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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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| Yuri Hamano: eyes open |
| 3 - 8 February 2009 |
Gallery Haneusagi
(Kyoto) |
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| Hamano uses acrylics, ball pen, and magazine cutout collages to create works that exude a dreamlike whiff of deja vu. Children playing on a jungle gym at twilight, a girl standing by a lake, deer walking through a landscape of snow and telephone poles . . . The paintings inspire a sense of unease, but also the desire to take a second look. |
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| Megumi Nakao: Somewhere |
| 3 - 8 February 2009 |
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto) |
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| Nakao's images of scenes recalled from memory are hazy and indistinct, like landscapes viewed through layers of thin curtains. The eye tries to construct shapes from the pale tones, but in vain. The glass-walled gallery space is a good fit for these paintings: the shifting light triggers exquisite changes in the layers of color. |
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Kyota Takahashi: Roomers |
| 1 - 21 February 2009 |
Matsuo Megumi+Voice Gallery pfs/w
(Kyoto) |
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| Projected onto walls, hanging screens, and the floor, the moving silhouettes of a man and a woman appear and disappear as soundscapes by Toru Yamanaka and a live performance by Eiichi Maeda fill the spaces between. The intertwining of the projected images and the performance creates a mysteriously evocative time and space. |
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| Artist Recommended Artists 1: Yuka Nakamura / Hiroshi Nakatsuka |
| 30 January - 15 February 2009 |
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Gallery Sowaka
(Kyoto) |
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| This series introduces young artists recommended by three veterans (Masahito Iwano, Izumi Murota, and Takashi Tanimoto). First up are two artists selected by Iwano. Nakamura's powerful sculptures in steel and plaster of paris provoke an impulse to touch them. Nakatsuka's rows of small paintings of abstract symbol-like shapes seem rough-hewn, yet clever and sharply observant. |
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| FIX |
| 9 - 15 February 2009 |
Ex-Rissei Elementary School
(Kyoto) |
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| Eight artists or art teams born in the eighties collaborated on this exhibition in the classrooms of a former elementary school in downtown Kyoto. Clever use of the uniform rows of classroom spaces drew the visitor into an unforgettable viewing experience with elements of hide-and-seek and memory games. The presentation was as fascinating as the works on display. |
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| Shiro: Rainbow-Colored Flood 2009 |
| 10 - 15 February 2009 |
Gallery Haneusagi
(Kyoto) |
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| As the title suggests, Shiro's meticulous, maplike paintings of imaginary cities overflow with color. The artist says she does not plan her compositions in advance, but adds images that arise in her mind as she paints. The process seems akin to assembling pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but the artist's pleasure in it and her keen sense of color are infectious. |
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| Naoko Okamoto: Strains of a Distant Voice |
| 10 - 15 February 2009 |
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto) |
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| Okamoto has invented a fictitious exhibition by a fictitious artist, which she chronicles with photographs, paintings and performances. She describes her installation as a study of the boundary between self and others through the medium of artistic expressions of the "inner self" of an individual created by oneself.
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| Osaka Seikei University Graduate Exhibition |
| 18 - 22 February 2009 |
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
(Kyoto) |
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| In this group show by graduates of the art department of Osaka Seikei University, one standout is a work by Korean student Lim Jae-Kyoung. Across eleven large CG prints, two girls in traditional Korean dress play amid dancing cherry blossoms and butterflies, with pink paper petals scattered across the gallery floor. Yet the mood is not that of spring, but of a clear, cold winter day -- accenting the evanescence of the scene. |
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| Makoto Ofune: Principle |
| 17 February - 1 March 2009 |
neutron
(Kyoto) |
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| A painting covers the facing wall where you enter, while a large semicircular work seems to leap out from the wall to the left. Three smaller paintings hang above. Created with natural mineral pigments, these dark, distinctive works seem to sink into the recesses of the dimly lit gallery. As you view them first from a distance, then close-up, you feel yourself turning into another object in that dark space. |
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| Yumiko Morisue: turning right in weightlessness |
| 24 February - 19 March 2009 |
Gallery Hosokawa
(Osaka) |
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| Featuring old and new works by Morisue, this show includes installations of old torn books, series of condiment jars, and plaster bandages layered with silkscreens. Ripping, shredding, and overturning the surfaces of everyday objects, Morisue challenges our perceptions of reality, but with a delicate and craftsmanlike touch. |
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