 |
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. |
|
|
 |
| Paramodelic Graffiti at Naniwabashi Station |
| 25 January - 29 March 2009 |
Art Area B1, Naniwabashi Station
(Osaka) |
|
| This installation by the Osaka-based art unit Paramodel (Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano) covered the walls, floor and ceiling of the underground concourse at Osaka's Naniwabashi Station -- recently opened as an art space -- with a vast network of Plarail plastic trains and tracks. On a mid-afternoon visit the only other viewer was a middle-aged businessman who frequently squatted down to get a closer look. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| Meirin Chakai: From the Land of Lost Umbrellas |
| 27 February 2009 |
Kyoto Art Center
(Kyoto) |
|
| Organized by artist Yuko Kanamori, Meirin Chakai is a tea party periodically held in the auditorium of the Kyoto Art Center, which occupies the old Meirin Elementary School building. A recent gathering featured printed paper mats and coasters, herbal tea with fresh fruit and lemon cake, and a single female dancer revolving among the tables like a wind-up ballerina: a tea ceremony out of a European picture book. |
|
|
 |
|
Akinori Matsumoto: Taion Concert |
| 27 January - 5 February 2009 |
Striped House Gallery
(Tokyo) |
|
| Taion means body temperature. Various sound objects dangle from the gallery ceiling, and when visitors stand under them, the slight upward air current generated by their body heat moves these objects, which generate sounds. This reviewer can testify that it actually works. The higher your metabolic rate, the faster the devices move, adding an unnerving psychological edge to Matsumoto's work. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| War & Art: Terror and Simulacrum of Beauty |
| 16 January - 5 February 2009 |
Galerie Aube
(Kyoto) |
|
| An exhibit of work by seven Japanese artists, ostensibly all on the theme of war. But aside from Tsuguharu Foujita's wartime painting Heavy Bomber (on loan from Japan's Defense Ministry), the other works by Tadanori Yokoo, Tatsuo Miyajima, Satoshi Furui, Akira Yamaguchi, Kanako Sasaki and Daisuke Ohba suggest that contemporary Japanese artists do not feel much of a personal connection to the subject. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Japan Media Arts Festival |
| 4 - 15 February 2009 |
The National Art Center, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
|
| This big event, the 12th to date, highlighted works of art, animation, film, games, Web art, and manga selected by jury from 2,146 entries submitted from 44 countries. Addressing the effect of advances in technology and media on these "media arts," the 11-day exhibition included symposiums, workshops, and a Leading Edge Technology Showcase. |
|
|
 |
Joshibi Degree Show 2009
|
| 11 - 15 February 2009 |
BankART Studio NYK
(Kanagawa) |
|
| In this show by graduates and postgraduates of Joshibi University of Art and Design, the venerable women's art school, the eye was drawn mostly to paintings: Maki Okojima's weirdly fancy hearts, Hiroko Enomoto's happy pop shapes and colors, the strange heads and feet of Dango Ozawa's young girls. But works like Yoko Shirai's blankets, which transform into animals when folded, could be commercial hits. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Coredo Women's Art Style |
| 16 February - 8 March 2009 |
Coredo Nihonbashi
(Tokyo) |
|
| This exhibition by eight young women artists in downtown Tokyo's fashionable Coredo shopping complex required special attention to safety issues and passerby reactions. Nao Kaneko printed her oils on huge pieces of fabric and hung them in a stairwell; Sayumi Fukushima sequestered her paintings in a show window; and Takako Okamura's installation of masses of white thread floated like a fairy castle in midair. |
|
|
|
 |
|
The Tewaza |
| 17 - 23 February 2009 |
Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi Espace des Arts
(Tokyo) |
|
Here tewaza ("hand technique") refers strictly to hyper-refined realistic expression -- but the works here by 22 artists, mostly Japanese, appeared thin and insubstantial. If they were "dry" that would be fine, but instead they seemed damp and clinging. A comparison with the ultra-super-realism of guest artist Leng Jun of China was edifying.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
