Wedged between a park, a cement factory and a taxi station, the Kiyosumi gallery complex is Tokyo's largest, both in space and influence. Its perch atop a warehouse is arguably ideal for observing the directions contemporary art takes in Japan. Yet, despite so many heavyweights being under one roof, it's surprisingly rare to walk away enthusing about more than one exhibition.
This month is a pleasing exception. Jeremy Dickinson's paintings at Tomio Koyama's seventh-floor space (www.tomio koyamagallery.com) show a confident colorist at play. Whether stacked to precarious heights or shelved between Tetrislike blocks, Dickenson renders in well-matched hues the toy buses, trucks and roadsters of his childhood with obsessive accuracy — right down to their chipped and sun-faded paint jobs. One floor down, photographer Nobuhiro Fukui's urban nightscapes emphasize the geometric patterns city-dwellers often overlook. Fukui places images of different locations together to create a familiarity — and depth — that is both pleasing and unnerving.
Down on the fifth floor, Lisa Ruyter's cutout-style paintings and murals fill the Taka Ishii gallery (www.takaishiigallery.com). Ruyter re-creates scenes from a concert, focusing not on performers but the cell phones and digital cameras capturing them. Tonal gradation is stripped away, replaced by garish color schemes, a comment on this captured "reality."