Wada Fine Arts
Closes in 9 days
If when you blink you enter a world between sleeping and waking, what would you find there if you added up all your blinks? Takafumi Tsuchiya's exhibition at Wada Fine Arts (web.mac.com/wadafinearts/) wants to answer that question. Inspired by Japanese mythology, Tsuchiya has tried to re-create what exists between the conscious and the subconscious.
Wada — formerly Gallery Iseyoshi in Ginza — is in a pleasant new location in Tsukiji, Tokyo overlooking a small park, which you can enjoy from shaded bench-seating outside. As you enter the gallery, the first piece on the left is a monocolor cutout of a mirror image of Japan. This is Tsuchiya's playground, which more cutouts and four large oil paintings explore. The paintings are the standouts — in one that refers to the Japanese myth about the rabbit in the moon (above), Tsuchiya has added fur at the bottom of the painting. On another wall are two symmetrical paintings made up of flowers that are reminiscent of American painter Georgia O'Keefe's sexually suggestive works. Tsuchiya says that he plans to return to the theme over the years, and the second, done this year, is a subtle improvement over one from 2005. It should be a pleasure to watch the series — and his other mysterious works — develop.
