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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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1 November 2017 |
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| Kaoru Minamino |
| 11 - 30 September 2017 |
Gallery Haku Kuro
(Osaka) |
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| Minamino creates spherical ceramic objects. Due to the distortion and shrinkage caused by the firing process, ceramics don't readily lend themselves to geometric forms -- yet by purposely choosing ceramics as his medium, Minamino is able to produce works with a texture, heft, and presence not found in other materials. In this show he enhanced the impact by placing an assemblage of identically shaped objects in the middle of a dark, black-painted room and illuminating it with a spotlight. |
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| Atsushi Hashimoto: Universe Sculptures |
| 12 - 24 September 2017 |
Art Space Kan
(Kyoto) |
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| Hashimoto creates three-dimensional art from diverse materials, which he selects for optimal effect without any excess of sentiment. This show presented four series of his works. Two of them, Blood Vessel and Flower, reflect an interest in blood vessels and the brain inspired by his own bout with cerebrovascular disease. |
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The Wonders of Urushi: 12,000-Year History of People and Lacquer in Japan |
| 11 July - 3 September 2017 |
National Museum of Japanese History
(Chiba) |
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| A comprehensive look at Japan's long and intimate relationship with lacquer, from the plant to the coating material, to lacquerware as craft and art, to future applications. Bringing together the fruits of research on lacquer in the fields of archaeology, art history, literature, ethnology, botany, and analytical chemistry, the show is one of those tours de force of interdisciplinary scholarship for which the museum is admired. |
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| Expressive Power of Life: Kiyoshi Yamashita and Friends |
| 2 September - 1 October 2017 |
Kawasaki City Museum
(Kanagawa) |
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| Next year marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of Yawata Gakuen, a school for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities where a number of students blossomed into artists under its tutelage. This show introduces works by its most famous alumnus, Kiyoshi Yamashita (1922-71), as well as by three of his schoolmates, all of whom died young: Kenji Ishikawa (1926-52), Yuichi Numa (1925-43), and Shigehiro Noda (1925-45). |
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| Enrico Isamu Oyama: Found Object |
| 1 - 30 September 2017 |
Courtyard Hiroo
(Tokyo) |
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| In these 15 works, Oyama has painted with graffiti-like strokes over old prints and photographs he found in New York antique shops. Oyama's additions show respect for the original works, never sullying or hiding their motifs, which include flowers, people, buildings, and landscapes. Unlike Banksy, Oyama's graffiti does not alter meaning, but appears to be a spontaneous response to the original image. |
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| Mina Tabuchi: FOREST |
| 8 - 26 September 2017 |
B Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| In 2012, when she was 23, Tabuchi moved to a cabin in the woods north of Karuizawa and spent a year using a camera to chronicle the astonishing transformations a forest undergoes month by month. The resulting photo collection, into the forest, heralded her debut as an innovator in the ranks of nature photographers. Accompanied by an installation of fallen forest leaves, this latest exhibition demonstrated how her craft has evolved since then. |
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