind one of colorful fossils or biological specimens, from which the artist constructs his own ecosystems. This exhibit presents a set of works built out of cotton swabs. |
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Hiroki Tanaka
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14-26 May 2007
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Cubic Gallery
(Osaka)
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This is an exhibition of new paintings by Tanaka, who deals exclusively with human figures. The artist says, "I've come to believe that the human body breathes a unique air into its surroundings. Watching how dancers move has taught me that the slightest variation in a gesture can create an entirely different atmosphere. Everything begins with the human form."
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