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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. |
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| Minako Nishiyama and Toshihiro Komatsu: On the Exhibition Room |
| 28 March - 18 April 2015 |
CAS (Contemporary Art and Spirits)
(Osaka) |
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| An experiment by the two artists in using the camera to create photographic illusions, and wall paintings to create painterly illusions, that foreground the gallery space itself rather than the works contained therein. Hence the title of the show, which is indeed "on" more than "in" the exhibition room. |
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| Koji Onaka: Umimachi |
| 17 April - 30 May 2015 |
Zeit-Foto Salon
(Tokyo) |
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| Onaka shot his Umimachi ("Seaside Towns") series in the 1990s during trips to the Pacific coasts of Aomori, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures in northern Honshu. Many of the neighborhoods he photographed were inundated and destroyed in 2011 by the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake. The damp air of these harbor streets clings to the skin of the viewer. |
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| Yuki Moriya: gone the mountain / turn up the stone |
| 14 - 26 April 2015 |
Gallery PARC
(Kyoto) |
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| In this spatial arrangement of multiple photographs and 3D objects, a chain reaction of "mountain" images emanates from the Matterhorn as a point of origin. As it fluctuates between acquisition of meaning and its loss, Moriya's installation challenges us to confront discrepancies in memory and perception. This is an intrepid artist who has generated a magnetic field of diffracting images that highlight the inherent ambiguity and capriciousness of photographic imagery. |
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| Nobuyoshi Araki: Men -- Naked Face by Araki |
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24 April - 6 May 2015 |
Omotesando Hills, Space O
(Tokyo) |
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| Truly the veteran photographer's magnum opus, this series of "naked faces" of 210 Japanese men was shot over a period of 17 years. The first was of the comedian Beat Takeshi, snapped on February 25, 1997; the final one, taken on December 19, 2014, is of the same individual, now known as filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. Araki's subjects exude a peculiar energy, a pronounced tension not ordinarily seen in such portraits. |
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| Yuichi Hibi: Salt of the Earth |
| 18 April - 23 May 2015 |
Tokyo Gallery + Beijing Tokyo Art Projects
(Tokyo) |
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| A Japan-born, New York-based actor and filmmaker, Hibi began studying photography in the 1990s and has since published numerous collections of his camerawork. He shot his "Salt of the Earth" series on the southern island of Amami Oshima in 1992, and it is evident that by this point his response to his subjects had already acquired a distinct physicality. |
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| Measuring: This Much, That Much, How Much? |
| 20 February - 31 May 2015 |
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT
(Tokyo) |
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| An idiosyncratic but edifying show whose motifs are units of measurement -- of length, weight, time, and so on. Offering firsthand experiences and familiar objects for comparison, the emphasis is on ease of comprehension for visitors of all ages. For example, the volume of sake contained in a one-to (about 18 liters) barrel is much easier to envision when one sees 100 small sake bottles and 500 even smaller cups lined up alongside it. |
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Arika Someya: Table Canon + Drawings |
20 March - 25 April 2015 |
Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
(Tokyo) |
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| Someya does her unique paintings on bleached velvet, often dividing the picture plane into upper and lower halves with symmetrical decorative patterns or geometric images. The bleaching gives the velvet a yellowish tinge, the gradations of which contribute to the overall composition. The artist says that she takes her inspiration from the color charts of Gerhard Richter. |
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| Asako Narahashi: biwako2014-15 |
| 15 - 26 April 2015 |
galleryMain
(Kyoto) |
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| These pictures were all taken while the photographer and her camera were half-submerged in Lake Biwa, so the view is half water, half shore or sky. By relinquishing control and letting her body drift with the lake's gentle waves, Narahashi gets images devoid of a clearcut horizon, where the boundary between water and land, liquid and solid, the natural and the artificial wavers and blurs, and even one's sense of distance is distorted. |
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| In Praise of Nara: Nara and Modern Japanese Art Found by Okakura Tenshin and Fenollosa |
| 11 April - 24 May 2015 |
Nara Prefectural Museum of Art
(Nara) |
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| A survey conducted in early Meiji-era (1868-1912) Japan by the American art critic and scholar Ernest Fenollosa and his protege Tenshin Okakura reaffirmed the value of Nara's cultural properties, which include the treasures in the Shosoin Imperial Storehouse and other priceless works of Buddhist art. This show introduces over 100 paintings, sculptures, and craftworks, as well as copies, replicas and sketches of Buddhist paintings by such artists as Hogai Kano and Taikan Yokoyama, who drew their inspiration from Nara's trove. |
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