News, Reviews, Reports
NOVEMBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP
With the Yokohama Triennale having come to a close on November 30, Tokyo Art Beat concluded its coverage with a review of Pedro Reyes’ Baby Marx on display at the shinko pier, and Artscape reported on the nearby Koganecho Bazaar.
November was a big month for Tokyo’s design community, with Design Week Tokyo 2008 dominating the Aoyama area and other locations around Tokyo. PingMag picked out its highlights; Tokyo Art Beat reviewed the week’s two major events “100% Tokyo” and “Design Tide”, as well as the Good Design Exhibition held at Tokyo Midtown Design Hub.
A low key, but historically significant event that took place this month was the recreation of Nobuo Sekine’s Phase — Mother Earth, last seen in Kobe in 1968; its 2008 reincarnation was documented in a TAB photo report.
In his monthly “Out of Tokyo” column at Realtokyo, Tetsuya Ozaki covered the fallout surrounding artist group Chim↑Pom’s atom bomb-inspired “Pika” performance in Hiroshima last month.
Similarly headline-grabbing was world-famous animator Hayao Miyazaki’s criticism of Prime Minister Taro Aso, who he derided as “an embarrassment.”
Also in animation-related news was Takashi Murakami’s decision to open an animation studio in Los Angeles.
Other reviews this month:
• Hisashi Tenmyoya at Mizuma Art Gallery [Japan Times]
• Tomotaka Yasui at Megumi Ogita Gallery [Japan Times]
• Hideaki Shibata and Kazuya Matsunaga at Yukari Art Contemporary [Japan Times]
• Chikako Ikeguchi at the Shibuya Shoto Museum of Art [Japan Times]
• “Art of our Time” at the Ueno Royal Museum [TAB]
• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [TAB]
• Tadao Ando at Gallery Ma [TAB]
• “On Your Body” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography [TAB]
• Kazunari Sakamoto at the Tokyo Institute of Technology [Artscape]
• Sachigusa Yasuda at Base Gallery [ART iT]
Art Between Tokyo and New York
I just want to direct readers’ attention towards Johnny Strategy’s Spoon & Tomago (Spoon and Egg) blog. Ostensibly it covers ‘art, somewhere between New York and Tokyo’ but over the last six months, since I’ve started following it, the emphasis seems to be firmly planted on Japanese soil.
Mr. Strategy’s special editions sections, including Contemporary Japanese Architects and Japanese Industrial Designers 101, provide great jumping points for deeper exploration into these fields.
Spoon & Tomago offers a keen observational eye into a wide range of Japanese art, design and architecture — in other words, it’s a blog you should be reading.
Art Fair Tokyo announces its 2009 line up.
Known for its mixture of galleries that handle antique, modern and contemporary art, Art Fair Tokyo has announced that in 2009 it will feature more contemporary galleries.
Of the 113 participants, 105 are from Japan (mostly Tokyo), while 8 are international. 24 are classified as antique-dealing galleries, 49 as modern art galleries, and 40 as contemporary art galleries.
In a new development, next year will be the first time AFT features a secondary venue dedicated to young contemporary galleries that have been established in the last 5 years. Called Marunouchi Tokia (@TOKIA) there will be 29 participants, 19 of which are from Japan (mostly Tokyo) and 10 of which are international.
Although the complete list of participants has been announced in an email press release, at present the Art Fair Tokyo homepage does not show this information. Presumably it will be updated in due course.
Due to the previous uncertainty over the future of 101Tokyo, most of the Japanese galleries that participated in 101Tokyo 2008 have already joined Art Fair Tokyo’s Tokia annex. There are few commercial galleries of substance left in Tokyo, so it is likely that 101Tokyo will take on a different character next year.
Although 101Tokyo 2008 had a 50-50 balance of Japanese and international galleries, it is fair to assume at this stage that in 2009 it will reappear as a more internationally oriented fair.
101Tokyo 2009 Due to go Ahead
After a period of uncertainty hanging over its future, it appears that 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, which made a promising debut in 2008, is due to take place for the second time in April 2009.
The new team has as its Director, art consultant and writer Jason Jenkins, and as its Creative Director, Haruka Ito, independent curator and director of Magical Artroom. Show management is being conducted by the event production company Loufas Co. Ltd.
For more details of this initial announcement, visit the 101Tokyo homepage.
Tokyo and Osaka Galleries Open in Kyoto
Taka Ishii Gallery and Tomio Koyama Gallery are opening spaces in Kyoto. Located within walking distance of Kyoto Station, the new gallery building will open on November 20.
