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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 February 2008 |
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Kenji Yanobe: The Great Adventure of Torayan -- Phantasmagoria |
| 7 December 2007 - 19 January 2008 |
ArtCourt Gallery
(Osaka) |
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Commemorating the August 2007 publication of Yanobe's picture book The Great Adventure of Torayan, inspired by a story the artist found in a nursery when he visited Chernobyl, the show features hand-drawn illustrations, documentary photos and videos of the book and its production, as well as Yanobe's new installation "Phantasmagoria," which includes a chandelier in the shape of a tortoise.
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| Tamotsu Suemoto |
| 4 - 9 December 2007 |
Cubic Gallery Iteza
(Kyoto) |
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| A single red light glows in a dark hall. As you move into the room and halt at the stop signal, LED letters spelling "YOU HAVE BEEN DETECTED" appear, then change to a blinking message: "WHERE ARE YOU?" |
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Hiroyuki Tanaka |
| 4 - 16 December 2007 |
Galerie 16
(Kyoto)
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| Several old books are arranged on tables with their pages splayed open. From these pages globelike clumps protrude, painted to resemble tiny blue Earths with continents, seas and clouds. Somehow the installation manages to evoke both the vast flow of human history across time and the quest for hope in our everyday lives. |
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| Yu Kawakita: Water Waver |
| 11 - 23 December 2007 |
Cubic Gallery Iteza
(Kyoto) |
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| Kawakita produces these exquisite wave patterns by drawing countless lines with ink on water-soluble film, then affixing the film to a water-wetted panel. When the film dissolves, the lines adhere to the panel. She then pours or sprinkles more water onto the surface, further shifting the lines with the water's flow and thus altering the patterns with the slightest movements of water and air. |
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Akita as Seen by Ihei Kimura |
| 22 November 2007 - 20 January 2008 |
Akita Senshu Museum of Art
(Akita) |
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| Owned by the northeastern city of Akita, this museum is exhibiting photos taken in Akita Prefecture in the 1950s and 1960s by renowned photographer Ihei Kimura. The images offer poignant evidence that until the late 20th century, much of Japan's countryside was still unspoiled. Redolent of rural life in the not so distant past, these are scenes that seem devoid of straight or manmade lines. |
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Hiroyuki Saiki: Still Lives |
| 17 - 22 December 2007 |
Ban Garow
(Osaka) |
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| Rounded leather objects sit upon dark-colored wooden daises. The calm orderliness of the exhibit generates a tranquil mood overall, but upon closer examination of the sculptures one is struck, and unexpectedly disturbed, by the outlandish forms they take. |
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Iswanto Hartono: MELLOW |
| 17 - 26 December 2007 |
Gallery K
(Tokyo) |
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| Indonesian artist Hartono has produced a series of works on Japan's Yasukuni Shrine controversy for his first show in Japan. Hartono's brilliance can be seen in his perversely light-hearted take on what is normally treated as a ponderous political theme, for example by applying acrylic beads and perfume to historic documentary photographs. |
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Moeko Tawara and Hisako Masuda: Drawing -- Exposed Essence 07 |
| 10 - 22 December 2007 |
O Gallery Eyes
(Osaka) |
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| Both artists in this joint show express a concern with the act of drawing and the impulse behind it, but with quite different results. Where Masuda revisits a scene to carefully draw and re-draw what she sees, Tawara's work appears to erupt spontaneously from her subconscious. Yet both could be described as painters of landscapes. |
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Nozomi Arakawa |
| 17 - 29 December 2007 |
Cubic Gallery
(Osaka) |
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| Arakawa paints with acrylics on resin-saturated washi (traditional Japanese paper). The works in this show exude a unique atmosphere, as if one were viewing them through a thin filter. The colors and brushwork, which flow naturally along the grain of the paper fibers, feel soothing yet at the same time precarious and fleeting. |
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Yayoi Sakaue |
| 11 - 16 December 2007 |
Gallery Haneusagi
(Kyoto) |
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| These batik-dyed textiles display motifs from the private space of the artist. The show features three series of hangings with scenes from different seasons. Part of the fun is comparing the changes in the artist's room over time as curtains, potted plants, and electrical appliances come and go, but what makes the eye linger is the beauty and freedom of her lines and colors on these massive canvases. |
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