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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.
Note: Most of Japan's museums and galleries have reopened, but conditions and anti-coronavirus precautions vary. If you are planning a visit, please check the venue's website beforehand. |
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| HOME/TOWN |
| 11 February - 30 May 2021 |
Art Museum & Library, Ota
(Gunma) |
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Commemorating the museum's third anniversary, this group exhibition showcases works on the theme of "rivers" by a trio of creators: the late poet Fusanojo Shimizu (1903-1964), artist Mari Katayama (b. 1987), and photographer Atsushi Yoshie (b. 1973). The city of Ota, whose name means "abundant rice fields," lies on a fertile stretch of land between two rivers, the Tone and the Watarase, so the show's theme makes an appropriate homage to the museum's host town.
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| Ties and Bonds in Graphic Design: DNP Graphic Design Archives Collection |
| 2 March - 6 June 2021 |
Center for Contemporary Graphic Art
(Fukushima) |
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| To quote from the gallery's website: "To take what is invisible to the eye -- a concept or slogan or philosophy -- and render it as something visible that can be conveyed to others is one aspect of the act of designing. What this means is that graphic design is at all times in an inseparable relationship with a tie, a connection, through the medium of communication. By looking at how graphic design has expressed ties and bonds, and then reconsidering today, 10 years after the [March 2011] earthquake disaster, the graphics of the expressions found there, this exhibition examines how such expression has evolved." |
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| I Wish I Had Something Like This in My House |
| 30 January - 15 April 2021 |
National Crafts Museum
(Ishikawa) |
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| The exhibition's title expresses a sentiment that, it posits, motivates not only consumers but also creators of arts and crafts. This second show at the museum's new home in Kanazawa (where it moved last fall from Tokyo) highlights work from its collection by a designer and two ceramic artists of international renown: Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), Kenkichi Tomimoto (1886-1963), and Lucie Rie (1902-1995). The curators suggest that the faith of these artists in the potential of their work to enrich people's lives is a timely source of inspiration during these days of stay-home isolation.
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| Genkyo Yokoo Tadanori |
| 15 January - 11 April 2021 |
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art
(Aichi) |
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| Iconic designer and painter Yokoo (b. 1936) first made a splash in the sixties with posters filled with his distinctive mishmash of folk- and pop-art motifs. His paintings of recent years, grounded in the concept of genkyo, or homeland, unearth imagery from the vast reservoir of collective human memory -- the homeland of the soul. This show provides an overview of the many facets of Yokoo's oeuvre over the long arc of his career. |
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| Kiyonori Kikutake: San'in and Architecture |
| 22 January - 22 March 2021 |
Shimane Art Museum
(Shimane) |
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| The museum's designer, Kikutake (1928-2011) was one of Japan's leading postwar architects and is still celebrated at home and abroad for such works as Sky House and for the influential Metabolist movement, which he co-founded. On the 10th anniversary of his death, the focus here is on architecture by Kikutake found in the surrounding San'in region of western Japan, complemented by other significant works and his designs for a "city of the future," one of his lifelong projects.
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| Ishimoto Yasuhiro Centennial |
| 16 January - 14 March 2021 |
The Museum of Art, Kochi
(Kochi) |
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| San Francisco-born, Kochi-raised photographer Ishimoto (1921-2012) earned global recognition for rigorous yet imaginative compositions rooted in the tenets of modern design, which he studied at the New Bauhaus school in Chicago. This year the museum, to which Ishimoto and his family donated a massive collection of his prints, negatives and positives, marks the 100th anniversary of his birth with a retrospective of a career that spanned six decades. |
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| Miniature Life Exhibition 2: Tatsuya Tanaka Main Works |
| 29 January - 14 March 2021 |
Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto
(Kumamoto) |
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| Every day since April 20, 2011, Kumamoto-born Tanaka has uploaded a new photo to his online "Miniature Calendar" (you can google it). With hilarious juxtapositions of tiny diorama figurines and everyday objects (or food items), he produces a seemingly endless parade of whimsical mini-tableaux -- broccoli forests, toilet-paper ski slopes, lipstick locomotives, and on and on. He now has a fan base that covers the planet. Here Tanaka's hometown pays homage with a display of some 120 photos of recent works and 50 of his actual miniature scenes, some of them Kumamoto-themed.
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| Riusuke Fukahori: Nagasaki 2021 |
| 12 March - 18 April 2021 |
Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum
(Nagasaki) |
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Fukahori uses the term "2.5D painting" to describe his innovative method of creating realistic 3D depictions of goldfish swimming in water. He paints successive cross-sections of the fish with acrylics on clear resin in layers which he inserts in all sorts of containers -- sake cups, tea bowls, desk drawers. The spectacle of these colorful little creatures swimming around in the most unexpected places is part of the fun. This show boasts some 300 of Fukahori's creations, including new pieces. A special series observes the 10th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake; in one work Fukahori has placed a pair of beautiful goldfish in shoes that belonged to a young brother and sister lost in the tsunami.
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