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

NOVEMBER ARTICLE ROUND-UP

Posted by Ashley Rawlings on Friday, December 5th 2008

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]