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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 2018

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Designs to Wear: Modern Kyoto and Dyed Fabric Design

25 September - 2 November 2017

Kyoto Institute of Technology Museum
(Kyoto)

The concept of zuan (design), which came into vogue in the Meiji period (1868-1912), serves as keyword for a look at the development of designs for dyed and woven fabrics during that era. Also on offer are texts used in design education and designs created by students. An eye-pleasing excursion through realistic patterns taken from nature, novel combinations of traditional motifs, and geometric or imaginatively irregular patterns, all testifying to the creativity of fabric designers of the day.

Hiroyuki Takenouchi: The Fourth Wall

1 November - 22 December 2017

PGI
(Tokyo)

The "fourth wall" is the imaginary wall between the real world and the fictitious world of the stage. The audience views the onstage world through that wall, but sometimes the real world intrudes. Takenouchi's photographic works maintain a similarly delicate balance. As his works grow in intensity, we see an increasingly adept use of tension and release in them.

Hiroyoshi Hara: Creatures Near and Far

1 - 7 November 2017

Ginza Nikon Salon
(Tokyo)

Cats have figured as the main subject in past solo outings by photographer Hara (b. 1970), but over the last two years he has turned his lens toward mice. Initially, he says, it was a challenge just to find the little critters, but lately he seems to have acquired the knack for getting them to come to him. In these 50 portraits of urban mice, his subjects appear not merely charming but downright adorable.

Genichiro Inokuma: Works during World War II

16 September - 30 November 2017

Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art
(Kagawa)

Inokuma (1902-93) went to France in 1938, studied with Matisse, hung out with Tsuguharu (Leonard) Foujita, then returned to Japan in 1940 after war broke out in Europe. Until then he had painted in the style of Matisse or Picasso, but once Japan went to war he was assigned to produce "war-record paintings" and sent to China, the Philippines, and Burma. This show traces Inokuma's artistic trajectory from his years in France through the war and into the postwar era.

When Attitudes Become Form: Japanese Art of the 1970s through the Photography of Anzai Shigeo

28 October - 24 December 2017

The National Museum of Art, Osaka
(Osaka)

A retrospective focusing on the early work of a photographer noted for capturing the essence of contemporary art and artists from the 1970s on. Anzai made his debut as a photographer in 1970 at the 10th Tokyo Biennale: Between man and matter, where he recorded site-specific works that were to be dismantled afterward. The current show is thus not only a retrospective of Anzai's work, but also of Japanese art in the 1970s.

Mirror Behind Hole: Photography into Sculpture vol. 5 Tomoaki Ishihara

28 October - 2 December 2017

gallery αM
(Tokyo)

Since the 1980s Ishihara has repeatedly presented works of self-portraiture. At the same time, he must be credited as a pioneer in the melding of photography with contemporary art. This exhibition displayed some truly thrilling amalgams of two disparate media, photography and sculpture. Ishihara's relentless obsession with breaking down bodies, then gathering them up to produce a new body, is fascinating in itself.

Noah Suzuki: When the forest of the clown sleeps

7 - 19 November 2017

Roonee 247 fine arts
(Tokyo)

Photographic artist Suzuki employs the bromoil process, a classic oil print technique popular in Japan a century ago. It is a demanding procedure that involves bleaching and then applying colored inks to an image on bromide paper, but Suzuki has clearly mastered it. One looks forward to subsequent works on a larger scale as she expands her oeuvre.

Tomohiro Muda: Shards of Memory

3 November - 2 December 2017

Chihan'an
(Shizuoka)

Located in the central Izu Peninsula, Chihan'an is a two-century-old family residence. Though best known for his photos of Romanesque art, Muda here displayed two different series, one indoors and one outdoors, both well suited to this unique ambience. Memory of Things portrays the region devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, while Memory of Stones offers images of rocks both in Japan and abroad. The venue's atmosphere lent itself perfectly to this visual dialogue between ordinary and extraordinary phenomena.

70 Years after Kitano's Death: Kitano Tsunetomi Exhibition

3 November - 17 December 2017

Chiba City Museum of Art
(Chiba)

Kitano (1880-1947) ranks with Kiyokata Kaburagi and Shoen Uemura as one of the great Osaka painters of the Bijinga (beautiful women) genre. This show brought together some 180 works ranging from his Nihonga paintings to posters, book illustrations, and sketches. Throughout his life Kitano painted figures that were not merely beautiful, but brimming with a human mix of sensuality, sweetness, and occasional grotesquery. Especially intriguing were the changes his style underwent between his early and mature periods.

Yuki Kasama: Clouds change to wind as they pass over the mountains

22 November - 6 December 2017

Photographers' Gallery
(Tokyo)

Kasama uses a large-format camera to capture meteorological phenomena, particularly the wind. The eight prints making up this show were shot at elevations above 4,800 meters in the Andes, a place where rising air currents generate clouds and mist that constantly change shape. It is an exceedingly harsh environment, but by actively seeking it out Kasama has produced some trailblazing landscape and mountain photography.

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