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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering commentary by a variety of reviewers about exhibitions at museums and galleries in recent weeks, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists.
1 October 2012
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Biwako Biennale 2012
15 September - 4 November 2012
Omihachiman and Higashiomi Cities
(Shiga)
This is the fifth biennale to be held by the shores of Japan's largest lake, Biwako. The event offers a full menu of concerts, dance performances, and exhibitions and workshops by artists of all stripes, mostly taking place in old, restored merchants' mansions and townhouses. Until now the action has been confined to the old-town district of Omihachiman, but this year it has expanded to neighboring locales along the lake, boasting a total of 16 venues as well as night tours and other intriguing side-events.

Given Forms -- Toeko Tatsuno / Toshio Shibata
8 August - 22 October 2012
The National Art Center, Tokyo
(Tokyo)
As the title suggests, both painter Tatsuno and photographer Shibata work primarily with "forms" they see around them. Tatsuno made her debut in the 1970s with minimalist planes of grids and stripes, but since the 1980s has been depicting bookshelves and the like in an expressionist style with powerful brushwork. For his part, Shibata is concerned with portraying dams, retaining walls, and other massive public works whose sheer volume and abstractness yield images that transcend the artificiality of the structures.
Taiji Matsue Exhibition: Surficial Survey
5 August - 25 December 2012
Izu Photo Museum
(Shizuoka)
Matsue's latest exhibition is noteworthy for its intermingling of photographs with video works, particularly what he calls "moving photographs" that appear at first to be still images but undergo the subtlest of changes over time. To his past oeuvre of aerial shots that seem to rip away the surface of the world we see, he has thus added a temporal dimension that ups the chance quotient and makes his work even more profound and hypnotic. Matsue's pleasure in the accidental, in unearthing new surprises through his lens, is palpable.
Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World

16 June - 28 October 2012
Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo)
A fascinating show of works that address politics, culture, society, and memory. Of note are Iraqi Sadik Kwaish Alfraji's poetic imagery in The House that My Father Built, (once upon a time); a video of the recently deceased Egyptian artist Amal Kenawy's legendary performance piece Silence of the Lambs, which disrupted downtown Cairo in 2009; Iraqi Maha Mustafa's Black Fountain, an installation created with black water that resembles oil, and photographer Hrair Sarkissian's ominous series Execution Square, taken in various Syrian cities. The curators are to be credited for providing a broad overview of contemporary Arab art without falling into the trap of orientalism.
Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

28 July - 8 October 2012
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(Tokyo)
This ambitious retrospective does a good job of making sense of the dizzying permutations of Japanese fashion over the past three decades, thanks in no small part to the layout (which employs mannequins arranged in different patterns in each gallery) designed by architect Sou Fujimoto. Subjects range from the arrival in the 1980s of the "black" aesthetic of Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto, which took the bastions of Western fashion by storm, through the flat-plane approach of Issey Miyake, to the new subcultural sensibilities that prevailed from the 1990s on.
Director Hideaki Anno's "Tokusatsu" Special Effects Museum -- Craftsmanship of Showa & Heisei eras seen through miniatures

10 July - 8 October 2012
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(Tokyo)
This show provides a fine opportunity for otakus everywhere to appreciate the virtues of handmade special effects in the age of computer graphics. There are models galore of buildings and cityscapes waiting to be destroyed by one monster or another. Anno, who is renowned for his work on such animation masterpieces as the Evangelion series, got his first big break as an animator on Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa, and one of the fearsome creatures he designed for that film stars in his new video The God-Warrior Appears in Tokyo. Though short, it offers a vivid introduction to Anno's magic, all accomplished through traditional SFX techniques without resorting to CG.
Rokko Meets Art 2012

15 September - 25 November 2012
Various venues on Mt. Rokko, Kobe
(Hyogo)
This is the third in a series of art events that utilize various outdoor sites sprawling across Mt. Rokko, the mountain that rises behind the port city of Kobe. Visitors can stroll like samplers at a picnic among the artworks scattered here and there, while also learning something about Mt. Rokko's history. Thirty-three artists and art units are featured this year, including Ryosuke Imamura, Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, Atsunobu Katagiri, Izumi Kato, Ryota Kuwakubo, Kotobuki Shiriagari, Yuichi Higashionna, and Miyuki Yokomizo. The show generally promises plenty of art that is big, bold, and freewheeling, as befits its outdoor ambience.

Nobuyoshi Araki: Sentimental Sky

24 August - 7 October 2012
Rat Hole Gallery
(Tokyo)
The slides projected on the gallery wall are of the sky as seen from the balcony of the apartment in Gotokuji, Tokyo, where veteran photographer Araki lived from 1982 to 2011. The series serves as a companion piece to his earlier Balcony of Love series, also shot from the same location, to which Araki had to bid farewell when the building was earmarked for demolition last year. The entire sequence consists of some 3,000 photographs and takes four hours to view; what is astonishing is that one never tires of the sky's endless changes.
Next Generation: Manifestations of Architects Under 35
25 July - 6 August 2012
Shibuya Hikarie 8/ Cube 1,2,3
(Tokyo)
Sponsored by JA (The Japan Architect) magazine, this showcase of up-and-coming young architects occupied part of Cube 1,2,3, a cluster of three adjacent galleries on the eighth floor of Shibuya's spanking new Hikarie building. The projects on display were all fascinating and unique, but the space was simply too small to do them justice -- a shame given the amount of visitor traffic the venue enjoys. An exhibition devoted to architect Osamu Ishii in one of the other "cubes" was more successful in its focus on his drawings, while the new branch of the Tomio Koyama Gallery next door also made optimum use of the space for its Yoshitomo Nara show with a simple arrangement of paintings on the wall.
Hiroshi Fuji: Central Kaeru Station -- Where have all these toys come from?
15 July - 9 September 2012
Arts Chiyoda 3331
(Tokyo)
Protean artist Fuji launched his Kaekko (from kaeru, to change, exchange, return) system of toy exchange 13 years ago. Set up to enable kids to trade toys they no longer want, the program has held over 5,000 events since then, both in Japan and overseas. Fuji constructed this installation from over 50,000 toys accumulated during that period; the show included an introduction to the Kaekko project, a silent auction, and workshops.
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