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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering commentary by reviewers and curators about current or recent exhibitions at museums and galleries around the country.
Note: Although Japan's state of quasi-emergency has been lifted, many museums and galleries still 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 November 2022 |
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| Seeing as Though Touching: Contemporary Japanese Photography Vol. 19 |
| 2 September - 11 December 2022 |
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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The five artists featured here certainly fit the definition of "up-and-coming" photographers championed by the long-running series. For this 19th installment, curator Miyuki Endo says, the museum chose artists "who take the texture that photographs and moving images have as their starting point in stimulating consideration not only of the images that have been photographed but also the materials that are those images' support medium." All five -- Rui Mizuki, Hana Sawada, Yuki Tawada, Kosuke Nagata, and Masaru Iwai -- display considerable versatility in the approaches they take to their art.
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| Tokyo National Museum: Its History and National Treasures |
| 18 October - 11 December 2022 |
Tokyo National Museum
(Tokyo) |
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Japan's oldest and most prestigious museum celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Since its opening in 1872 it has been tasked with preserving and exhibiting the nation's most valuable works of art, as well with conveying Japan's cultural legacy to future generations and the world at large. Presenting nearly 200 works culled from the museum's 120,000-item collection, this historic show includes all 89 of the National Treasures in its possession (that's a tenth of the total in existence), on display together for the first time ever.
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| Iittala: Stars of Finnish Glass |
| 17 September - 10 November 2022 |
Bunkamura Museum of Art
(Tokyo) |
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A lifestyle brand known best for its works in glass, Iitala enjoys a sizable fan base in Japan. This show commemorates the company's 140th anniversary with a thorough overview of its history, philosophy, and designers. Works like those of the Birds series are so exquisite that the urge to purchase them is nearly irresistible.
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| Miyagi Sotaro: The Useful and the Beautiful |
| 17 September - 13 November 2022 |
Setagaya Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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Though hardly a household name, Sotaro Miyagi (1951-2011) left a legacy of product designs that are far more familiar than most people realize. They range from the logos and original office items of the Askul brand to file binders and staplers by Plus to the kitchen appliances of Bamix. Take a look around your home or your office, and you are bound to see something designed by Miyagi. (See this issue's Here and There column for a detailed review.)
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| Picasso and His Time: Masterpieces from Museum Berggruen / Nationalgalerie Berlin |
| 8 October 2022 - 22 January 2023 |
The National Museum of Western Art
(Tokyo) |
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The holdings of Berlin's acclaimed Museum Berggruen center on founder Heinz Berggruen's (1914-2007) four favorite artists -- Picasso, Klee, Matisse, and Giacometti -- as well as their mentor Cezanne. This exhibition, the first to showcase the Berggruen collection in Japan, is made possible by the museum's temporary closure for renovations. Picasso dominates the 97 works from Berlin, augmented by 11 more on loan from Japan's various National Museums of Art, but the other aforementioned artists are amply represented as well.
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| Mago Nagasaka: Still a Black Star |
| 10 September - 6 November 2022 |
Ueno Royal Museum
(Tokyo)
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Nagasaka (b. 1984) became a street artist after the business he ran went bankrupt. In 2017 he visited Agbogbloshie, a slum in Accra, Ghana with a reputation as the world's largest digital graveyard. There he met young people who subsist on wages of 500 yen a day burning electronic waste sent there from the world's developed nations, among them Japan. Since then Nagasaka has dedicated his art to conveying the absurd conditions under which "our luxurious lifestyle is built upon the sacrifice of the people in these slums." The show takes its title from a documentary film about the artist's efforts.
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| Art Clip 2022: Futaro Katsumi |
| 22 October - 4 December 2022 |
Nizayama Forest Art Museum
(Toyama) |
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Katsumi (b. 1998), a manga artist born and based in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, has created an installation on the theme of night. In it he employs the media of text, art, and music to express his thoughts and emotions about night as an entity that gently envelops and resets us after each day of enduring the stresses of life in contemporary society. The artist brings a youthful sensibility and an innovative approach to the recreation of the experience of nocturnal rest and respite in this installation.
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| Abraham David Christian |
| 17 September - 20 November 2022 |
Museum Haus Kasuya
(Kanagawa) |
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The German artist (b. 1952) currently divides his time between his home country and Hayama, in Kanagawa Prefecture. This exhibition features his bronze sculptures as well as oil stick drawings. According to the museum, Christian creates "distinct sculptures, drawings, and the like high in spirituality through actively seizing various cultural influences and assimilating elements of African primitive art and oriental Buddhist art."
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| Ken'ichi Ogawa World |
| 23 September - 13 November 2022 |
Kushiro City Museum of Art
(Hokkaido) |
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Kushiro-born, Asahikawa-resident illustrator and graphic designer Ogawa's corporate logo work can be found throughout his native Hokkaido, while his package designs and illustrations have gained him a nationwide following. Taking good cheer, fun, kindness, humor and hope as his watchwords, Ogawa has converted the museum gallery into a world of his own making.
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