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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. |
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| Koshi Nishihara: Palimpsest - Overwritten Memories / Superimposed Memories |
| 10 January - 7 February 2015 |
gallery αM
(Tokyo) |
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| On one side of the gallery hang several large abstract paintings in varying styles. The other side is covered with an 8 x 16 grid of smaller figurative works, depicting all manner of subjects: automobiles, battle scenes, food. The overall effect is so flat that it blurs the distinction between these paintings and the abstracts on the opposite wall; indeed it renders conventional notions of "abstract" and "figurative" meaningless. |
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| Passage of Koganecho: Revisit |
| 10 - 25 January 2015 |
Studio Beneath the Rails Site A Gallery, Koganecho
(Kanagawa) |
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| Yokohama's rehabilitated red-light district is now flush with artists' studios occupying what were once bordellos. In one of the larger gallery spaces built under the Keikyu Railway tracks, a group of seven former artists-in-residence from Japan, Korea, and Indonesia display recent works as well as those documenting their sojourns in Koganecho. Featured are Tsubasa Kato, Momo Yoshino, Masahiro Wada, Yu Sora, Liar Ben, and Yaya Sung. |
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| Jo Kanamori / Noism1: ASU - Devotion to the Invisible |
| 24 - 25 January 2015 |
Kanagawa Arts Theatre
(Kanagawa) |
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| In Part 1 of this event, choreographer Kanamori's troupe Noism1 performed a mechanical dance in a white space to the music of Steve Reich and Ryoji Ikeda. For Part 2, his piece ASU filled a black space with the hypnotic overtones of throat-singing. The dance evoked a primitive world, but was performed with ballet-like precision in quick, elaborate movements that seemed well geared to the Japanese physique. |
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| Unfreedom of Expression: Things That Have Been Erased |
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18 January - 1 February 2015 |
Gallery Furuto
(Tokyo) |
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| This intrepid exhibition gathered works that were subjected to censorship of one form or another in recent years, ranging from pieces by Rokudenashiko and Ryudai Takano that were branded obscene by the police, to politically-charged work like the photographs of former "comfort women" by Ahn Sehong (for a 2012 show cancelled by Shinjuku Nikon Salon), and a collage by Nobuyuki Oura that included a portrait of the Showa emperor. The show challenged viewers to ponder the meaning of "freedom of expression" as well as the various ways in which that freedom can be destroyed. |
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| The Spirit of Architecture: Kiyonori Kikutake in Architectural Archives |
| 29 October 2014 - 1 February 2015 |
National Archives of Modern Architecture
(Tokyo) |
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| The sheer number of models, plans, and sketches on offer was astonishing enough, and these were further augmented by the opportunity to peruse digitized materials as well in an exhaustive look at the career of Kikutake (1928-2011), one of the founders of the Metabolist movement. Highlights ranged from his school-age sketches, filling both sides of each sheet, to his 1950s work for Bridgestone Tire and his entry in the competition for the Kyoto International Conference Center. |
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| Akemi Noguchi: The Spirit of Paris Glimpsed on the Metro |
| 23 December 2014 - 3 January 2015 |
Galerie Paris
(Kanagawa) |
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| Noguchi's series of copperplate prints portrays scenes from the Paris Metro. In one work, showing advertisements lining the wall of a platform, most of the print consists of simple, straight lines. However, one ad with a female model is meticulously etched. The detail lavished on this picture within a picture makes a striking impression. |
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Hiroshige Kagawa: Giant Paintings Unite Tohoku and Kobe 2015 |
10 - 18 January 2015 |
Design and Creative Center Kobe (KIITO)
(Hyogo) |
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| Sendai resident Kagawa's mammoth watercolors illustrating the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake of March 2011 were first exhibited at Sendai Mediatheque, which, like much of his hometown, suffered severe damage. The show next appeared in Kobe on the 20th anniversary of that city's own devastating earthquake, and will move on to France next year. Standing in front of these colossal landscapes reminded this reviewer of seeing the wasteland left behind by the tsunami and thinking, "This is no movie." |
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| Takashi Yorimitsu, Illustrator |
| 19 - 31 January 2015 |
Bumpodo
(Tokyo) |
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| This retrospective of the protean oeuvre of Yorimitsu, who died in 2012, brings together some 250 originals from his half-century of output -- ranging from illustrations for sci-fi novels and children's books to scientific drawings and court sketches. When I was young I thought his work was technically brilliant -- unfortunately, it hasn't aged very well. |
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| Tomoaki Ishihara: The Invisibility of Hair that Has Fallen from an Invisible Woman's Head |
| 29 November 2014 - 18 January 2015 |
MEM
(Tokyo) |
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| These six new works appear to be drawings of curving, layered lines on white gesso-primed canvas. In fact, however, they are (according to the gallery) "images of the artist's collected hair that has been scanned, converted into vector data, and recomposed as two-dimensional work -- in other words, a self-portrait of the artist." This is art that effectively dissolves the boundary between photography and non-photographic art. |
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