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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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2 December 2019 |
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| Shigeo Toya: Body of the Gaze |
| 21 September - 19 October 2019 |
ShugoArts
(Tokyo) |
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| Nine wooden sculptures that resemble large boulders sit on the floor of the front gallery, their surfaces etched in zigzag patterns that Toya (b. 1947) created with a chainsaw. Our gaze follows these cuts, so that the works in effect emerge as an accumulation of sightlines -- the "body of the gaze" alluded to by the exhibition title. This appears to be at least one of the veteran sculptor's answers to the fundamental question he has always pursued in his work: What is sculpture? |
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| Bauhaus: Experiments |
| 21 October - 22 November 2019 |
Tokyo College of Photography Galleries
(Kanagawa) |
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| Amid the many events commemorating the centenary of the birth of Bauhaus, this exhibition is particularly deserving of attention. Of special note is the 7 EXPERIMENTS show in the fourth-floor gallery, which introduces an array of works pushing the expressive envelope in the spirit of the college's stated ambition to serve as a "Bauhaus of photographic education." One hopes these artists will continue with experiments that treat Bauhaus as an inspiration for the future, not merely a legacy from the past. |
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| CAF Award 2019 |
| 1 - 6 October 2019 |
Hillside Forum
(Tokyo) |
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| This was the sixth award event sponsored by the Contemporary Art Foundation, which encourages submissions from students at high schools, universities and art schools throughout Japan. The winner of the top prize receives 1 million yen and a solo show. This finalists' exhibition included several impressive works. Among the more entertaining were a contraption by Koichio Azuma that rotates an entire bicycle, rather than just the wheels, and top prizewinner Keita Sakai's installation of 50 cheap clothes hangers twisted into shapes that each held a single egg (the title, Inochi-gake, roughly translates as "life hanging in the balance). |
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| From the Cave |
| 1 October - 24 November 2019 |
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| A group offering of work by Ken Kitano, Lieko Shiga, Fiona Tan, Osamu James Nakagawa, and Gerhard Richter sounds like it might be a bit too diffuse, but these images went remarkably well together. Though they did not directly address the stated theme of "the use of a 'cave' as a motif to explore the origins of our cognition," the works afforded viewers the pleasurable sensation of being present when the photographers and artists gave birth to these images. |
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| Takashi Kuraya: Alice, Are You Sleeping? |
| 6 - 30 October 2019 |
Hasu no Hana
(Tokyo) |
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| When the gallery moved last year to a vacated house in Togoshi, Shinagawa-ku, it was found that the previous occupant had left behind a houseful of personal belongings. While helping the gallery dispose of these objects, photographer Kuraya happened upon a photo of a cat named Alice, a pet kept by the former resident. This sparked the creation of a unique installation that brought together objects that explore not so much the subject of the photo as the process by which it came to be preserved as a medium of memory. |
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| Stephan Balkenhol |
| 7 September - 5 October 2019 |
Tomio Koyama Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| German sculptor Balkenhol makes realistic human figures, but in a most idiosyncratic manner. For one thing, he carves them, base and all, from a single block of wood -- and the base is often much larger than the sculpture atop it. He prefers to leave his works looking unfinished, with a rough, burred surface. His figures are substantially smaller than life-size. They are also conspicuously lacking in distinctive physical characteristics or facial expressions. Finally, he likes to paint their surfaces. As this recent show demonstrated, Balkenhol thus observes certain traditions of sculpture even as he toys with them. |
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| Saki Kiritsuki: Outotsu ni Dekoboko |
| 12 - 27 October 2019 |
Gallery Suujin
(Kyoto) |
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| After printing from a woodblock, Kiritsuki adds to the carving and prints again, repeating this process until she has produced as many as nine different woodcuts. As one traces the work's evolution from print to print, the first black impression, consisting of little more than the wood grain, gives way to an indistinct, fragmented image that gradually expands like a plant pushing out roots and leaves, with various motifs intertwining until they reach a saturation point. Kiritsuki's concept provides viewers with a way to appreciate the dynamic process of picture-making over time. |
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