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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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1 December 2007 |
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| Masato Kobayashi: Light Painting |
| 1 - 29 September 2007 |
Shugoarts
(Tokyo) |
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The five "paintings" (more objets than paintings) on display consist of silver-coated canvases stretched loosely over misshapen frames. The light that plays off these undulating surfaces is the real subject -- not light as a theme, but light itself taking the form of an abstract painting. Kobayashi's is not so much a formalist approach as a mystical one.
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| Yuki Sato |
| 2 - 14 October 2007 |
Contemporary Art Space Osaka (CASO)
(Osaka) |
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| Sato's large paintings cover the walls of the gallery in sets of two or three. Each work contains sections where Sato has daubed chunks of paint onto the canvas with a knife. Like particles of light, these areas add luster to the painting surface, and their contrast with the sections painted by brush produces a distinctive sensation of depth. |
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| Nana Fukushima: A White Man--From the 8th Night of Natsume Soseki's Yume-Juya |
| 11 - 16 September 2007 |
Cubic Gallery Iteza
(Kyoto) |
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| Each year, Fukushima does a solo exhibition based on one tale from novelist Natsume Soseki's (1867-1916) short story collection Yume-Juya (Ten Nights' Dreams). "A White Man" is the eighth in her series. The gallery seems stuffed to overflowing with drawings, sketches and bits of text inspired by Natsume's story. |
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| Genta Ishizuka: Surface Impressions |
| 18 - 23 September 2007 |
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto) |
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| Ishizuka says he is interested in the textures, as well as the historical and cultural images, of lacquer as a decorative surface material. His works, which stimulate in the viewer a desire to touch them, include a suitcase covered with lacquer "seals" and "tape" as well as a work composed of multiple layers of polished lacquer on a pattern of scattered sewing needles. |
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| Sakiko Takeuchi |
| 17 - 30 September 2007 |
Neutron Gallery
(Kyoto) |
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| The floating dynamism of Takeuchi's small, finely drawn renderings of bats and rabbits draws the viewer into a secret storybook world. A sensation of stress upon first viewing her works gradually shifts to fascination. |
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| Yoshihiro Kato: Artistic Terrorism and Shamanism |
| 28 September 2007 |
Tama Art University
(Tokyo) |
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| Co-founder of the avant-garde artistic group Zero Jigen (Zero Dimension), Kato (1936-) recently spoke at Tama Art University on his long-held thesis that "Art=Terrorism", while his film "Ceremonies" documenting Zero Jigen's sixties street performances appeared on two screens. Suddenly, a dozen male students appeared on stage and lay down in a row like logs, whereupon several female students began to walk quietly over them. The same spectacle had just appeared on-screen as part of Kato's work "White Hare of Inaba". |
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| Nao Matsumoto: Double Image |
| 25 - 30 September 2007 |
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto) |
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| Filled with flowering plants and animals, Matsumoto's lush paintings surround the visitor like a forest. In one work a human form sleeps against a background divided into white and orange. The exhibit also includes various objets such as a tower of tiny futons stacked on a miniature bed, as well as a drawing of the same work. |
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| Kotobuki Shiriagari: Oyaji World |
| 28 July - 14 October 2007 |
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
(Hiroshima) |
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| This studio show features animations of cartoonist Shiriagari's trademark "oyaji" (middle-aged man) characters. With faces drawn in the "ugly" style for which Shiriagari is notorious, the oyaji dance, swim or sumo-wrestle. But what makes them truly hilarious is the imbalance between their faces and their bodies from the neck down, which move in an uncannily realistic manner. |
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| Aoi Tamura: Palace Dream--Parallel Balance Dance |
| 11 - 16 September 2007 |
Gallery Maronie
(Kyoto) |
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| In this solo show by Tamura, who studied Nihonga in art school, a series of paintings of women in acrobat-like poses unfolds like a picture scroll or a manga story. The arabesque quality of her compositions, the flat color plane and the graceful movements of the human figures conjure up a gentle flow of time. |
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| Shinro Ohtake: New Universe, on the Road |
| 15 September - 25 November 2007 |
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
(Hiroshima) |
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| Some 630 works by avant-garde pioneer Ohtake (1955-) fill the gallery from floor to ceiling. Though only a third the size of his massive retrospective "Zen-kei" at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art last year, the tight dimensions of the space give the show a sense of condensed intensity. This exhibition also includes quite a few works that were not shown in Tokyo. |
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