HOME > PICKS
Picks :

Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering commentary by a variety of reviewers about exhibitions at museums and galleries in recent weeks, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists.
2 May 2012
| 1 | 2 |
Masao Horino: Vision of the Modernist
6 March - 6 May 2012
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo)
Horino (1907-98) was arguably Japan's first truly "professional" photographer, an artisan who devoted himself full-time to the medium. With over 200 works on display, this show testifies to his acute eye for subject and composition, his superlative developing and printing technique, and his layout and design skills as well. It is also an opportunity to see the fruits of the exhaustive efforts by the museum's crack team of researchers, led by Ryuichi Kaneko, to track down many long-forgotten or missing links in Horino's oeuvre. Indeed, the exhibition represents a significant milestone in Japanese photographic history.

The Church Architecture of Yosuke Tetsukawa: A Visit to Goto Retto
8 March - 26 May 2012
LIXIL Gallery 1
(Tokyo)
The resurgence of Christianity in Japan in the Meiji era, after 260 years of suppression, was nowhere more dramatic than in Kyushu, and particularly on the Goto Islands off its northwest coast, where many Catholics had fled to escape the Shogunate's wrath. Of the 50 churches still standing on the islands, over 20 were designed and built during the early part of the 20th century by native son Tetsukawa (1879-1976), who indulged in a diverse palette of architectural styles as well as materials -- wood, brick, and ferroconcrete. These lovely and distinctive edifices are captured on film by photographer Chieko Shiraishi.
Nobuyoshi Araki Photobook Exhibition: Arākī
11 March - 29 July 2012
Izu Photo Museum
(Shizuoka)
During his long and provocative career, Araki has published over 400 photography books -- some kind of world record. This ambitious show displays them all, as well as such treats as a giant portfolio presentation of Satchin and His Brother Mabo (1963), his entire Arakinema slideshow series, and his latest opus, a response to the March 11 disaster titled '11.3.11. "Ara¯ki¯," incidentally, is a play on the photographer's name and the Japanese pronunciation of "anarchy."
Hiroshi Sugimoto: From naked to clothed

31 March - 1 July 2012
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
(Tokyo)
Protean artist Sugimoto's current outing revolves around clothing. The centerpiece is his Stylized Sculpture series of photos of the fashions of such luminaries as Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Rei Kawakubo. Not content with this, however, Sugimoto throws in past photo series and items from his personal art collection to round out what is ostensibly a retrospective look at the entire panoply of human civilization, viewed through the prism of dress -- or lack of it.
Morikazu Kumagai: Infinite World in a Small Frame

14 April - 27 May 2012
Itami City Museum of Art
(Hyogo)
Kumagai (1880-1977) painted vividly colored, sharply outlined portraits of plants, insects, cats, and birds. Extending from his best-known works to some that were only recently unearthed, this ambitious show brings together 144 oils, 26 Nihonga paintings, and ten works of calligraphy. Kumagai painted most of his oils on 24 x 33 cm canvases, but as the subtitle suggests, those modest dimensions encompass entire worlds. The retrospective adds up to an in-depth portrait of an artist who, throughout his seven-decade career, faithfully adhered to what became known as the "Morikazu Style."
Tomio Seike: Overlook

2 March - 28 April 2012
Photo Gallery International
(Tokyo)
Seike's photography has earned him more acclaim in the West than in his homeland. In a departure from his past devotion to monochrome prints, these new works are inkjet-printed color images shot with a digital camera. As the title hints, this is a series of views overlooking the sea from a somewhat elevated perspective. True to Seike's reputation to date, the compositions are technically superb in execution and sublimely tranquil in mood.
Naoki Ishikawa: Grass will grow thick in the place where I am before long

29 February - 6 March 2012
Ginza Nikon Salon
(Tokyo)
This past February and March, Nikon Salon rotated a series of events titled "Remembrance 3.11" through its Ginza, Shinjuku and Osaka galleries. The eight photo exhibitions and five symposiums shared an expressed aim of "reflecting on the meaning of catastrophe from diverse perspectives." The first show featured the work of Ishikawa, who began his trek through the disaster area the day after the tsunami, working his way south from Hachinohe through the coastal communities of Iwate and filming the devastation in its most irredeemably raw state.

Keiko Sasaoka: Difference 3.11

7 - 13 March 2012
Ginza Nikon Salon
(Tokyo)
Sasaoka's show was the second in Nikon Salon's "Remembrance 3.11" series. Having shot a feature on the city of Rikuzen-Takata in April 2010, she returned there after the tsunami and visited numerous other coastal communities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima as well. A native of Hiroshima, Sasaoka says that what she saw inevitably brought to mind images of her hometown immediately after the dropping of the atomic bomb. As her title suggests, however, the works in this series also make a point of highlighting the differences among these various tsunami-devastated areas, the commonality of their tragedy notwithstanding.

Masao Gozu: Windows

9 March - 7 April 2012
Koki Arts
(Tokyo)
Gozu graduated from Toyo Art School in 1970, then moved to New York City the following year, and has based himself there ever since. As an outsider, Gozu no doubt found the windows of New York literally and figuratively shut to him at first; one can imagine the thrill he felt whenever he was able to capture people behind those apertures in the act of opening them and peering out. His ongoing fascination with windows and facades has produced a unique oeuvre that exudes a positive feeling of heart-to-heart communication with the residents of his adopted hometown.
Yuichi Hirako: Garden Memories, Unseen Forest
1 - 29 March 2012
LIXIL Gallery 2
(Tokyo)
Hirako paints scenes of dense, luxuriant woods against a black background. Human figures abound in his work, but all of them are part flora, with trees for heads. There is something phantasmagoric and fairytale-like about these paintings, but it is Hirako's exquisite color sense and his delicate but sure touch that make them such a pleasure to look at. Augmenting the whimsical vibe in the gallery are his sculptures of plant-people made of clay and perched upon actual tree stumps.
| 1 | 2 |