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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering commentary by a variety of reviewers about current or recent exhibitions at museums and galleries around the country.
Note: Due to a recent surge in Covid cases, parts of Japan are currently under a state of quasi-emergency, and some museums have temporarily closed. Others may require reservations or have other anti-Covid measures in place. If you are planning a visit, please check the venue's website beforehand. |
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1 February 2022 |
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| The Year 2121: Futures In-Sight |
| 21 December 2021- 8 May 2022 |
21_21 Design Sight
(Tokyo) |
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Themed around the year 2121, one century hence, this exhibition has invited 72 practitioners in fields ranging from design, art, architecture, and music to agriculture and science to imagine the world as it will be 100 years from now. Looking into the future entails simultaneously looking into the past, so the process requires a flexible state of mind capable of "zooming out" to travel across time in both directions. |
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| Indigo Dyeing Anatomy Exhibition: The Work of BUAISOU |
| 27 December 2021- 21 February 2022 |
Design Gallery 1953
(Tokyo) |
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The traditional Japanese art of indigo dyeing -- aizome -- has long been intimately intertwined with people's lives in this country. This show purports to "dissect" the work of BUAISOU, a studio in Tokushima Prefecture that specializes in hand-dyed aizome cloth. Exhibition director Taku Sato, a graphic designer known for his "Anatomy of Design" series, applies the same approach to a poster of a BUAISOU indigo-dye work, which he "dissects" into 16 categories that progress in analysis from outer to inner layers of the piece's "anatomy" -- e.g., from color, to texture, to graphics, to gradation and bleeding. It's a thorough and also clever introduction to the fine points of aizome. |
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| Saul Steinberg: Lines that Transform the Real World |
| 10 December 2021 - 12 March 2022 |
Ginza Graphic Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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How can someone depict people and objects with such a humorous, ironic touch, using just a single thin pen line? That was the genius of Saul Steinberg (1914-99), the American artist who is the subject of this retrospective. Though his drawings might be termed caricatures, the targets of his satire were not so much politics and society as they were familiar everyday phenomena. With a few simple strokes of his pen, he captured the hilarity and cruelty of human behavior and the absurdity of life. Steinberg's work never flatters or panders to his subjects. |
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| Ryusei Kishida: Art and Life |
| 18 December 2021 - 13 February 2022 |
Kitami Region Museum of Science, History and Art
(Hokkaido) |
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A review of the oeuvre of Kishida (1891-1929), an iconic figure in Japanese art of the Taisho era (1912-26) who was best known as a pioneer in Western-style painting. The diversity of works on display -- meticulous oils, elegant book-cover illustrations, even fluidly rendered Nihonga (Japanese-style paintings) -- testify to the breadth of Kishida's talent, originality, and ambition. |
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| Kishio Suga: The Existence of "Things" and the Eternity of "Site" |
| 18 December 2021 - 20 February 2022 |
Iwate Museum of Art
(Iwate) |
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A key exponent of the Mono-ha movement, Iwate native Suga (b. 1944) is one of Japan's foremost practitioners of contemporary art. This survey, which also commemorates the museum's 20th anniversary, presents some 120 works Suga has produced by a variety of methods during the half-century of his career to date. Through such simple gestures as bending or alignment, Suga combines and arranges objects of stone, wood, metal and other common materials in a manner that provokes thought about relations among these elements, their place, and ourselves. |
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| Eugene Studio: After the rainbow |
| 20 November 2021 - 23 February 2022 |
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(Tokyo)
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U.S.-raised, Japan-based artist Eugene Kangawa was born in 1989, making him the first artist born in the Heisei era (1989-2019) to get a solo exhibition at MOT. Featuring everything from paintings and sculptures to installations and videos, the show's purport is, quote, to "explore the perspectives, ideas, and philosophies that underlie the studio's diverse body of work. These are not mere two-dimensional visions but works that instantiate our own existence within the environs and cycles of society as they sublimate a host of themes in parallel, from individual interests and art history to past phenomena and civilization itself." |
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| Chronicles of the Warriors: Japanese Swords x Ukiyo-e from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
| 21 January - 25 March 2022 |
Mori Arts Center Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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This colorful offering of 118 thrilling musha-e ("warrior pictures") by famous woodblock artists is selected from the unparalleled ukiyo-e collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Alongside the prints one can view swords and tsuba sword-guards etched with images of those same heroes. Among the highlights: a blade forged by the legendary Heian-period swordsmith Yasutsuna, and a sword produced by the medieval-era Osafune Guild of master artisans. |
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| Ceramics of the Past and of the Future: The Timelessness of Traditional Japanese Craft Arts |
| 15 January - 21 March 2022 |
Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art
(Tokyo) |
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A show commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Ceramics Division of the Japan Kogei Association. According to the curators, "this exhibition offers a retrospective view on the organization's history and a selection of masterpieces by its artists. The artistry and beauty of ceramic art are demonstrated in a selection of tea bowls and other works by artists who have mastered the unique materials and traditions of kogei ceramic styles, including current and former Living National Treasures. A selection of works by up-and-coming artists is another highlight." |
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| Mode Surreal: A Crazy Love for Wearing |
| 15 January - 10 April 2022 |
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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A look at how the Surrealist movement in art influenced fashion, and vice-versa. Particular attention is paid to the work of the designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973), who was inspired in part by the paintings of Salvador Dali. In addition to showcasing apparel and accessories with Surrealist touches, the exhibition notes that Surrealist artists, for their part, often drew inspiration from articles of clothing. Also featured are older items, such as 16th-century fashion plates, that could arguably be said to reflect a "Surrealist sensibility." |
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