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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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1 September 2010 |
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| Ryota Matsumoto |
| June 28 - 3 July 2010 |
O Gallery eyes
(Osaka)
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| Like abstract graphic symbols, Matsumoto's faceless figures are composed of clearly delineated color fields, but there is something raw and fresh in the visible tracings of his pencil work. The composition of each piece, as well as their overall arrangement in the gallery, achieve a balance that is at once sublime and sinister. Like events in a dream, the images are inexplicable yet disturbingly powerful. His already highly evolved ability to provoke extreme queasiness in the viewer bodes well for this artist's future. |
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| Fumie Wada: a consideration for mirrors |
| 24 June - 10 July 2010 |
Gallery Kobo CHIKA
(Tokyo) |
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| In all these portraits, shot by Wada in various parts of the world, people are peering into mirrors. Since the subject's reflection also appears in the photo, these are effectively double portraits. The artist's partiality to mirrors is foregrounded by her incorporation of actual mirrors in the installation. Unfortunately, though, she seems not to have taken the next step toward examining the mazelike relationship between mirrors and photography, or between places and the people in them, leaving one with a nagging sense of a meal not fully digested. |
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| Ine Izumi: Book Sisters (incomplete) Winter Sunlight in Shadow |
| 7 July - 7 August 2010 |
MA2 Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| One of a pair of concurrent shows (the other at the Tomio Koyama Gallery) on an ongoing theme, this one features paintings of various fragments from the lives of Izumi's fictitious "book sisters." The work veers in style between the meticulous, miniature-like paintings of Kon Izumi, the name the artist worked under until a couple of years ago, and the rougher, wilder brushwork, which leaves plenty of empty space, of the current Ine Izumi. Neither this alternation of styles, nor the storyline about the two sisters, was comprehensible to this reviewer. |
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| Toshiya Masuda: image |
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Gallery Haneusagi
(Kyoto) |
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| An umbrella, a plastic bucket, a water faucet, a name-brand-ish shopping bag (which contains French bread and leeks) -- these everyday objects and the situations they occupy are rendered in ceramics, but as if they were three-dimensional reproductions of jagged, low-res images shot with a primitive video camera. Initially the whole project may strike one as silly, but the humor in it is infectious. Ultimately, it hints at the elements of reality and intelligence that can be found even in the virtual world or in image fakery. |
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| Yasue Kodama: Deep Tone 2010 |
6 - 18 July 2010
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art space niji
(Kyoto) |
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| A faint pink or violet light seeps tentatively through air that seems sluggish and humid. In its midst, however, the figure of a tree stands tall, drawing the eye and the imagination into the deeper recesses of the painting, where distant views and presences are hinted at but not made visible. Through her subtle layering of colors and imagery, Kodama somehow excites an appreciation of the beauty of time passing. |
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| "Take the Body": Sound and Dance Improv Session |
| 16 - 17 July 2010 |
shin-bi
(Kyoto) |
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| Shin-bi, an art and performance space run by Kyoto Seika University, closed its doors at the end of July. At one of its final events, this improvised performance by sound artist Akio Suzuki and dancer Hiromi Miyakita, Suzuki played the part of the jester, working his handmade instruments in response to Miyakita's movements -- but just as often dropping them on the floor or otherwise interrupting her with a sly grin on his face, eliciting frequent giggles from the audience. None of this detracted, however, from the enchanting beauty in the posture and motions of the dancer's lithe body. |
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Art Camp 2010
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| 24 July - 12 August 2010 |
Suntory Museum
(Osaka) |
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| Held every summer, this group exhibition of young artists and art students occupied two nearby venues, the Suntory Museum and Gallery Yamaguchi Kunst-Bau. Of this year's 13 students (all from the Kansai region) and three invited artists, four at the Suntory were standouts. Ayako Fujimoto draws her inspiration from the colorful yet fragile patterns of hobby goldfish; Yurina Shiomi uses dying techniques to express emotions erupting from the skin surface; Mae Kubota's ambiguous creations are tactile attempts to evoke past memories through the sense of touch; and Nobuhiro Hanaoka's sculptures seem patently absurd at first glance, but their humor and artisanship grow on you. |
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| Yoshihiro Suda |
| 25 June - 31 July 2010 |
Gallery Koyanagi
(Tokyo) |
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| This extremely subtle installation consists of ten or so lifelike wooden sculptures of plants peeping unobtrusively from corners and crevices of the otherwise stark-white gallery space. The dominant motif here is the morning glory -- suitably evocative of summer, even if these particular blossoms will never wilt. Suda is already known for his plant sculptures and no doubt will continue in this vein, but one can also imagine him suddenly choosing to sculpt something entirely different some day. Either way, he is a double threat with his superlative woodworking craftsmanship and his sublime conception of installation. |
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| Rey Camoy: 25th Death Anniversary Memorial Exhibition |
| 17 July - 31 August 2010 |
Sogo Museum of Art
(Kanagawa) |
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| Winner of the 1969 Yasui Prize, Camoy (his preferred spelling) died by his own hand in 1985 at age 57. His ugly, deformed human subjects, dark palette, and flaunting of his own perceived faults all mark him as a figurative painter of the previous generation. Such is the contrast to the cheerful, sprightly output of today's young artists that it prompts one to wonder just what it is that made him so depressed. In fact, his oeuvre serves as a poignant reminder of the hardships and cruelties suffered by his generation. |
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| Emi Matsunaga |
| 12 - 24 July 2010 |
galerie paris
(Kanagawa) |
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| Matsunaga paints pictures in pastel colors of flowers in silhouette or animal figures that resemble stuffed dolls. It seems a shame that the artist herself exudes the persona of a manga or anime character even more than her artwork does. |
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