HOME > PICKS
Picks :

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
| 1 | 2 |
new incubation 5: Niyoko Ikuta and Tomoe Sasaki
22 November - 26 December 2013
Kyoto Art Center
(Kyoto)
This was the fifth in Kyoto Art Center's "new incubation" series, which pairs one veteran and one younger contemporary artist to see what sort of mutual detonation transpires. This installment brought together two women: Niyoko Ikuta (the veteran, b. 1953), who creates diaphanous abstract glass sculptures, and Tomoe Sasaki (the young lion, b. 1983), who builds memory- and emotion-laden paintings out of layers of lacquer.
Yu Hanabusa: Let the Outside Indoors, Vol. 2
29 November - 14 December 2013
Kyoto Art Center
(Kyoto)
Hanabusa turned a tea ceremony room into a traditional Japanese garden, displaying paintings in which stone lanterns and monuments appear as motifs. A circular carpet of artificial turf occupied the center of the room, on which the visitor was to sit while taking in the paintings. Subtle differences in what one saw, depending on whether one sat or stood, made this an enjoyable exercise that testified to the artist's sense of whimsy.
Fuyuhiko Takata: My Fantasia
30 November - 28 December 2013
Kodama Gallery
(Kyoto)
Kansai-based Takata's works may initially strike some as a series of perverted pranks, but they tap into the most hidden depths of human nature, giving us glimpses of a realm that cannot be judged by conventional morality or distinctions between good and evil. The artist appears to believe that truly creative expression can be achieved only by constantly exposing oneself to extremes.
Ryuzo Satake: Paper and Pigment and Paintings
22 November - 4 December 2013
gallery near
(Kyoto)
Satake paints pictures of innocent young boys and girls who stare straight at us. His technique is pointillistic, employing a flat sumi-e brush dipped in one pale color at a time, which he applies over and over to the canvas. Devoid of lines or planes, his works are aggregations of color -- i.e., of light.
Shoji Ueda & Jacques Henri Lartigue: Play with Photography
23 November 2013 - 26 January 2014
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo)

Both Ueda (1913-2000) and Lartigue (1894-1986) were photographers of the 20th century, and both were fond of capturing people at play, but their methods could not be more contrastive. Where Ueda created surrealistic, carefully planned compositions, Lartigue shot his subjects very much in the heat of the spontaneous moment.
Yasunori Ikunishi: "Welcome Back, Songs"
30 November - 4 December 2013
Uplink
(Tokyo)
The highlight of this series of recent video works by multimedia artist Ikunishi was Sound Movie, a unique piece, neither soundtrack nor image, composed of darkness. Drama and Dance offered fresh new textures of collaboration between videos and live dancers, provoking contemplation of the possibilities to be pursued in relationships between imagery and the body.
Yo Akiyama Solo Exhibition
3 December 2013 - 25 January 2014
ArtCourt Gallery
(Osaka)
This massive show was devoted to Akiyama's powerful black-clay sculptures, which resemble cooled chunks of erupted lava. Three series of works provided a retrospective of his pioneering ceramic art since the 1970s. The huge gallery space was the perfect, and necessary, setting for this superb exhibition.

The World of Beauty as Seen in Mikimoto Advertising
5 December 2013 - 13 January 2014
Mikimoto Hall
(Tokyo)
Kokichi Mikimoto, founder of the renowned jewelry company, was exposed to the power of the media when he was only 20 and saved someone's life; a newspaper picked up the story and he became famous overnight. From then on he was an enthusiastic purveyor of advertising and marketing. Much of his success in making Mikimoto a household name worldwide can be attributed to his ability to appeal to a broad spectrum of potential customers by selling not only jewelry, but its cultural and historical context. Commemorating the 120th anniversary of the invention of the Mikimoto cultured pearl, this show offered some fascinating insights into how a brand is created.
Form and Simulation: Experiment & Photography of Shozo Kitadai
19 October 2013 - 13 January 2014
Taro Okamoto Museum of Art
(Kanagawa)
Having lately augmented and reorganized its archive of works by and materials about the protean artist Shozo Kitadai (1921-2001), the museum exhibited some 400 items from its collection. Kitadai was an experimenter in multiple media, but this show focused on his photography in unprecedented detail, introducing some stunning series of images that have not been accessible to the public until now and should reinforce Kitadai's already substantial reputation.
Sakiko Nomura: Hotel Pegasus
7 - 27 December 2013
B Gallery
(Tokyo)
This show made it clear that Nomura, who long served as assistant to legendary photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, has emerged from the master's shadow. Her monochrome palette is now leavened with color, and she has expanded her subject matter beyond male nudes, a fixation to date. Her future sounds promising, too: several more exhibitions are planned after this one, as well as the publication of a photo collection.
| 1 | 2 |