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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering short reviews of exhibitions at museums and galleries in recent weeks, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists. |
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| Avant-Garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art |
| 20 August - 20 October 2008 |
National Art Center, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
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| The works in this comprehensive look at Chinese art over the past two decades run the entire gamut of 20th century modernist movements, from pop to conceptual, and of media, from painting to performance to video. Many of the artists -- Fang Lijun, Ma Liuming, and Yang Fudong among them -- are familiar to Japanese viewers from previous solo shows here. |
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| Still/Motion: Liquid Crystal Painting |
| 23 August - 13 October 2008 |
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo) |
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| The advent of video art in the sixties expanded the world's artistic palette; today many video artists use liquid crystal displays as their medium of choice. This show introduces paintings and LCD works by 14 artists, including Yang Fudong, Yasumasa Morimura, Bill Viola and Brian Eno. |
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Miyuki Akiyama: micro macro monochrome color |
| 8 August - 7 September 2008 |
magical artroom
(Tokyo) |
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| With her masterful use of contrasting tools and elements -- thin and thick paint, pencil and paint knife, lines and color fields -- Akiyama produces works that skitter exquisitely on the brink of collapse. The recurring forest and animal motifs seem to establish a distance between self and object, expressing a sensibility that experiences a chaotic mix of macro and micro. |
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| 1floor 2008: No potato of name |
| 23 August - 7 September 2008 |
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Kobe Art Village Center
(Hyogo) |
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| Three artists born in the eighties -- Shinya Aota, Yushi Yashima and Shuhei Yoshida -- were selected for this joint exhibition. Though not overwhelming in impact, their works leave an indelible impression of artists scrutinizing their everyday lives and channeling their response into art. (The title is an intentionally botched auto-translation of the Japanese "things with no name.") |
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| Koganecho Bazaar |
| 11 September - 30 November 2008 |
Kogane-cho and Hinode-cho, Yokohama
(Kanagawa) |
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| This art festival opened one step ahead of the concurrent Yokohama Triennale. Until recently, Kogane-cho was a notorious red-light district. With the opening of two art studios under the Keikyu railway tracks and the participation of local artists and residents, organizers hope to revitalize the neighborhood "through the coexistence of art and community." |
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| Life and Art: Arts & Crafts from Morris to Mingei |
| 13 September - 9 November 2008 |
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
(Kyoto) |
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| The late 19th century Arts and Crafts movement promoted by William Morris spread from England to continental Europe and Japan, where Soetsu Yanagi and others were inspired to launch the Mingei movement. This show examines how Morris's ideas were realized in Britain, Europe and Japan respectively, and features reconstructed rooms in the Arts and Crafts and Mingei styles. |
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| Open Studio: Takashi Nakamura |
| 12 - 15, 19 - 23 September 2008 |
Scratch Tile
(Kanagawa) |
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| Founded in 2001 as an artists' cooperative, Scratch Tile occupies the basement of a historic building in Yokohama's harbor district. Its September "Open Studio" of consecutive solo shows by six artists led off with Takashi Nakamura, who works with filtered sunlight and "collects tiny phenomena hiding in ordinary life and reconstructs them into minimal installations." |
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| Flying Dutchman Project 08: Florian Claar |
| 12 - 15 September 2008 |
Vacant lot in front of Yokohama Museum of Art
(Kanagawa) |
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| A 36-meter-long cigar-shaped tube of curved plywood sitting in the middle of a vast vacant lot, the Flying Dutchman was built by German-born, Japan-resident artist Florian Claar and his team to coincide with the Yokohama Triennale. More than its ghostly namesake, the massive sculpture resembles a space ship, particularly when lit up at night. |
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| The Echo |
| 13 September - 5 October 2008 |
ZAIM
(Kanagawa) |
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| Focusing on young Japanese artists and on paintings -- categories in glaringly short supply at the Yokohama Triennale -- this exhibition seems like a conscious slap at the bigger event. Particularly striking are the paintings by Takeshi Masada and Kae Masuda. Overall, the works here are warmer and more engaging than the cold, detached art favored by the Triennale. |
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| Midori Mitamura@Yokohama |
| 13 September - 30 November 2008 |
Creative Space 9001
(Kanagawa) |
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| Working with photography and video, Mitamura explores memory and communication in works ranging from mobiles made of paperbacks and wine glasses to images of London Bridge. Exhibiting in a new art space where the Toyoko Sakuragicho train station (replaced by a subway line) used to be, the artist will frequently be on site to create new works there and conduct workshops. |
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