Art Space Tokyo: An intimate guide to the Tokyo art world

DECEMBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP

Posted by Ashley Rawlings on Wednesday, January 7th 2009

Tokyo Art Beat’s of the month was “Towards an Open Source Urbanism”, Dominick Chen’s examination of how the virtual urban environment relates to the physical city in Tokyo.

On Tokyo Art Beat, I published the first part of “The Year in Art 2008”, my round up of the key exhibitions and events that shaped the Tokyo art scene this year.

Similarly, RealTokyo offers its highlights of 2008.

In December, the Japan Times published an article questioning whether or not the Chinese art bubble has burst and how this may be shifting more attention onto Japanese contemporary art.

Unfortunately, one bubble that burst in December was PingMag, which fell victim to the global economic downturn and has suspended its activities for the forseeable future. Its last article was an interview
with artist Ryu Itadani.

Exhibition reviews for this month included:

• Bruce Conner at Miyake Fine Art [TAB]

• Michael Borremans at Gallery Koyanagi [TAB]

• Mika Ninagawa at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery [TAB]

• “Chalo! India — A New Era in Indian Contemporary Art” at Mori Art Museum [Japan Times]

• Andrew Wyeth at the Bunkamura Museum of Art [Metropolis]

• Leonard Foujita at the Ueno Royal Museum [Metropolis]

And your Murakami Moment of the Month: A little bundle of Superflat let loose at Art Basel Miami Beach.