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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.

15 January 2016

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paramodulætion

31 October 2015 - 13 March 2016

Shimoyama Art Park Power Plant Museum
(Toyama)

Paramodel consists of two artists, Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano. For this show Hayashi has assembled solid objects out of such materials as PVC pipe and wood, while Nakano displays works with motifs ranging from the museum's water pipes to the manga Shonen Jidai (Boyhood), which takes place in Nyuzen, the town where the museum is located. In this collaboration, Hayashi supplies the "models" and Nakano the "modulations."

Yoko Ono: From My Window

8 November 2015 - 14 February 2016

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(Tokyo)

All the works assembled here -- Zen koan-like instructions, glass panes shot through with bullets (A Hole), a row of lacquer bowls filled with water and labeled with names of historical personages or friends of the artist (We're All Water [Tokyo Version]) -- seem to be flying high overhead, like a liberal-arts conception of art that makes one yearn for the days when art involved craftsmanship.

"TOKYO" -- Sensing the Cultural Magma of the Metropolis

7 November 2015 - 14 February 2016

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(Tokyo)

Tokyo has been an object of global interest at least since the 1980s, when it first achieved status as a world-class cultural mecca thanks to such icons as the techno-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Nowadays there seems to be a resurgence of "Tokyo to the World" ballyhoo spurred by the upcoming Tokyo Olympics of 2020. Just what sort of culture the megalopolis is capable of spawning this time around remains to be seen, however.

MOT Collection

7 November 2015 - 14 February 2016

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(Tokyo)

Trying something novel or unorthodox with the presentation of a museum's permanent collection sounds like a great idea, but this show is really just another "special" exhibition. No problem with that, but unfortunately it exposes the fact that MOT, the largest museum in the nation's capital, still lacks a definitive permanent collection of modern and contemporary works.

Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats

31 October 2015 - 6 March 2016

Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo)

Headlining this mammoth show of new works by Murakami is The 500 Arhats, a 100-meter-long painting unveiled in Qatar in 2012. Its superficially rough-and-ready appearance is deceptive; in fact the texture is utterly smooth and "superflat," to use Murakami's favorite term. More craft than art, more industrial product than craft, it is in any case a tour-de-force.

70th Anniversary of the End of WWII: Alternative Stories in 1940's Art

31 November - 23 December 2015

Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
(Tochigi)

With an emphasis on Tochigi-born artists and women painters, this show reexamines the wartime and postwar work of artists who might be categorized as "non-mainstream" by art historians. Standouts among the Tochigians are Toshi Shimizu, Riichiro Kawashima, and Hoan Kosugi, with Kosugi's war paintings forming the core of the exhibition.

Tomoko Konoike: Primordial Violence

24 October - 28 November 2015

Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery
(Kanagawa)

These new works -- including solid objects as well as paintings on sewn animal hides -- reflect a global perspective informed by Konoike's fieldwork in her home prefecture of Akita, through which she scrutinizes the relationship between nature and violence in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. She finds inspiration for her works, she says, not only in folk tales but in conversations with researchers in various fields on such topics as "male" technologies of separation vs. "female" technologies of connection.

Shinya Arimoto: ariphoto2015 vol.2

27 October - 8 November 2015

Totem Pole Photo Gallery
(Tokyo)

Run by a group of photographers, Totem Pole celebrates its tenth anniversary as well as that of Shinya Arimoto's ongoing photo collection ariphoto. This show commemorates the sixth volume of the series. The photographer's power remains undiminished as he pounces on his subjects -- people and things in various states of deformation -- like a beast of prey. At this stage in his career Arimoto has entered a realm into which few can follow.

Good Design Exhibition 2015

30 October - 4 November 2015

Tokyo Midtown
(Tokyo)

Scattered as it is across multiple venues in Roppongi's Tokyo Midtown shopping complex, it's hard to get a handle on this show. The eight finalists in this year's competition included an artificial arm, a wheelchair, and two Michi no Eki (Roadside Station) rest areas -- emblems of our life and times. Winning the Good Design grand prize is no easy thing, as it requires votes from outside the candidate's category.

Yoshimatsu Goseda: The Last Genius

19 September - 8 November 2015

Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History
(Kanagawa)

Among Western-style oil painters in Meiji-era Japan, Goseda (1855-1915) fell through the cracks between the pioneering oil work of Yuichi Takahashi and the modern art sensibilities of Seiki Kuroda. Yet in terms of technique he was clearly the superior of the two more recognized artists, a fact that must have been teeth-gnashingly frustrating for him.

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