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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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1 November 2007 |
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| Masayoshi Kubo: Another Landscape |
| 3 - 15 September 2007 |
Gallery wks.
(Osaka) |
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A graduate of the Belgian Royal Academy, Kubo has produced some large and unorthodoxly-shaped works for this installation, including one that occupies several canvases extending around three walls of the gallery and another in the shape of a double H.
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| Misa Wematsu and Koji Ninomiya: Half a tatami while awake, one tatami while asleep |
| 4 - 9 September 2007 |
Gallery Haneusagi
(Kyoto) |
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| The installation's title derives from a Japanese proverb about the space that should be sufficient for one person to live a solitary life. Artists Wematsu and Ninomiya join forces to see what they can do within these limited dimensions (one tatami mat is about 3 x 6 feet). |
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| Yoshihito Mizuuchi: The 23rd Grader |
| 4 - 23 September 2007 |
Fukugan Gallery
(Osaka) |
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| Also active on the music scene, Mizuuchi is known for his highly idiosyncratic, "junky" installations, such as last year's "Hey little sister, the champion lost twice." This one is a mix of objects, sculptures and hangings made mostly of cardboard, accompanied by original sound effects. |
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| Junko Ishiro: "I knew it before, but verbalized long after" |
| 1 - 30 September 2007 |
PANTALOON
(Osaka) |
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| Notorious for performances in which she burns her oils of natural or urban landscapes on the spot where they were painted, Ishiro here displays some of her more ambiguous paintings in an evocative studio space that was crafted by renovating and joining together several old Osaka row houses. |
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| Shuko Terada: Instant Rainbow |
| 4 - 15 September 2007 |
Galerie 16
(Kyoto) |
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| Terada's latest installation is about the play of light around various readymade objects sandwiched between glass lenses -- seashells, small rubber balls, dandelion fluff, bits of wire -- or fragments of text between translucent glass plates. |
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| Tesshu Exhibition: Biryushi (beautiful particles) |
| 19 August - 15 September 2007 |
Getsumin Gallery
(Osaka) |
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| This show features two sides of Tesshu Kuhara's work with sumi (charcoal) ink and gold dust. One is a series of abstractions made by applying sumi brush to paper, then adding layers of delicate lines in gold; for the other set, Kuhara painted parts of his body with sumi ink, pressed them against sheets of paper, then altered the resulting patterns in imaginative ways. |
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| Keiji Matsumoto: Let's Get Lost (I don't make poetry books by mistake) |
| 11 August - 17 September 2007 |
Maebashi City Museum of Literature
(Gunma) |
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| This is a thorough retrospective of the life and work of poet Matsumoto, winner of the 14th Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize last year (the Maebashi Museum is dedicated to local hero Hagiwara, 1886-1942, the "father of modern Japanese poetry"). On display are Matsumoto's entire published oeuvre to date as well as galley proofs and handwritten journals. |
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| Testimony of the Self-Portraits |
| 4 August - 17 September 2007 |
University Art Museum
(Tokyo) |
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| The art museum of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music (Geidai) has been running a retrospective of self-portraits painted by its students upon graduation. Nearly 160 portraits were selected from the 5,000 between 1899, when the tradition began, and the present. The evolution in styles testifies to the modernization and globalization processes undergone by Japan during that period. |
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| Mineko Mineta: Creation of Myth |
| 27 August - 2 September 2007 |
Futaba Gallery
(Tokyo) |
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| In this solo show Mineta displays plane images of dilapidated old shrines amidst an interplay of light and shadow. Few other artists these days devote themselves as she does to the motif of the Shinto shrine. |
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| Toshiaki Yamaoka: Gutic Study 13 |
| 20 August - 1 September 2007 |
Gallery wks.
Gallery H.O.T
(Osaka) |
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| "Gutic" is a word coined by Yamaoka, who is displaying two different types of work in these two shows. One is an installation, the other an exhibit of photographs. The former is composed of black cloths that appear flat at first glance but display odd protuberances here and there when viewed from different angles. |
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