artscape Japan


	HOME > 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.

1 April 2016

| 1 | 2 |

Miyagawa Kozan Retrospective

24 February - 17 April 2016

Suntory Museum of Art
(Tokyo)

The Suntory offers some 150 works and historical materials associated with Kozan (1842-1916), a Meiji-era ceramist whose stunning sculpture-enhanced pottery, made primarily for export, is enjoying renewed acclaim today. Above all, the eye is drawn to his taka-ukibori ("high-relief") ornamentation -- 3D representations of animals and plants that made these otherwise conventional vessels a favorite of aficionados abroad.

WAVE: Jun Morinaga Photo Exhibition

3 February - 16 April 2016

gallery bauhaus
(Tokyo)

Morinaga has been photographing ocean waves for over 30 years. His subject matter undergoes kaleidoscopic changes in appearance according to the conditions under which he shoots it, but every shot captures water in a brief, miraculous moment of coalescence. One is never bored, and the visual pleasure is only augmented by Morinaga's meticulous conversion of these profound, austere images to monochrome prints on paper.

The 19th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art

3 February - 10 April 2016

Taro Okamoto Museum of Art
(Kanagawa)

Thanks to being named after a legendary avant-gardist, this prize manages to attract interest whatever the quality of the works receiving it. In terms of attention-grabbing ability, this year's Taro Award winner, Kan Miyake's Look Up at the Blue Sky, does not disappoint with its overpowering array of seven massive reliefs. But the most insidious work is Special Award winner Yuriko Sasaoka's Atem. A psychedelic video featuring plump-faced little children romping around a kiddie pool (the faces are apparently the artist's), it triggers flashbacks of long-buried memories.

Takashi Murakami's Superflat Collection: From Shohaku and Rosanjin to Anselm Kiefer

30 January - 3 April 2016

Yokohama Museum of Art
(Kanagawa)

Covering the spectrum from ceramics to contemporary art, Murakami's gargantuan personal collection fills the entire gallery -- no small feat in the Yokohama Museum's normally intimidating expanse of atrial space. Whether one chooses to try sussing out any prevailing pattern in Murakami's tastes, or to appreciate each work on its own terms, there are a number of ways to enjoy this show.

The 2nd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale

5 March - 1 April 2016

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
(Kyoto)

The second iteration of this large-scale print exhibition, first held in 2013, focuses on 20 artists recommended by expert commissioners. Besides that expertise, other virtues of the show are the generous display space it allots to each artist and its tolerance of unorthodox formats. Advances in digital technology and the diversification of printing techniques foreshadow big changes in the print arts, and perhaps a need to redefine what we mean by "printmaking" per se.

Yui Usui: Speculum

20 January - 20 February 2016

Studio J
(Osaka)

Looking at yourself in a mirror is one way of visually confirming your existence. In this solo show Usui displays several dozen hand mirrors in ceramic frames, all irregularly shaped and painted in pale colors. Etched into each mirror is the word for "I" in one of the world's languages, including sign language and braille. Through this curious format Usui scrutinizes the elusive nature of self-awareness as attempted through words and sight.

Toshiya Murakoshi: A Gradual Thaw

9 January - 13 February 2016

Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film
(Tokyo)

Murakoshi began photographing his home prefecture of Fukushima in 2006, and he has continued to do so in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of 2011. His approach remains unaltered: as always he uses medium- and large-format cameras to shoot superficially nondescript landscapes with a painstaking devotion to detail. Inevitably, though, his recent work bears the stamp of the calamities that have so devastated the region.

Shiseido Art Egg 10: Yoi Kawakubo Exhibition

3 - 26 February 2016

Shiseido Gallery
(Tokyo)

Now in its tenth year, Shiseido's "Art Egg" series is presenting three up-and-coming young artists in turn: installation artist Yoi Kawakubo, photographer Gabomi, and wood sculptor Ayano Nanakarage. Kawakubo introduced works created by exposing film to the invisible radiation generated by the Fukushima nuclear accident. Most intriguing, though, were his works involving the removal of white paint from a wall to expose the bare concrete beneath. (Note: Nanakarage's show is up until April 22.)

Stereotypical: Minako Nishiyama and Rikako Kawauchi

26 January - 7 February 2016

Gallery PARC
(Kyoto)

An exhibition by two female artists whose work shares an element of the grotesque. Kawauchi overlays rough pencil sketches of human bodies with dark red sections that have the texture of raw meat. The cracks and protrusions therein suggest genitalia, but on closer inspection they prove to be human faces. Nishiyama works with pink roses made of sugar, which she sets aside for over two months, during which they slowly dissolve and degrade in the natural humidity of the air. As recorded by her photos, this process evokes the dissolution of naïve illusions and stereotypes in a manner both ugly and sweet.

Yoh Aoki: Inverted Spectrum

9 - 26 February 2016

Guardian Garden
(Tokyo)

Aoki's stated objective with his current work is to discover "the meaning of events occurring amid the everyday reality of situations in which I find myself." The photographs on display are indeed fragments of the familiar -- the door of a commuter train, a cup -- captured as they happened to enter the photographer's line of sight. In Aoki's hands, however, the images acquire a subtle bias. One looks forward to his work to come.

| 1 | 2 |