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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.
1 February 2011
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Villa Aesthetics: Rieko Hidaka & Hiraki Sawa
15 December 2010 - 13 March 2011
Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art
(Kyoto)
This joint show is a surprisingly nice fit for a unique museum housed in a refurbished prewar villa outside of Kyoto. Hidaka introduces five large monochrome paintings of the branches of a sarusuberi (crape myrtle) tree, while Sawa offers eight video works that insert outlandish images into familiar environments. While Hidaka's exhibit fills the space-age annex designed by Tadao Ando, Sawa's -- including new work filmed in the museum -- is tucked away in odd corners of the main villa: in a drawer, next to a window, inside a café showcase.

The One-Mat Study of Takeshiro Matsuura, 19th Century Explorer
2 December 2010 - 19 February 2011
INAX Gallery 1
(Tokyo)
Best known for his explorations of Hokkaido in the waning years of the Edo Shogunate, Matsuura (1818-1888) was an eclectic scholar who also made maps and wrote travel guides. But his most impressive and eccentric achievement was surely the construction in 1887 of a one-tatami-mat (about two square meters) room out of scraps of old wood collected from famous structures throughout Japan -- Ise Shrine, Horyuji temple, and the Byodo-in, to name just a few. The original room survives as part of a privately-owned teahouse elsewhere in Tokyo, but is reproduced here in a life-size replica.
Odani Motohiko: Phantom Limb
27 November 2010 - 27 February 2011
Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo)
Though he uses photographs and video in his work, Odani is ultimately a sculptor. In one of his "video sculptures," the viewer is surrounded by torrents of water projected on a 360-degree screen that encircles the exhibit room, as well as the mirrored floor and ceiling, giving one the illusion of being totally immersed in a waterfall. Odani's genius is in not merely overwhelming, but enchanting the viewer with a glorious spectacle: the endless creation of the cascade from a myriad drops of water. The beauty of the images is truly in the details.
Eikoh Hosoe: Hana Dorobou (Flower Thief)

8 January - 13 February 2011
Tanto Tempo
(Hyogo)
These 34 prints from a 1966 collaboration by legendary avant-garde photographer Hosoe with essayist and women's undergarment designer Yoko Kamoi (1925-1991) feature dolls made by Kamoi and carried by Hosoe on a whimsical journey around Japan at Kamoi's behest. Unlike other contemporaneous work by Hosoe, such as his famous portraits of Yukio Mishima, this series exudes lighthearted whiffs of humor and pathos. Hosoe himself will be on hand to talk about his work on February 5.
Morimura Yasumasa -- A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield

18 January - 10 April 2011
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
(Hyogo)
Notorious for photo and video works featuring his impersonations of historical figures from the 20th century, Morimura has a knack for getting right to the essence of that epoch. In this show amid the expansive galleries of the Hyogo Prefectual Museum, a particular standout is his new video Gift of Sea: Raising a Flag on the Summit of the Battlefield, which reveals Morimura's artistic sensibilities more eloquently than any of his previous work. Concurrently on view at the museum is a retrospective, "The Power of the 'Others': Microcosm of Morimura Yasumasa."
Ken Kagajo: transFLAT

15 January - 12 February 2011
YOD Gallery
(Osaka)
Dye artist Kagajo is known for the deliberate use of blots, blurs and other taboos of his craft to create abstract dyed artworks. Here he adds a new approach to his oeuvre with the series "Veil," painted with liquid binder upon dyed or bleached cloth sheets. Though his creations are two-dimensional, Kagajo has arranged them in an imaginative configuration that makes this as much an installation as an art exhibit.
Art Site Fuchu 2010: The Power for Living

2 December 2010 - 6 March 2011
Fuchu Art Museum
(Tokyo)
Shinji Ohmaki, Susumu Kinoshita, and Yuko Hishiyama join forces in this group show of "artists who remind us of the wonder of living." Ohmaki's massive space installation projects virtual images onto a wall with light diffusely reflected off a revolving mirror, while Hishiyama builds human figures out of wire and aluminum mesh. But the most powerful impact comes from Kinoshita's heartrending portraits in pencil of elderly women and Hansen's disease patients.

Primary Field II

4 December 2010 - 23 January 2011
The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
(Kanagawa)
The second in a series, this installment features seven artists who have been active since the 1990s (Primary Field I, which took place three years ago, focused on the eighties). Whereas the first show was heavy on solid objects, this one consists almost entirely of paintings and other two-dimensional works (if one includes reliefs and embroidery), and the images are mostly figurative. The artists are Nobuyuki Takahashi, Mana Konishi, Takeshi Hosaka, Mitsuko Miwa, Tsuyoshi Higashijima, Zon Ito, and Yasue Kodama.

Masayuki Shioda: SFACE, DNA (Dirty Npeaker All)

11 December 2010 - 30 January 2011
G/P Gallery
(Tokyo)
Photographer Shioda's first solo show in three years, this one amply testifies to his refusal to focus on one particular approach and his impulse to scatter various forms of noise throughout his work. Giant monochrome photocopy portraits, graffiti-like works that appear to be scrawled with a light pen, and a series of color prints left outside to collect dust prove that Shioda continues to do what he darn well pleases.
Photography Secessionist Declaration
11 December 2010 - 30 January 2011
NADiff Gallery
(Tokyo)
This is the inaugural show by a group of five photographers and photography critics born in the same year, 1963: Risaku Suzuki, Ryudai Takano, Taiji Matsue, Shino Kuraishi and Minoru Shimizu. Their joint statement -- "Today, we ask anew: what is photography, and what are its possibilities?" -- sounds intrepid enough, but the works here are disappointingly small in size and few in number (granted, it's a tiny gallery). Their boldest stroke is displaying the galleys of their Declaration, covered with red-ink revisions by various members -- evidence of how difficult it is for a group like this to reach consensus.
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