The second floor will be occupied by Taka Ishii Gallery, whose inaugural exhibition will be a solo show by Nobuya Hoki” (running until December 23) and Tomio Koyama Gallery, which will be holding a solo exhibition by Masahiko Kuwahara until December 27. On the first floor there will be a branch of Tomio Koyama’s TKG Editions, which sells limited edition artist multiples and prints, and from the new year, art editor Goto Shigeo (who is behind Tokyo’s G/P Gallery) will also run the Hanayacho Portfolio Room.
Opening reception for both galleries:
November 20 (Thursday) 18:00 - 20:00
Address: 483 Nishigawa-cho Shimogyo-ku Kyoto 600-8325
Tel: 03-5646-6050
Kyoto is reported to be home to an increasingly vibrant contemporary art scene with an aesthetic that differs notably from the work of Tokyo artists. As a common second stop for visitors to Tokyo, expanding into Kyoto makes sense for Tokyo galleries.
The Osaka-born Kodama Gallery, which also has a space in Tokyo, has relocated to the riverside area south of Kyoto Station, where they are currently holding an exhibition by Tomoki Kakitani.
Address: 67-2 Higashikujo Yanaginoshitacho, Minami-ku, Kyoto 601-8025
Tel: 075-693-4075
The Daiwa Foundation Art Prize
The Daiwa Foundation has announced a new art prize introducing British artists to Japan and offering one British artist a first solo show in Tokyo (in 2009). In addition to an exhibition, the winning artist will be given a period of support and introductions to key individuals and organisations in the Japanese contemporary art world.
Electric Stimulus Face Test
A random discovery on YouTube… Daito Manabe’s channel which documents an unusual experiment in performance, kinetic art and sound design.
OCTOBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP
Coverage of the Yokohama Triennale appears to have peaked this month, with a slew of reviews and interviews. Roger McDonald gives a fascinating critique from a curatorial point of view on his Tactical Museum blog.
PingMag offered a mini guide to the triennale, while Tokyo Art Beat published reviews of a number of works featured in the show, including Cao Fei’s Play with your Triennale, Matthew Barney’s Guardian of the Veil, and Cerith Wyn Evans and Throbbing Gristle’s A=P=A=R=I=T=I=O=N. The Japan Times also reported on Terence Koh’s White Bunny Parade.
For interviews with artists taking part in the triennale, see TAB’s video series that focused on Joan Jonas, Aki Sasamoto, and Andreas Stasta, an assistant to Hermann Nitsch.
Other reviews this month:
• Aida Makoto at Mizuma Art Gallery [Artscape]
• Tomoko Shioyasu at SCAI The Bathhouse [Artscape]
• Seiichi Yamashita at Gallery Bauhaus [Artscape]
• “Diorama of the City: Between Site and Space” at Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya [Japan Times]
• Noritoshi Hirakawa at Wako Works of Art and Nanzuka Underground [Japan Times]
• Joan Jonas at Wako Works of Art [Japan Times]
• “Avant-Garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art” at the National Art Center, Tokyo [Japan Times]
• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Japan Times]
• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Artforum.com]
• Yasuyuki Nishio at NADiff [TAB]
• GEISAI #11 [Art Newspaper]
More general articles that have appeared this month have included Tokyo Art Beat’s exploration of the Koganecho Bazaar in Yokohama, and its interview with Lieko Shiga, who was in last month’s “Trace Elements” exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, and is currently showing at in the “On Your Body” exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Meanwhile, the Japan Times looks at the Venice Architecture Biennale and touches on Junya Ishigami’s work there. They have also reported on the Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Auction; the Kunst Oktoberfest, a bus tour of several galleries in the Ginza and Nihonbashi areas; and the controversy that artist group Chim↑Pom recently caused in Hiroshima, which is then discussed in relation to Cai Guo Quiang’s work in Hiroshima at the art life blog.
ART iT takes a look at art works installed in the Tokachi Plain in central Hokkaido, while in his “Out of Tokyo” column at Realtokyo, Tetsuya Ozaki comments on Tsuyoshi Ozawa and Paramodel’s participation in the “Akasaka Art Flower” exhibition held at various sites in Akasaka, as well as the “Extended Senses: Present of Japanese / Korean Media Art” exhibition at the NTT ICC.
Shiftblog has interviewed Megumi Matsubara of the architectural unit “assistant”, while PingMag interviews Reno Camerota about Japan’s graffiti and street art. As October draws to a close, Tokyo Design Week begins, so as with their Yokohama Triennale coverage last month, PingMag have come up with an introductory guide followed by a more exhaustive list of what’s going on.
Lastly, because no month of Japanese art news would be complete without something from Mr Murakami, I leave you with Nylonmag’s report on the artist’s new series of limited edition Levi’s.
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Art Space Tokyo is a 272 page guide to the Tokyo art world published by Chin Music Press.
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