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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.
3 August 2009
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picks
Press Cameraman Story
16 May - 5 July 2009
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo)
For several decades after World War II, newspaper and magazine photographers were heroes of their era. Aspiring young photojournalists worshipped the likes of Robert Capa and Kyoichi Sawada, both of whom died on assignment in Indochina. But the post-Vietnam emergence of TV and the Internet as dominant news media brought the golden age of the press cameraman to an end. Spotlighting the work of five Asahi Shinbun photographers, this show also features photos from Asahi's massive archive of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) and Vietnam.
picks
Tomoko Sageshima: sacrifices
16 - 21 June 2009
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto)
Sageshima paints landscapes that you could swear you've seen before, you just can't quite remember where or when. The scenery seems to be swathed in mist; the gentle gradations of light and shade are beautifully evocative of real light. The bright, sun-drenched spaces of the gallery are a perfect fit for these works.
picks
Uriu Shouta: Depth of Perception
16 - 27 June 2009
galerie 16
(Tokyo)
Shouta combines solid figures and flat plane drawings in these depictions of Japanese commuter train interiors. His sculptures of businessmen and -women standing or sitting, reading or checking their cell phones, contrast with other figures and fixtures in the train environment drawn directly onto the gallery wall behind them. In playing these three- and two-dimensional elements off against each other, Shouta seems to be saying something about perceptions of self and other which, though ambiguous, is made persuasive by his skill as both sculptor and painter.
picks
Visual Deception
13 June - 16 August 2009
Bunkamura The Museum
(Tokyo)
This is the sort of exhibition that used to appear every ten years or so in Tokyo's once-numerous department store art museums. Bunkamura, about the only one of its breed left, is a fitting venue for this show devoted to tromp-l'oeil art. Works old and new, Oriental and Occidental, include those by Gysbrechts, van Hoogstraten, Kuniyoshi, Kawanabe, Magritte and Escher. Such trick art might be termed a perversion of the picture plane, but heresy is often more entertaining than the mainstream. Arcimboldo's "Vertumnus/Rudolf II" and Lisa Milroy's "Plates" are standouts.
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Nana Fukushima: Shotaro⇔Snouters and Plankton
23 June - 5 July 2009
gallery neutron
(Kyoto)

This is the latest in Fukushima's series of shows based on the short stories in Soseki Natsume's anthology Ten Nights of Dreams. But her drawings are inspired less by events or characters than by words that catch her fancy, from which she extrapolates to produce works far removed from the tales themselves. The current drawings take as a motif the mythical Snouter, a creature that walks on its nose, apparently linked in some way to Shotaro, a recurring character in Natsume's stories. The whimsical quality of Fukushima's work is leavened by an undeniable intensity.
picks
Sayonara Polaroid
16 - 27 June 2009
Inoue Gallery
(Osaka)

Many were shocked last year by the news that Polaroid would no longer make film. Prominent Japanese photographers like Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama were among those who created some unique work with Polaroid film. Filmmaker-actor-essayist Sakumi Hagiwara was one Polaroid fan who felt that his beloved film deserved a series of "sayonara" events. The first, held in Tokyo last October, drew 27 participants. This year, as more shows followed in Kyoto, then Osaka, the number burgeoned to 55 and promises to break 100.
picks
Wah: Fun on the Sumida River
20 June - 20 July 2009
Sumida Riverside Hall Gallery
(Tokyo)

The artist group Wah strolled around the Sumida River district, brainstormed ideas, and brought the feasible ones to fruition for this project of river-related installations. All are zany: they include a "bath boat" for soaking in a hot bath while floating down the river; a pair of "golf boats" with a tee on one and a green (with hole and flag) on the other; and a row of starting blocks on the riverbank with men in swimsuits posing as if they are about to dive in and race.

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Miwa Yanagi: Po-Po Nyangnyang!
20 June - 23 September 2009
National Museum of Art, Osaka
(Osaka)

Photographer Yanagi is on a roll; her acclaimed series "My Grandmothers" -- featuring images of women as they would like to be 50 years from now -- was followed by her selection as Japan's representative artist at the 2009 Venice Biennale. This is the first exhibition in her homeland of "Windswept Women," the installation currently on display in Venice. The huge monochrome prints of these powerful wind goddesses are impressive, but the accompanying video work is less compelling. Still, the show confirms Yanagi's talents as a mythmaker.
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Noe Aoki: Grains of Sky
9 June - 1 July 2009
Zeit-Foto Salon
 (Tokyo)

Sculptor and sometime photographer Aoki offers a series of out-of-focus images she apparently shot in China, then cut into circles or squares and arranged in collage-like combinations. Could these be photo-sculptures? If so, it's a hybrid genre that seems half-formed and unsettled, yet could still be habit-forming.
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Ken Matsuyama: Map
6 June - 18 July 2009
Galerie Sho Contemporary Art
(Tokyo)

Known for quirky paintings that place skimpily clad young women in mythical worlds, Matsuyama here covers his models' skin with lace patterns, with surprisingly charming results. The effect is reminiscent of Gustave Moreau's famous "Tattooed Salome."
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