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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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| Tomoki Imai: Enkin (Far and Near) |
| 10 - 21 May 2011 |
Broiler Space
(Tokyo) |
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| Shot with a large-format camera, Imai's new photo series is a mix of landscapes and interiors, all of them suffused with a tension of indeterminate origin. When I learned that the piece near the gallery entrance shows the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the distance, that tension began to make sense. Another scene of wood scraps and plastic bottles scattered across a flat expanse covered with pale green moss (or seaweed? whether land or water, one can't tell) inevitably brings to mind the aftermath of the recent tsunami. |
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| Ryo Hamada: PLATFORM 2011 -- Measuring Distance |
| 16 April - 29 May 2011 |
Nerima Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| This year's PLATFORM show (the second) featured three artists on the theme of the distance between the self and the world. Hamada's installation of facial snapshots of friends and family stood out, and not only for its long title: "Do you have a photo of someone important to you? Can you recall their face with an expression other than the one in the photo?" For one thing, the distance between Hamada herself and the photos was palpable. We look forward to more work from Hamada in this vein. |
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| Shigeru Nishikawa: in between |
| 10 - 29 May 2011 |
neutron kyoto
(Kyoto) |
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Paintings measuring 40 x 40 cm line the walls in orderly rows. With their variations in color, they form a composition of lovely gradations when viewed from afar. Close up, however, one finds differences in the details -- a dragonfly here, a helicopter there. It turns out that these are all depictions of sky, part of Nishikawa's "world" series, for which he has vowed to paint 203 pictures -- one for each of the 203 (at last count) countries of the world.
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| Daido Moriyama: Record No.19 -Toscana- |
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BLD Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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In September 2010 the iconic photographer held a major retrospective of his work in Modena, Italy, displaying over 400 images he had selected himself. This exhibition features snapshots he took in Modena and Florence during that period. Moriyama's treatment of the things that decorate the surface of these old cities -- posters, signboards, walls, masks -- is nothing short of dashing and debonair, but what grabs the eye are the very sexy ladies who strut through these streets. One's first impulse is to give an appreciative whistle.
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Ai Shinohara: From the Cradle to the Grave
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| 14 May - 11 June 2011 |
Gallery MoMo Roppongi
(Tokyo) |
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The centerpiece of this show is a large painting, covering two square canvases side by side, that depicts a young girl in a sailor's middy and the gaping jaws of a rotting tyrannosaurus rex. Considering Shinohara's past fondness for juxtaposing schoolgirls with goldfish, the dinosaur -- and, for that matter, one in such a state of decay that you can practically smell it -- is a surprise. At first glance Shinohara appears to be applying the decalcomania technique frequently used by Max Ernst, but she takes no chances with chance, painting all her images by hand.
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| Shigenobu Yoshida: Rinzai no Umi (The Facing Sea) |
| 10 - 22 May 2011 |
gallery ITEZA
(Kyoto) |
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A fixture on Kyoto's avant-garde art scene for 42 years, Gallery Iteza sadly closed its doors in May. All too fittingly, its final show consisted of 1,000 white chrysanthemums (associated with death and funerals in Japan) arranged in PET bottles across the gallery floor, the only light source a faint reddish glow emanating from a corner. Viewers could not actually enter the room, but upon opening the door were assailed with the overwhelming scent of the flowers. That smell, and the deathly stillness of the tableaux, made it difficult to breathe. Installation artist Yoshida lives in Fukushima, home of the melted nuclear reactors, and was himself a victim of the March 11 earthquake.
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| Sumi Kanazawa: 38 Curtain |
| 5 - 22 May 2011 |
Youkobo Art Space
(Tokyo) |
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| The "38" in the title refers to the 38th parallel, demarcator of the arbitrary boundary initially established between North and South Korea. In an installation employing green curtains, animation, and a diary of a trip to the 38th parallel, Kanazawa revisits themes of ecology and a divided homeland that recall the work of postwar German artist Joseph Beuys. Unlike Beuys, however, Kanazawa avoids overt political references; indeed, her work has a distinctively light, fairy tale-like quality. |
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| Kikuko Morimoto |
| 17 - 29 May 20111 |
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto) |
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| Scattered across a canvas dominated by a pink spiral are seemingly countless iterations of a single motif: the face of an ancient Chinese deity, at once humorous and sinister. The cumulative impact is powerful and sticks tenaciously to the eye and the memory. Closer examination of each visage reveals that it has been assigned a number. Veteran artist Morimoto (b.1940) has vowed to continue the series till she has painted 1,000 of these gods; the work on display here indicates she has almost reached the 600 mark. |
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| Saki Naoe: Donzumaru (Dead End) |
| 17 - 29 May 2011 |
Gallery Shuhari
(Tokyo) |
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| These 30 photos of actual blind alleys give eloquent expression to the somewhat woebegone nuance of the title. When a show is based so obviously on a concept, as this one is, it inevitably invites judgment of its effectiveness in conveying that concept. Naoe has painstakingly pulled all the requisite elements together -- camera position, angle, the spatial relationship between each cul-de-sac and its surroundings, the light of a slightly cloudy day -- with nary a slip. As a series, it is nearly flawless in its execution. |
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| Tetsu Iida: A Garden Divided in Two by a Path |
| 24 - 29 May 2011 |
Totem Pole Photo Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| Renowned photographer Iida (b.1948) tends to confine himself to a one-kilometer radius around his home in Ogikubo, western Tokyo. Most of the work he has exhibited to date focuses on cityscapes of streets and buildings, but this series contains many natural elements -- flowers, trees and so on. The "garden” of the title is not a specific place, but rather evokes the intimate familiarity of many of these scenes, much like snapshots of one's own back yard. |
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