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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.
1 June 2009
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picks
Questions of Private and Public Memory: 1968 and The Holocaust
11 April - 17 May 2009
Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya
(Tokyo)
Artists of two recent residencies share results in a joint show. U.S.-based Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry's "Indelible Image" examines the Japanese student protests of 1968, their skewed and blurred silkscreen photo prints evoking the fading of memory. Germany-based British-Israeli photographer Yishay Garbasz's "In My Mother's Footsteps" traces the experiences of her mother, a Holocaust survivor.
picks
Masashi Asada: Asada-ke, Aka-aka, Aka-chan
16 April - 17 May 2009
AKAAKA
(Tokyo)
Winner of this year's Ihei Kimura Award, Asada is known for photos of his entire family engaged in roleplay. This show includes a promising new series featuring other families besides his own. Asada's staged shots of the household as rock band, baseball team, or wedding party are charmingly irreverent, but also betray a touch of cynicism about the state of the Japanese family today.
picks
Gyoko Yoshida -- Seeing in the night: the dawn of meaning
25 March - 18 April 2009
Tokyo Gallery + BTAP
(Tokyo)
Yoshida has dedicated herself to exploring "Japanese painting" as a theme, but she does her work on old folding screens or fluorescent plastic sheeting in gaudy colors unheard of in traditional Nihonga. Some of her most interesting work seems closer to graffiti than to painting.
picks
Rena Masuyama: Neo-Shunga -- Ishtar Fundamentalism
13 - 25 April 2009
Ginza Art & Concept Laboratory
(Tokyo)

The multitalented Masuyama paints, writes, and hosts antiwar performance pieces. Here she exhibits a series of paintings in which she channels Ishtar, the ancient Babylonian goddess of sex, in an update of the Shunga genre of erotic prints on handmade paper scrolls. Masuyama's style may appear slapdash to some, but her commitment to her own muse is undeniable.
picks
Tsubaki-kai Exhibition 2009: Trans-Figurative
7 April - 21 June 2009
Shiseido Gallery
(Tokyo)

Tsubaki-kai is a group exhibition held at Shiseido Gallery (now celebrating its 90th year) since 1947. The works by this year's artists are meticulously segregated -- Masanori Sukenari's sculptures in the basement, Yasuko Iba and Naofumi Maruyama's disparate paintings in the main gallery, and Chiharu Shiota's installation of strands of yarn in a back room. One yearns for a bit more interaction, even friction, among them.
picks
Sayaka Ono: Carry the Prayers of Ants to Heaven
10 - 19 April 2009
Café & Gallery Rihou
(Kyoto)

Known previously for delicate portraits of her grandmother, Ono here moves in a different direction with quiet, simple works using just a few motifs -- trees, the moon, ants. They go nicely with the homey ambience of the gallery, a plain room in a traditional Kyoto house, with the wind rustling the curtain through an open window.
picks
Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History
14 April - 7 June 2009
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
(Osaka)

This ambitious show combines works by the renowned photographer with art that has inspired him. The modern art section in particular reveals Sugimoto's playful side, notably the juxtaposition of his "Lightning Fields" series with Duchamp's "Large Glass." Surrounding the viewer with smoke and lightning flashes, Sugimoto clearly revels in playing the mad scientist.
picks
Dualism: First Contact by Kaai Ogaya
13 - 25 April 2009
Osaka Seikei University, Space B
(Osaka)

This student-curated show introduces the strikingly mature work of Kaai Ogaya, a sophomore at the host university. Ogaya immediately sets the tone by providing a water tank full of soft plastic beads for visitors to dip their hands in upon arrival. Her installation, which includes paintings, sculptures, and photographs on the theme of the duality of reason and instinct, exudes a dignity beyond her years.
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L'enfant dans les collections du musée du Louvre
25 March - 1 June 2009
The National Art Center, Tokyo
 (Tokyo)

Two hundred works of various eras and genres from the collection of the Louvre, all with children as their subject. Inevitably there is a preponderance of Madonna-and-Child images, but also a child's mummy and children's toys. For some reason the specter of death looms large throughout; perhaps death is such a dominant presence in art that it intrudes even into these images of young life.
picks
Ground Zero: Perspectives of Young Chinese Photographers
25 April - 28 June 2009
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
(Beijing)

Opened in Beijing's Caochangdi art district in 2007, the Three Shadows Centre is the first gallery in China dedicated to photo and video art. A photography award inaugurated this year attracted widespread interest and 300 entrants; this show displays the work of the 31 finalists. Grand prizewinner A'dou submitted "Samalada," a stunning series in black and white about a Sichuan ethnic minority.
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