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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 2010: The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art
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| 3 March - 5 May 2010 |
The National Art Center, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
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| In this year's show NACT offers paintings, photography, and video work by seven artists (all but one Japanese) ranging in age from their thirties to their fifties. Standouts are the eccentrically original paintings of O Jun; the videos of Takashi Ishida, which contrast the temporal nature of the painting process against the timelessness of the resulting art; and the vivid colors and painterly brushwork of Toru Kuwakubo. Also featured: Aernout Mik (from the Netherlands), Naoyo Fukuda, Kaoru Minamino, and Chisato Saito. |
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| Miho Grandama: Arte della Luce |
| 13 March - 6 June 2010 |
Miho Museumi
(Shiga) |
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| This striking museum (designed by I.M. Pei) in the Shiga Highlands commemorates the 100th anniversary of founder Mihoko Koyama with an exhibition of 90 works from its collection, primarily Japanese art. Highlights are the Miho Hibo Kannon tapestry, based on Hogai Kano's Hibo Kannon painting of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, and Jakuchu Ito's Elephant and Whale screens. |
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Yukio Tabuchi: A Man Who Gave His Life to Books |
| 23 February - 20 June 2010 |
Yukio Tabuchi Memorial Museum
(Nagano) |
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| Pioneering photographer and naturalist Yukio Tabuchi (1905-89) was known for his passions for mountain climbing, alpine butterflies, and books. Devoted to Tabuchi's life and work, this little museum in the foothills of Japan's Northern Alps celebrates its 20th anniversary by focusing on his love of books and the book-making process, as reflected in the 36 collections (several custom-bound) of photographs and essays he published during his lifetime. |
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Yasumasa Morimura -- A Requiem: art on top of the battlefield |
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Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo) |
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| Performance artist Morimura is known for his reenactments of seminal events in the lives of cultural icons (notably Yukio Mishima's speech before his ritual suicide). Here he reenacts famous photographs that define the past century, such as the sailor kissing the nurse in Eisenstaedt's "V-J Day in Times Square." His funniest moment, however, has to be the "Making Of" video that accompanies his impersonation of Einstein sticking his tongue out. In the video, Morimura maintains his tongue-protruding pose for nearly a minute, far longer than Einstein probably did. |
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| Frank Brangwyn |
| 23 February - 30 May 2010 |
National Museum of Western Art
(Tokyo) |
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| Kojiro Matsukata, the industrial magnate whose collection forms the core of this museum, relied on the British painter Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) to help him purchase artworks in Europe. Matsukata was also fascinated by Brangwyn's own talents, which extended beyond painting to posters, furniture design, and architecture: he designed a museum that Matsukata planned but never built. Brangwyn's versatility may have contributed to his relative obscurity in the annals of modernism, but his superb paintings, of which this retrospective is the first in Japan, are gradually gaining the acclaim they deserve. |
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| Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art? |
| 20 March - 4 July 2010 |
Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| Grandly claiming to present "a vision of the future Japanese art scene" through the work of 20 artists, this third show in a series by the Mori does manage to startle. As you enter, a Rising Sun flag leaps into sight -- a work by Yuken Teruya (which no one notices is hung upside down). The hands-down winner is Masaru Aikawa and his hand-copied CD jackets, complete with liner notes, lyrics, and CDs of the artist himself singing the original songs a cappella. While reminiscent of Yoshio Yoshimura's scrupulous newspaper reproductions, Aikawa is pure pop where Yoshimura was a ponderer with a message. |
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| MAM Project 011: Jules de Balincourt |
| 20 March - 4 July 2010 |
Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| Touted as "one of the leaders of the post 9/11 New York art scene," de Balincourt (b.1972) paints works that enchant on a level beyond trendiness -- a kindred spirit of Toru Kuwakubo (see Artist File 2010 above). The fake security camera is a mischievous touch, too. |
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| Vivere a Pompei |
| 20 March - 13 June 2010 |
Yokohama Museum of Art
(Kanagawa) |
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| Yet another show about Pompeii: didn't the Museum of Western Art in Ueno do one just last year? There have been three or four in the past decade alone, such is the appeal of the Pompeii legend -- as the throngs lining up for the Yokohama show attest. Most likely it has something to do with Japan's own history of devastating eruptions and earthquakes. This year's model at least offers plenty of attractive frescoes and is a bit less academic than last year's. |
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| Takahashi Munemasa: Skyfish |
19 March - 18 April 2010
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AKAAKA Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| This compilation of photos shot at random are like precise recordings of little miracles encountered by Munemasa at odd moments. Fresh and free, they seem to glide lightly through the world, just like the magical flying sea-creature to which his title alludes. One's only wish might be that he occasionally peer into the murky depths below. |
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| TETSUSON 2010: Art Design Architecture |
| 4 - 7 March 2010 |
BankART1929
(Kanagawa) |
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| BankART 1929 fills every floor of its cavernous Yokohama warehouse space with an exhibition of works submitted by 180 students graduating from 25 art schools in Japan and 12 in Korea. With paintings in relatively short supply and plenty of buildings, products and fashion designs on display, the show's sheer diversity inevitably generates an impression of diffuseness. Why not go all the way and include works from China, India, Europe, the Americas? That might produce an impact of a different level of significance altogether. |
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