author

 
 

Meta

Shinya Watanabe
For Shinya Watanabe's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 18, 2011
Yokohama Triennale rewards leisurely visit
Yokohama Triennale 2011, the fourth installment of this large-scale art event, differs from its predecessors in that it is being held primarily in a venue designed for showing art — the Yokohama Museum of Art. This has allowed the curators — the director general, Eriko Osaka, and the artistic director, Akiko Miki — to exhibit masterpieces from the museum's collection alongside works of contemporary art from around the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 15, 2011
There are oppositions that attract
Japan's limited progress at Tohoku's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after damage from the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami makes the March opening of this Taro Okamoto exhibition seem apocalyptic. Okamoto's unique avant-garde style was deeply influenced by the West. He found contradictions in the Western idea of "progress," which included nuclear technology, and this became the driving force of his artistic re-discovery of the notion of "Japan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 21, 2011
'Aki Sasamoto: Strange Attractors'
Take Ninagawa
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 31, 2010
Japanese art has come a long way: a curator's top five 2010 exhibitions
This year's art scene was largely dominated by two new major events, the Aichi Triennale and the Setouchi International Art Festival, both of which not only utilized gallery space, but showed a large number of works outside of the "white cube." They indicated a trend in Japan of art tourism merging with the stimulation of local economies, something that in today's economic climate, appears to have proved successful.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on