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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.
3 February 2014
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The Craft Works of Bruno Taut -- Taut's Design Legacy in Japan
6 December 2013 - 18 February 2014
LIXIL Gallery
(Osaka)
The German architect Bruno Taut (1880-1938) spent over three years in Japan in the early 1930s. This show introduces some 60 craftworks and articles of furniture he designed while in Japan, as well as sketches and drawings. One is struck by the care he took to highlight the distinctive characteristics of his materials, and by the sharp and sensitive eye he had for shape and color. The exhibits testify eloquently to Taut's knowledge of and enthusiasm for Japanese art and culture.

Treasure / Harumichi Saito: Photography

30 November 2013 - 16 March 2014
Watari-um
(Tokyo)
Saito's visual world seems informed and transformed, and not at all in a negative way, by his experience as a deaf-mute person. The work in this, his first major show, brims with an exalted vitality and gives full play to the heightened visual perceptions of a man who lives in a world without sound. The "Soundless Orchestra" section on the third floor gives visitors a chance to vicariously experience a "silent" performance via Saito's sensibilities.
Seaweeds, Wondrous Forests of the Sea
5 December 2013 - 22 February 2014
LIXIL Gallery
(Tokyo)
Yes, an exhibition about seaweed! Photos, drawings and specimens bring marine vegetable matter to life in as close to a natural setting as a landlocked gallery can muster. By "close to a natural setting" we of course mean its appearance; encasing exhibits in acrylic display cases is, granted, hardly natural.
O Jun: Kakuco

21 December 2013 - 2 March 2014

Fuchu Art Museum
(Tokyo)
This solo show of 150 works reveals a unique oeuvre of paintings in which all manner of disparate elements and materials cohabitate in the same work: figurative and abstract motifs, lines and planes, watercolors and oils, monochrome and color, painterliness and flatness. Most of the exhibition is devoted to O's work from the nineties on, when his idiosyncratic style reached maturity.
Shimomura Kanzan Retrospective

7 December 2013 - 11 February 2014
Yokohama Museum of Art
(Kanagawa)
Nihonga artist Kanzan Shimomura (1873-1930) displayed more of a Western influence than his contemporary Taikan Yokoyama, but was less realistic in his approach than Seiho Takeuchi. Though he made use of such Western techniques as perspective, he did not seem very keen on painting from life. Indeed, there is a somewhat kitschy aspect to his blending of East and West, but perhaps that is what makes his work so charming.
Selected Artists in Kyoto: The way of PARASOPHIA

25 January - 9 February 2014
The Museum of Kyoto
(Kyoto)
This show is a prelude to PARASOPHIA, a.k.a. the Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture, slated for spring 2015. Works by 43 promising young artists are on display, as well as Sun Sister, a typically gargantuan and mangaesque sculpture by the already-famous Kenji Yanobe.
Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.12: Every stroller can change the world.

7 December 2013 - 26 January 2014
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo)
Having just concluded its 12th incarnation, this exhibition has become a significant showcase for Japanese photographers, both up-and-coming and established. This year's theme was "on the street," symbolizing the "place where we come into contact with the world." Featured were five photographers born between 1963 and 1983: Katsumi Omori, Kimio Itozaki, Naoki Kajitani, Natsumi Hayashi, and Takashi Tsuda.
Art of Aichi

29 November 2013 - 2 February 2014
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art
(Aichi)
Subtitled "70 Years of Art in Postwar Aichi," this historical retrospective featured some 130 representative postwar works from the museum's collection. Among the Aichi-associated artists were Yoshitomo Nara, Masako Ando, Shigeo Toya, and Hiroshi Sugito, as well as Tamako Kataoka and Masayoshi Nakamura, known for their pioneering Nihonga work, and Nabesaburo Kito, devoted portraitist of young geisha.
Sadaharu Horio Exhibition
19 November - 1 December 2013
LADS Gallery
(Osaka)
Self-styled "full-body artist" Horio (b. 1939), a Gutai veteran, puts on around 100 shows a year. It is pretty much impossible to critique his work based on a single exhibition, since his entire life seems intended for view as one big work of art. In this show he covered large sheets of folded paper with black paint; when opened they formed wall-sized panels with startling black-and-white patterns that made remarkable sense.
Aimi Morikawa: Radio Exercises No.1
26 November - 1 December 2013
Kunst Arzt
(Kyoto)
Morikawa's installation comprised paintings that trace the movements and sightlines of people doing calisthenics to the radio (a popular morning pastime in Japanese parks). Her distinctive style and her creative mode of display (bending and curving the paintings to achieve a dynamic spaciality) leave this viewer looking forward to her next event.
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