Once a year, Tokyoites have the opportunity to see some of the best contemporary painting and photography from across Japan in one location, the Ueno Royal Museum.
The Vision of Contemporary Art exhibitions have been running since 1994, with the financial support of the Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co., which buys the winning works for display in its headquarters building. This year, as usual, VOCA comprises two-dimensional work by artists under 40 selected by a cross section of Japan's leading curators and critics.
There are 33 young painters and photographers represented at VOCA 2001, and one of the strong points of the show is that they hail from all over Japan. As such, there is always the possibility that the show might bring to the public eye an exciting talent previously hidden somewhere up among the mountains of Aomori or the dunes of Tottori.