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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 July 2012
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Yasue Kodama x Tetsuji Nakanishi: Yurameki Tokeyuku (Flicker and Melt)
16 June - 13 July 2012
Kyoto Art Center
(Kyoto)
In this fourth installment of Kyoto Art Center's New Incubation series, veteran artist Kodama is paired with newcomer Nakanishi, who graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts last year. Whereas Kodama's paintings exude a powerful presence from a state of tranquil quietude, Nakanishi's stand out for their bold strokes, vivid colors and thick textures. Two contrasting approaches to painting, but both artists share a determination to extract a spirit that flickers in some deep place.

Yodogawa Technique: Can't wait to be trash
16 June - 8 July 2012
Art Zone
(Kyoto)
Yodogawa Technique is a two-man art unit, consisting of Kazuya Matsunaga and Hideaki Shibata, who make art out of the flotsam and jetsam they pick up along the banks of the big muddy Yodo River, which flows through Osaka. Producing both exhibitions and participatory events, they scrutinize the reality of trash as object as well as process. This show, which includes several workshops, encourages visitors and participants to contemplate the relationship between garbage and our lifestyles.
Kawauchi Rinko: Illuminance, Ametsuchi, Seeing Shadow
12 May - 16 July 2012
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
(Tokyo)
This full-scale exhibition of Kawauchi's photography, her first such show in Tokyo, introduces both past and present work in several sections. "Illuminance" revisits her past, as summarized from previous series like "Utatane," "Cui Cui," and "AILA." Though it is a brilliantly edited and installed retrospective, one's interest naturally gravitates to her latest work, exemplified by the "Ametsuchi" and "Seeing Shadow" series. "Ametsuchi" literally means Heaven and Earth, and indeed, Kawauchi focuses her large-format camera unswervingly on the boundary between the two, capturing images that evoke a primordial world of myths and spirits.
Jomonese

24 April - 1 July 2012
National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
(Tokyo)
Nominally a photo exhibition but more of an archeological presentation, "Jomonese" is about the people of the Jomon period, an era that began around 15,000 years ago and lasted for over 10,000 years. Increasingly viewed by scholars and the public as the oldest culture that might be termed Japanese, the Jomon is enjoying a bit of a boom these days. The centerpieces of this show are the remains of Wakaumi Shellmound Man, whose skeleton was found in Ibaraki Prefecture northeast of Tokyo, and of Usu-Moshiri Woman, who was unearthed in Hokkaido.
Takashi Yasumura: 1/1

13 May - 10 June 2012
Misako & Rosen
(Tokyo)
In the decade since his debut as a photographic artist, Yasumura has tirelessly explored the diversity of perspectives achievable through the camera lens. The fruits of his most recent labors are seen in this exhibition of 11 new works. The images suggest a concern with color fields above all else: red, green, blue or black elements -- sections of a wall, or a stairway, or a pillar -- form abstract patterns stripped of context. Yasumura states that the title "1/1" refers to the relationship between reality and its representation.
Natsuko Tanaka Solo Exhibition

8 - 13 May 2012
Art Space Niji
(Kyoto)
Tableaux of female figures with flower vases or pitchers overflowing with water line the wall. The motifs apparently reflect Tanaka's response to the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, but these are not images of despair; many are in fact full of humor. Compared to her previous works, these seem more complex and elaborate in materials and technique. But they are also thrillingly expressive. One senses some sort of change in the artist's own thought process, one that bodes well for her work to come.
Best Selection 2012

4 - 27 May 2012
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
(Tokyo)
Recently reopened after a period of renovation, Ueno Park's Tokyo Metropolitan launched its new season with a retrospective of pieces selected from among the many art association exhibitions it has hosted in the past. The Metropolitan's long history with these associations makes this a somewhat curious concept. The art groups have always been the museum's bread and butter, but over the past two or three decades they have lost their clout in the Japanese art world and have come to be viewed as little more than cash cows or necessary evils. Yet now the Metropolitan seems to be attempting to position itself as a patron to its patrons, assuming the mantle of leadership in an effort to quell the internecine disputes among these associations of late.

Hiromi Tsuchida: Berlin

9 - 22 May 2012
Ginza Nikon Salon
(Tokyo)
This series is typical of veteran photographer Tsuchida's work in its overt highlighting of dichotomies. He shot these scenes of Berlin over three periods: 1983, 1999-2000, and 2009; using both monochrome and color, he mixes snapshots of architectural structures with those of people on the streets. These disparate motifs and approaches seem to be shuffled together at random, producing an exhibition that gives an impression of disorganization, but also seems an honest reflection of Tsuchida's current worldview. The series is by no means complete, and the fact that there are no clues as to what future permutations Tsuchida will indulge in depicting Berlin, or any other city, make the evolution of his work all the more intriguing.

Masamitsu Katsu Solo Exhibition

10 - 15 May 2012
Gallery 301
(Hyogo)
Curated by Kobe University's Minami Hashimoto, this solo show of works by an artist based in Beppu, Kyushu -- at the other end of the Seto Inland Sea from Kobe -- was subtitled "Masamitsu Katsu came to Kobe from Beppu by boat." The gallery was filled with Katsu's works in pencil -- his medium of choice -- including many drawn during a recent period of residence in Kobe. Close scrutiny of each work reveals an artist of acute sensibilities and powers of observation.
Toshimasa Kikuchi: Neo Authentic
8 - 26 May 2012
Megumi Ogita Gallery
(Tokyo)
Kikuchi sculpts archetypal, organic forms in wood, ranging from a skull to a ship's hull, as well as precisely carved mathematical models of geometric figures in three dimensions, somewhat reminiscent of Hiroshi Sugimoto's work with such motifs. The artist, a graduate of the Conservation Course Sculpture Laboratory at Tokyo University of the Arts, currently works at the University Museum of the University of Tokyo, in whose collection he says he found the motifs for this series. The intricacy of his technique, further augmented by his curatorial bent, is nothing short of sublime. It is all the more impressive that Kikuchi channels his protean interests through the very basic medium of wood.
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