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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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Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver: no fear
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| 5 March - 11 April 2010 |
NADiff a/p/a/r/t
(Tokyo) |
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| Veteran installation artist Gulliver's latest offering is a bit of a puzzle, but maybe the Duchamp-inspired maverick likes it that way. An entire wall is covered with 5 cm-square drawings, which on closer inspection prove to be iterations of a limited number of prints. Dermatograph pencils lie scattered on the floor, and several drawings are outlined in red pencil. But there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the enclosures. Sort of a do-it-yourself show. |
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| Kiriko Shirobayashi: Lines, Beyond |
| 2 - 31 March 2010 |
Tosei-Sha
(Tokyo) |
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| Shot with a 6x6 format camera, Shirobayashi's images all feature a horizon, whether of land or sea. These "lines" not only link her photos thematically, but also serve the function of expanding the viewer's imaginative horizon. The lines are by no means rigid, but heave and billow gently up and down. The soft pastel tones of her palette add to an effect of pleasurable liberation that extends across the entire series. |
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Wonder Seeds 2010 |
| 6 - 20 March 2010 |
Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya
(Tokyo) |
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| Halfway through this open-call art fair showcasing young artists (100 chosen out of 964 entries), eighty per cent of the works had already sold -- not quite as many as two or three years ago, but impressive in the midst of the current recession. Evidently the show has acquired some sticking power. Overall quality, too, has improved since the first such event in 2003; this reviewer had to suppress the urge to purchase a number of striking works. |
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Yukiko Nishiyama |
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neutron
(Kyoto) |
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| Using techniques as disparate as batik and inkjet printing, Nishiyama creates drawings of meticulous delicacy. Her nearly transparent female figures threaten to vanish into the background, yet the evanescence and instability of these images paradoxically draws us deeper into their world. There is something enticing and playful about them, yet they also hint of dark, abysmal depths. |
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| Ken Kitano: Flow and Fusion |
| 5 - 21 March 2010 |
Up Field Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| An active entrant in major shows like Paris Photo, Kitano has attracted increasing attention on the global photography scene. His best-known series, "our face," featured superimposed prints of people of different locales or occupations. Shot between 1989 and 1997, "City Flow and Fusion" is an earlier series that has only now been compiled into a large coffee-table collection, Flow and Fusion, the publication of which this show commemorates. |
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| VOCA (Vision of Contemporary Art) 2010 |
| 14 - 30 March 2010 |
The Ueno Royal Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| Winner of this year's VOCA Prize, Saori Miyake uses an elaborate process in which she draws a number of images on transparent sheets, which she then layers atop photosensitive paper and exposes. The result is a print that looks like a painting. Other highlights: Sachiko Kazama and Meo Saito's skillful renderings of twisted Japanese cityscapes; Eri Hirashita's opaque double-images, constructed from lavishly applied oils; Shiho Kagabu's installation of flat walls composed of metal pipes, fluorescent lamps, photographs and other detritus; and Daisuke Ohba's pearly, delicate-hued paintings of cherry blossoms. |
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| full course: food and contemporary arts part 6 |
| 19 - 31 March 2010 |
BankART Studio NYK, other venues
(Kanagawa) |
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| The six edition of BankART's popular food-and-art tour outdoes itself with an itinerary ranging from Yokohama's portside Bashamichi neighborhood to the recently revitalized Koganecho art district, with stops along the way at a private residence for a real home-cooked meal, as well as a visit to Noge's Whale Alley, where, yes, the cuisine is all about whale meat. Though some of the venues are indeed studios with food provided by the artists themselves, this year's "full course" seems to have transcended the bounds of even contemporary art. How will they top it next year? |
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| Follow Up! Creative Space 9001's Final Event |
| 5 - 14 March 2010 |
Creative Space 9001
(Kanagawa) |
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| In this swan song for the Creative Space 9001 project, which utilized the former Sakuragicho station on a now-defunct spur of Yokohama's Toyoko Line, the wall shutting off the entrance is perforated with a cherry-blossom-shaped aperture, allowing access to the train platform upstairs. Gazing from the front end of the platform onto the abandoned tracks, your eye catches something shiny in the near distance: a video monitor. A look through the binoculars placed on the table nearby reveals an image of a Toyoko Line train -- and inside the train, your own image, peering back through the binoculars! The creator of this masterpiece is Kentaro Taki. |
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| Avant-Garde Artists from the 1960s-80s |
2 - 23 March 2010
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Yokohama Civic Art Gallery
(Kanagawa) |
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| Unlike the much-hyped Pompeii show down the street, this one was quiet as a tomb -- but then, it's hard for works that have only been around for 20 to 50 years to compete with 2,000-year-old frescoes. Founded in 1964 with the aim of showcasing "today's artists," the Yokohama Civic Art Gallery owns a collection of such avant-garde luminaries as Taro Okamoto, Aiko Miyawaki, Masuo Ikeda and Kishio Suga. Sadly, however, there is something dated and forlorn about this display of avant-gardists of a bygone era. |
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| Motonori Inagaki: phase |
| 13 February - 13 March 2010 |
Gallery Nomart
(Osaka) |
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| Inagaki's new works consist of sets of two to six monochrome photographs arranged on the wall in various configurations. The layout at first appears random but that is due to the disparate sizes of the works. In fact, the artist has carefully calibrated the dimensions as well as the spacing and placement of these pieces. The images themselves are of mountains, lakes and sky, all set in black frames. Their cumulative effect is of transient beauty, tranquil rhythms, and a cool, unwavering eye. |
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