HOME > PICKS
Picks :

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 March 2011
| 1 | 2 |
Sirai -- Anima et Persona
8 January - 27 March 2011
Shiodome Museum / Rouault Gallery
(Tokyo)
This retrospective on renowned architect Seiichi Shirai (1905-83) covers his entire career, from houses to banks to public buildings and art museums. Most astounding of all, however, is his hand-drawn plan for the never-completed Genbakudo nuclear memorial. Conventional models do not do justice to Shirai's genius. If anything, his approach was the diametric opposite of today's reliance on models and computer-generated drawings. Shirai's work demonstrates the primacy of materials and ornamentation -- the nuances of space -- over layout. (For an in-depth review see this issue's Focus.)

GA JAPAN 2010
20 November 2010 - 23 January 2011
GA Gallery
(Tokyo)
The 19th installment of GA JAPAN, an exhibition of contemporary Japanese architects, presented new works by nine participants ranging from Arata Isozaki, born in the 1930s, to Sosuke Fujimoto, born in the 1970s. Yet only two of these structures are in Japan: Korea boasts three, China two -- an inadvertent testament to the decline in opportunities for creativity in public design in Japan. Though many have world-class reputations, Japanese architects appear to be without honor in their own land.
Saburo Aso
5 January - 20 February 2011
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
(Kyoto)
Saburo Aso (1913-2000) co-founded the New Painters' Group with colleagues Shunsuke Matsumoto and Chozaburo Inoue in the midst of World War II, and he continued to paint with courage and a gimlet eye on the human condition well into the postwar era. Ten years after his death, this retrospective consciously departs from the usual tendency to stress his wartime activities and his somber, murky style. Instead, it seeks to link Aso's work to present-day concerns, offering some 130 examples ranging from oils to sketches to sculptures, and covering his entire career from the 1930s on.
The New Snapshot

11 December 2010 - 6 February 2011
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo)
Subtitled Contemporary Japanese Photography, vol.9: Radiant Moments, this show introduced six snapshot artists: Hirohiko Ikeda, Yuji Obata, Satomi Shirai, Haruko Nakamura, Chikako Yamashiro, and Shigeo Yuki. This seemed to be an ideal venue for Nakamura's work in particular -- but in fact, the images by Yamashiro, Shirai, and Ikeda may more aptly deserve the appellation "new snapshot." Produced in Okinawa, New York, and Israel's Negev Desert respectively, these works prominently feature elements of performance art and theater. (For an in-depth review see this issue's Focus.)
Takehiko Nakafuji: Night Crawler 1995 2010

7 - 30 January 2011
Zen Foto Gallery
(Tokyo)
Night Crawler: Prowling the Fabricated City was for all intents and purposes photographer Nakafuji's debut exhibition when it opened at Shinjuku's Konica Plaza in 1995. But for the next 15 years, Nakafuji ceased his wanderings around Tokyo, instead expanding his geographical scope to include Eastern Europe, Russia, Cuba, and Shanghai. Finally, in 2010, he began shooting Tokyo again. This show brings his 1995 and 2010 works together in one setting.
The Avant-Garde of “Nihonga” 1938-1949

8 January - 13 February 2011
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
(Tokyo)
Despite the significant interruption of World War II, the period 1938-49 was one of unprecedented experimentation by Nihonga artists like the ones featured in this show. The overall impression, however, is of superficial attempts to add elements of abstraction or surrealism without challenging the Nihonga system or style in any fundamental way. Certainly the "avant-garde" efforts of these artists cannot be compared to the breakthroughs of their contemporaries, the abstract expressionists of the West. If indeed (to be charitable) this movement did trigger an upheaval in the Nihonga establishment, for the art world at large it was still no more than a tempest in a teapot.
Mika Kitamura+Yuki Watanabe: Two Sights Past

7 January - 21 February 2011
Gallery at lammfromm
(Tokyo)
For the past nine years, since they were classmates at Tokyo Polytechnic University, photographers Kitamura and Watanabe have continued their "Two Sights Past" project of shooting portraits of each other. After winning the Excellence Award at Canon's New Cosmos of Photography competition in 2006, they put the series on hiatus while they both got busy with individual projects. A joint show at a gallery in Budapest, Hungary in 2009 provided them with the impetus to begin taking pictures of each other again, this time on the road. The present exhibition introduces this new work.

Ayako Shiraishi

7 - 22 January 2011
Gallery Q
(Tokyo)
Lately Gallery Q has had a run of young women artists who excel at depicting female figures in somewhat melancholy circumstances. Shiraishi is no exception. In her circular paintings, against a floral background, women crouch or sleep in fetal position, usually in their underwear, with their clothing scattered across the floor. Their faces are cut out of the picture frame, or are hidden by their hair. The effect is to make the viewer feel like a voyeur peeping through a keyhole. The tattoo-like floral patterns on the women's thighs or shoulders add to the unsettled, almost lewd atmosphere.

Moeko Tawara

7 - 16 January 2011
O Gallery
(Tokyo)
Another up-and-coming young female artist, Tawara paints oils thick with color and powerful brushstrokes that are inspiring to behold. Her works are sort of a cross between Turner and Kansai artist Katsuo Tachi -- abstractions and landscapes rolled into one.
Nanako Nishida
7 - 16 January 2011
O Gallery UP/S
(Tokyo)
Yet another young discovery at O Gallery, Nishida paints oils of intriguing composition. What starts out looking like a figurative depiction of a corner of a Japanese-style room or garden suddenly metamorphoses into a hanging scroll or folding screen. This surrealistic touch is appealing in itself, but the real delights of her work are her somber palette and thick, woolly brushstrokes.
| 1 | 2 |