 |
Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering short reviews of exhibitions at museums and galleries in recent weeks, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists. |
|
|
 |
|
The Buddha's Palms: Tomoko Shioyasu, Kazuki Hitoosa, Aiko Miyanaga |
| 7-24 May 2008 |
Artcourt Gallery
(Osaka) |
|
| Three young artists were asked to create works on the theme of “the Buddha's palms”; all have responded with dynamic and meticulous pieces. Shioyasu's huge cut-paper “Waterfall” hangs from the ceiling; Hitoosa offers “Ukiyo,” an interactive video installation; Miyanaga's “Sakai” is composed of strands of thread encrusted with salt extracted from the water of a nearby river. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| Lee Sang Phil: Installation |
| 26-31 May 2008 |
Gallery Q
(Tokyo) |
|
| Lee's installation consists of a roomful of brightly painted inflatable headrests suspended from the ceiling. The artist, who lives in Korea, says he brought the pillows over in their uninflated state -- a wise move from the standpoints of bulk and economy. Indeed, this may help explain the popularity of balloons as a medium in so much contemporary art. |
|
|
 |
|
Albert Anker |
| 24 May - 22 June 2008 |
JR Kyoto Isetan Museum
(Kyoto) |
|
| Beloved in his native Switzerland, painter Albert Anker (1831-1910) is not so well known in Japan. This retrospective of some 100 works on loan from Bern's Museum of Fine Arts should enchant local viewers with the beauty of Anker's colors, the delicacy of his lines, and the love he clearly evinces for his subjects, particularly in the portraits of young girls for which he is famous. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Shikanosuke Oka: Variations in Serenity |
| 26 April - 6 July 2008 |
Bridgestone Museum of Art
(Tokyo) |
|
| Western-style painter Shikanosuke Oka (1898-1978) spent his twenties in France, and the style he developed then remained virtually unchanged for the remainder of his career. This is itself a remarkable achievement that unfortunately gets short shrift from Japanese art critics, but his still lifes and landscapes (like his “Power Plant in the Snow”) reflect a thematic constancy that has earned him the devotion of many viewers. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Minoru Sugiyama/Yoshikazu Yanagi |
| 22 May - 3 June 2008 |
Ginza Art & Concept Laboratory
(Tokyo) |
|
| This dual show by two artists in their early thirties runs the gamut of media. Sugiyama produces paintings, prints, 3D figures, animations, and has even published his own manga. Yanagi uses a computer to create symmetrical images which he reproduces in oil; even as he appears to be dismantling painting from the inside, he never dispenses with the format entirely. |
|
|
 |
|
Alfredo Jaar: Is the wind you? |
| 29 May - 3 July 2008 |
Kenji Taki Gallery
(Tokyo) |
|
| For his first Tokyo show in eight years, Chilean-born, New York-based artist Jaar has set up a large lightbox on the gallery floor facing a wall from which hangs a long narrow mirror. The mirror reflects photographs from the lightbox depicting antiwar demonstrations accompanied by poems by the prominent Japanese antiwar poet Sadako Kurihara. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Kanazawa Kenichi Exhibition |
| 26 May - 7 June 2008 |
Gallery Natsuka
(Tokyo) |
|
| Kanazawa's steel sculptures resemble large rectangular puzzle pieces. What appear to be slots cut laterally into the blocks are the result of strategically layering thick steel sheets of different dimensions. One can easily imagine these slots as darkened windows in a Bauhaus-style schoolhouse designed by Gropius. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Liu Xiaocheng: “Sun lights Incense Burner Peak, kindling violet smoke” |
| 21 May - 14 June 2008 |
Tokyo Gallery
(Tokyo) |
|
| Taking its title from a verse by Tang poet Li Bai, this solo show by Chinese artist Liu Xiaocheng introduces 11 oil paintings in which he has coated images of human figures with another layer of semitransparent paint, adding a smoky, diffuse quality to the portraits, as if viewing them through mosquito netting. China continues to be a source of surprising and innovative painting techniques and styles. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Yo Masajyun: New Paintings |
| 23 May - 14 June 2008 |
Megumi Ogita Gallery
(Tokyo) |
|
| Taiwan-born Yo studied at Tama Art University in Tokyo. His paintings combine mangaesque figures with jagged stripes of color. The results look crude and decidedly un-pretty, but they are also unlike anything one will have seen anywhere else. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Yoji Haijima |
| 9-28 May 2008 |
Striped House Gallery
(Tokyo) |
|
| Since retiring after many years as editor of an Ikebana magazine, Haijima has devoted himself to the fine arts and cuisine. In this exhibit, subtitled “Salt-baked Gutenberg,” Haijima combines his interests in art, cooking and the printed word by pickling 26 discarded encyclopedia volumes in brine, coating them with a salt-eggwhite-starch mixture, and baking them in a charcoal oven.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
