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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering short reviews of 20 exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout Japan over the past two or three months, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists. |
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| Yoko Irie: seats |
| 28 May
- 2 June 2007 |
Gallery
Den
(Osaka) |
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| Irie creates art from discarded
furniture and recycled objects found in second-hand
stores. This installation features pieces she has
made from or into chairs. |
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| Ayumi Asakawa |
| 29 May
- 3 June 2007 |
Art
Space Niji
(Kyoto) |
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| Newcomer Asakawa, a recent college
graduate, displays a range of work from large oils
to small meticulous pen drawings. Her free-floating
images evoke clouds and auroras. |
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| Yukihisa Hirabayashi |
| 9 - 30
May 2007 |
Tokyo
Wonder Wall
(Tokyo) |
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A Buddhist priest as well as
an artist, Hirabayashi says he operates from a "spiritual/pop"
concept. "Do you remember the holy white elephant?"
and other works occupy the Wonder Wall, literally
a wall in Tokyo's city hall.
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| Hiromi Yamauchi |
| 28 May
- 2 June 2007 |
O
Gallery eyes
(Osaka) |
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Close up, Yamauchi's paintings
can be seen to consist of dots applied in a four-layer
process of painting and masking. The artist says,
"By freeing myself from fixed images and disturbing
the picture space, I strive for a complex depth
that isn't derived from vanishing-point perspective."
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| Hironao
Kuratani: Myoukayama Photo Studio |
| 4 - 10
June 2007 |
Futaba
Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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Kuratani is curator of the Myoukayama
Photo Studio, which he created for the 2006 Echigo
Tsumari Triennale. Featuring a collection of funeral
portraits, the studio has temporarily moved to this
Tokyo gallery, where patrons may sit for their own
future memorial photographs.
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| Ryoko Suzuki: ANIKORA-SEIFUKU/uniform |
| 18 May
- 7 June 2007 |
Zeit-Foto
Salon
(Tokyo) |
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| "Anikora" is short
for "animation collages," photos in which
Suzuki superimposes her own face on the provocatively
dressed figures of female animation characters.
The juxtaposition highlights the oddity of these
excessively young, thin, cute stereotypes of female
beauty. |
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| Yasuaki Onishi |
| 6 June
- 1 July 2007 |
PANTALOON
(Osaka) |
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Onishi's work "restriction
sight," in which he stuck fluorescent-painted
bits of paper on a huge plastic bag, won the 10th
Taro Okamoto Contemporary Art Award last year. Says
the artist, "By placing clues in space, I create
works that make us aware of something we cannot
grasp."
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Ryo Mizuno: Mono-oki
(object placement) |
| 22 May
- 8 June 2007 |
Musashino
Art University Folk Art Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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This installation utilizes folk
art materials from the renowned collection assembled
by ethnologist Tsuneichi Miyamoto at Musashino Art
University. Small papier-mache objects placed here
and there evoke more contemporary sensations of
memory, value and order.
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| Takako Hojo: Remain in Light |
| 16 June
- 14 July 2007 |
nomart
Contemporary Art
(Osaka) |
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| On view are 42 drawings produced
by Hojo while in residence at the Ohara Museum of
Art (Kurashiki) last year. Her depictions of forests
and bodies of water, ranging from purely figurative
to quasi-abstract, appeal to the sense of touch
as much as sight. |
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| Shoichi Tamamura |
| 8 - 16
June 2007 |
Space
Gallery Roundish
(Osaka) |
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In this solo show Tamamura displays
numerous small drawings of imaginary creatures,
as well as a large work still in progress, the process
of which visitors are invited to observe.
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