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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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| Artist File 2009: The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art |
| 4 March - 6 May 2009 |
The National Art Center, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
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| Artist File introduces a mix of artists who have caught the eye of the museum's curatorial staff in the course of their fieldwork, showcasing each one in a solo show format. Works by Meo Saito and Miyuki Tsugami are standouts in this year's field of nine artists, both Japanese and foreign. |
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| ZAIM Festa 2009 |
| 27 February - 8 March 2009 |
ZAIM
(Kanagawa) |
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| This may be the final festival held in the annex of Yokohama's ZAIM art complex. Highlights included live painting with rainbow colors on the white walls and floor of the building by Asae Soya, and an installation of long, thin strips of paper on the walls by Shingo Francis. Apparently a visitor scrawled some graffiti on Soya's painting -- whether as an act of vandalism or overenthusiastic participation isn't clear. |
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Shigeru Akimoto: Crystallography |
| 3 March - 30 April 2009 |
gallery bauhaus
(Tokyo) |
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| Freelance photographer Akimoto uses "crystallization" to describe the instant when everyday objects transform into something else. In his monochrome prints of various items found in his room, Akimoto seeks to record that moment through a process of "placing everything under my control, leaving as little as possible to chance, letting my thoughts attain a supersaturated state, and waiting for crystallization to take place." |
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| Dawn of Japanese Photography II |
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Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo) |
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| The second in a series of photographs taken in mid-19th century Japan, during the last days of the Shogunate and the early Meiji period, this installment focuses on west-central Japan, including Kyoto and Osaka. Gathered from museums and libraries throughout the country and organized by theme and region, the images reveal a country in upheaval and testify to the revolutionary impact of this new technology. |
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| Shigeo Anzai: Unforgettable Moments |
| 24 March - 25 April 2009 |
Zeit-Foto Salon
(Tokyo) |
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| This retrospective celebrates Anzai's forty-year career as a documentarist of the contemporary art scene, both in Japan and abroad; it's also the occasion of his 70th birthday. The prints -- mostly portraits of such artistic celebrities as Jasper Johns, Laurie Anderson, dancer Kazuo Ohno and architect Arata Isozaki -- also carry handwritten comments by the photographer, a very Anzai-esque touch. |
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| Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller: The Forty Part Motet |
| 24 February - 17 May 2009 |
Maison Hermes 8F Forum
(Tokyo) |
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| Forty speakers are arranged in an ellipse, all facing inward. Upon entering the oval you are surrounded by a chorus singing Renaissance music, made all the more spectacular by the fact that each voice is separately recorded and played back through its own speaker. The installation is not much to look at, but the sonic pleasure, free of charge in a fancy brand-name building on a noisy Ginza street, feels like a forbidden luxury. |
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| The Louvre Museum Exhibition |
| 28 February - 14 June 2009 |
The National Museum of Western Art
(Tokyo) |
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| Sometimes referred to as the Golden Century, the 17th century produced such European masters as Rembrandt, Velasquez, Vermeer and Rubens. This show features a selection of paintings by these and other artists -- notably from the Netherlands, Spain, and France -- from the Louvre's renowned collection of masterpieces of that period. |
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| Incidental Affairs: Contemporary Art of Transient States |
| 7 March - 10 May 2009 |
Suntory Museum
(Osaka) |
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| Focusing on the "incidental" in the sense of everyday and ephemeral, this exhibition brings together 17 active Japanese and non-Japanese artists ranging from established names like Tatsuo Miyajima and Wolfgang Tillmans to newcomers like Nana Yokoi. Rich in variety, the show's stated aim is to highlight the diverse charms of contemporary art. |
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| When Japan's Tea Ceremony Artisans Meet Minpaku's Collections: Creative Art in Perspective |
| 12 March - 2 June 2009 |
National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku)
(Osaka) |
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In this innovative and refreshing collaboration between artisans and academia, ten current masters from the senke jisshoku -- the ten Kyoto families that have created implements for the tea ceremony over the past three or four centuries -- were invited to view the massive collection of implements at Osaka's Minpaku museum, and to create new works in their genre inspired by what they found there.
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| Masae Kariya: Screen |
| 18 March - 25 April 2009 |
studio J
(Osaka) |
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| Fresh from shows in Kyoto and Tokyo, Kariya offers in her latest installation a space resembling a movie theater in which monkeys sit watching a panorama of jungle where a screen ought to be. There seems to be a story here but the artist forces viewers to make up their own. Ultimately, her intent may be to subject viewers to the eerie and discomfiting sensations that ooze from her work. |
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