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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.
1 December 2014
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Legendary Houses in Postwar Japan: Provocative/Introspective
4 October - 7 December 2014
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
(Hiroshima)
The large exhibition space allows for total-immersion installations of huge photo-tapestries and 1/1 scale plans like the one for Takamitsu Azuma's Tower House (1966). The result is a show whose expressive power surpasses that of other architectural exhibitions. It is also content-rich, with many models accompanied by newly added documentation.
Takashi Homma: Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken I Phone
30 September - 30 October 2014
Post
(Tokyo)
Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass was a small art book published in 1968 by the avant-garde American artist Ed Ruscha. It consisted of photos in which Ruscha trained a cool eye on nine West Coast swimming pools. Here Homma has lifted Ruscha's concept intact and produced a book of exactly the same theme, size, and layout.
Yoshiichi Hara: Walk while ye have the light
27 September - 3 November 2014
Poetic Scape
(Tokyo)
Most of the images in this solo show by veteran photographer Hara have appeared in his photo books. Part of the seventies wave of "I-photography," he has adhered to that concept while shading it ever more deeply and accentuating the contrast between life (or sex) and death. This exhibition represents a quantum broadening of his exposure from the small galleries that have featured his work to date.
Naoko Sakokawa
30 September - 9 October 2014
Konica Minolta Plaza Gallery A
(Tokyo)
While managing Berg, the immensely popular café in the basement of Tokyo's mammoth Shinjuku Station, Sakokawa somehow found time to graduate from the Institute of Contemporary Photography in nearby Yotsuya. Since then she has published two photo collections: Hibakari (2004) and Shinjuku Cardboard Village (2013).
Teppei Kaneuji: Cubed Liquid, Metallic Memory
4 October - 3 November 2014
Kyoto Art Center
(Kyoto)

Linked to Kyoto's ongoing celebration of the 400th anniversary (more or less) of the Rimpa School of Japanese painting, Kaneuji's paintings and prints on acrylic or wooden boards resemble stage sets. The patterns they form are a product of the same unwavering eye and hand seen in all his work to date; the objects themselves are the essence of the work.
Koutarou Ushijima: how to make scene
3 -19 October 2014
Gallery PARC
(Kyoto)
Ushijima has been producing works made of "things" and "words" in his scene series since 2003. He embroiders enigmatic text messages on fabric or found objects, which he combines in tableaux that conjure up extremely ordinary scenarios from everyday life. This show was further augmented by a large number of intriguing small drawings.
Yoshihiro Tatsuki: Maze
3 October - 3 November 2014
B Gallery
(Tokyo)
A look at all 40 prints lining the gallery walls in this solo show revealed a vigorous, positive, downright joyous take on the act of "seeing." Though Tatsuki's themes and motifs are diverse, he seems consistently enchanted with human behavior, the more unconscious the better.

Yamagata Biennale 2014
20 September - 19 October 2014
Various locations in Yamagata City
(Yamagata)
Organized by the Tohoku University of Art and Design, this opening installment of a new biennale occupied six venues in the university's hometown of Yamagata. An inadequate map made it a challenge to locate the Kyu-Nishimura Shashinkan (Nishimura Photo Studio), but the modern architecture of the building itself made it worth the effort. Indeed, one happy by-product of the festival is its showcasing of this and other classic structures that grace the prefectural capital -- works of street art in their own right.
Kosai Hori Exhibition
18 October - 9 November 2014
Tama Art University Museum
(Tokyo)
For this retrospective Hori, a multifaceted artist who both studied and taught at Tama, reproduced installations and performances he created in the 1970s, including "I Reject Appreciation" from his campus struggle days. The exhibit then moved into the abstract-expressionist tableaux he switched to in the eighties; here the walls were covered with small objects and drawings as well as one or two large paintings.
hiyomi circle 5th THANKS Exhibition
15 October - 7 December 2014
kara-S
(Kyoto)
The Kyoto-based hiyomi circle is a group of four print artists who produce calendars together. Though the calendar is one of the most quotidian items imaginable, the notion of employing it as a framework for creative endeavors excites this reviewer for some reason. The four artists' solo works are also inspiring.
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