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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.

1 September 2016

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Yokoo Maniarism vol. 1

6 August - 27 November 2016

Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art
(Hyogo)

Truly an exhibition for Yokoomaniacs, this one spotlights the artist's personal hoard of materials amassed as inspirations for or records of his creative output. What makes the show special is its divulgence of the process by which this collection of photos, pamphlets, sketches, manuscripts, postcards, LPs, and books was surveyed and selected. It's a project long in coming from a facility whose mandate is, after all, to archive Yokoo-related materials. Further surveys may reveal heretofore unknown facets of the artist and his career.

Hiroshi Sugito: particles and release

15 July - 25 September 2016

Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
(Aichi)

Reversing the usual art museum display conventions, this show begins in a tiny, intimate room. Purple and pink carpeting and lighting create a uniquely atmospheric space that turn the exhibition into more than just a lineup of pictures. The artist shakes things up even more in the second half by mixing in collaborative works by architect Jun Aoki (including a hut that moves when you touch it) and a fragile installation by Studio Velocity.

Drawing Manga! -- Lines, Panels, Kyara

23 July - 25 September 2016

Kawasaki City Museum
(Kanagawa)

The lives, works, and technical hallmarks of eight of Japan's most legendary manga artists or teams -- among them Fujio Akatsuka and Shotaro Ishinomori -- are introduced along with sociohistorical background on their best-known titles. With museums nowadays competing with showy manga exhibitions that seem more like fan events, it's heartening to see one that actually provides context and criticism. This is what a manga-art show should look like.

Summer Exhibition: An Imaginative Playground for the Senses

26 July - 11 September 2016

Kyoto Art Center
(Kyoto)

A two-man presentation by Takahiro Iwasaki, who makes collages of disassembled and reconstructed everyday objects, and Tsuyoshi Hisakado, whose installations utilize sound and light. Both employ the imagination-based techniques of parody and mimicry in contrasting ways, with Iwasaki directly linking the issue of electricity consumption to daily life, and Hisakado challenging our certainty of the "here and now" by splitting it into a multiplicity of sensory phenomena.

From the Land of Children's Illustrations: Stories and Dreams

16 July - 4 September 2016

Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo
(Tokyo)

Focusing on the work of two pioneers in the genre known as douga (pictures for children) -- Takeo Takei (1894-1983), who coined the term, and Shigeru Hatsuyama (1897-1973) -- the Meguro Museum also introduces their protégé Yoshio Akioka (1920-97), an industrial designer and Meguro resident who was inspired by both artists to follow in their footsteps. Indeed, one of the exhibition's charms is the opportunity it affords to trace their influences in Akioka's work.

Yuji Takeoka: From a Pedestal into Space

9 July - 4 September 2016

The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
(Saitama)

Takeoka's motif of choice is the pedestal. The gallery is lined with cylinders, columns, cubes, glass cases, display racks crammed with magazines, and wall hangings that resemble pieces of picture frames. None of the objects are "works" in themselves, but platforms on which to place something. Thus as one makes the rounds of these minimalist productions, one can't help feel the actual "works" are missing.

Revisiting Siebold's Japan Museum

12 July - 4 September 2016

National Museum of Japanese History
(Chiba)

The German physician and botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) was stationed at the Dutch trading post at Dejima, Nagasaki, in the waning years of the Shogunate. There he studied Japan's flora, fauna, and culture. Featured here is a sampling of the huge collection of materials he brought home with him, which served as the West's first introduction to Japan. Among these everyday objects and handicrafts, the eye is drawn to portraits of Siebold painted in Japan and Europe -- a study in 19th-century cultural contrasts.

Taku Hisamura: Homemade Sculptures

23 - 31 July 2016

Ai Kowada Gallery
(Tokyo)

A few years ago an injury forced Hisamura (b.1977) to forgo the physically draining process of conventional sculpting and search for ways to "sculpt" at home. The results are what he calls "homemade sculptures" -- embroidering a tiny pedestal under the animal logo on a brand-name shirt, for example. There is intriguing potential in this shift from actual to conceptual sculpting, and one looks forward to seeing how far Hisamura takes it.

Haruo Ohara: The Light of Brasil - Family Sceneries

18 June - 18 July 2016

Itami City Museum of Art
(Hyogo)

Highly regarded in his adopted homeland of Brazil, Kochi-born photographer Ohara (1909-99) left Japan by boat at age 17. While running a coffee plantation in Parana he began taking pictures, mostly of his family, work on the farm, and the surrounding landscape. Fresh and straightforward, his work epitomizes "amateurism" in the best sense of the word. (Note: The exhibition opens next on 22 October 2016 at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Yamanashi.)

Ayumu Fushiguro: 2011-2016 Featuring Birds

17 June - 2 July 2016

Megumi Okita Gallery
(Tokyo)

Fushigoro paints bird figures with fences, gates, cages and the like against ultramarine backgrounds. Perhaps there is an obsession with entrapment at work here, but what captures the viewer is the beauty of the colors. Accompanying the paintings is an array of several dozen ceramic birds or bird-people. The artist says that his quest for purity in painting led him to make these "three-dimensional paintings," then "restore" them back to oils.

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