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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. |
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Yutaka Mukoyama: Dissolved Oxygen in Seawater |
| 25 August - 6 September 2008 |
Galerie Tokyo Humanité
(Tokyo) |
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| With his large, highly realistic oil paintings of odd-looking birds and fish, Osaka-born Mukoyama strikes a fine balance between his passions for natural history and for painting. |
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| Emotional Drawing |
| 26 August - 13 October 2008 |
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
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| Subtitled "A Perspective on Contemporary Art," this group show features pencil and ink drawings on paper, with some installations and animations thrown in. For reasons not explained, all 16 participating artists are from Asia and the Middle East (Amal Kenawy, Kim Jungwook, Nalini Malani, Manuel Ocampo, and Aditi Singh among others). |
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Asia Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair 08 |
| 29 - 31 August 2008 |
Hotel New Otani Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
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| The latest trendy art-fair-in-a-hotel, this one was big, with 71 galleries from Korea, Japan and China occupying 87 rooms on three top floors of a central Tokyo hotel. Primarily Korea-sponsored, with Korean galleries predominating, the event introduced some stimulating work that nonetheless seemed overshadowed by the stunning 360-degree views of the city below. |
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| Chim Pom: Becoming friend, eating each other or falling down together / BLACK OF DEATH |
| 9 - 30 August 2008 |
hiromi yoshii
(Tokyo) |
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| This show brings together old and new works by the notorious performance-art unit. Chim Pom first made a splash with its diorama of a giant stuffed rat dolled up as an anime character and its use of a stuffed crow and loudspeaker on a bicycle to attract crows from throughout Tokyo. As a follow-up, member Toshinori Mizuno spends the duration of the current show cohabitating with a rat and a crow. |
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Shiro Sano: I am only here because you existed |
| 25 - 31 July 2008 |
Fujifilm Photo Salon, Osaka
(Osaka) |
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| Filmmaker and actor Sano is also an avid photographer. Half of this show consists of his own work; the other half is devoted to photos of six generations of the Sano family, from the Meiji era on. As a record of one wealthy provincial family's life during Japan's period of modernization, it is a historically significant collection. |
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Kimiko Maeda: 34°42'40.87"N 135°29'35.83"E |
| 2 - 17 August 2008 |
Pantaloon
(Osaka) |
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| The title is the latitude and longitude of the gallery; location is a major theme of installation artist Maeda's show, which includes a huge tottering sculpture made from a frottage of the gallery floor, and a curious motor-driven object that produces geometric patterns as it rotates. |
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Fumio Yamazaki |
| 4 - 30 August 2008 |
imura art gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| Sculptor Yamazaki creates bizarre wooden figures of children with animal heads, birds with human faces and the like. His "Silent Neighbor" series was remarkable enough, but the new "Horn" series brings these motifs to fruition, combining bleak facial expressions and meticulously wrought body language. |
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Masashi Asada: Asadaya |
| 7 - 13 August 2008 |
Nikon Salon, Osaka
(Osaka) |
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| Asada is known for his photos of the entire Asada family engaged in various lines of work or other cosplay situations. What is striking in this retrospective is that the reluctance initially apparent in the Asadas' expressions gradually gives way to active, even gleeful participation. Mom Asada in particular is something to see. |
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Dueling Geniuses: The Greatest Highlights of Japanese Artists |
| 8 July - 17 August 2008 |
Tokyo National Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| This much-hyped show employs the gimmick of taking 22 giants of Japanese art from various epochs and pairing them as "rivals" for comparative purposes. Granted, contrasting the thunder gods painted by Sotatsu and Korin, or the tigers painted by Okyo and Rosetsu, is an illuminating exercise in highlighting their differences, not only in technique but in fundamental character. Other pairings include Jakuchu vs. Shohaku, Eitoku vs. Tohaku, and Tessai vs. Taikan. |
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Ichiro Endo: Ultra Art Exhibition |
| 9 - 30 August 2008 |
ZENSHI
(Tokyo) |
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Self-styled "future artist" Endo wears a jumpsuit with "GO FOR FUTURE" emblazoned on the back and drives a van painted with the same slogan in Japanese. His work and his message are extremely simple, but infectiously bright and enthusiastic. Like the Chim Pom show next door, Endo's was a work in progress; during the show he constantly repainted the gallery walls.
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