Tag - art-gallery

 
 

ART GALLERY

Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 4, 2020
Saitama gallery raises money online to share iconic A-bomb paintings worldwide
The work of Iri and Toshi Maruki depicts the aftermath of the August 1945 bombings along with other aspects of World War II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2020
Japan’s art institutions struggle to cope with the COVID-19 crisis
Since the quarantine of the Diamond Princess, Japan has gone from being one of the world’s most at-risk countries to lucky outlier, to being again fearful of COVID-19 getting out of control.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 15, 2018
Tokyo art space battles against the current
Repurposing old buildings to show art is becoming increasingly mainstream in Japan, but the route by which Koichiro Osaka ended up creating the Asakusa gallery has been circuitous, and an odd mix of chance and determination.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2018
Tomoo Gokita: Exposing the underbelly of pop culture
Tomoo Gokita's deformations of his subjects are surrealistic with a precision mix of austere black, white and grays, low-brow culture imagery, kookiness and powerfully evocative draftsmanship.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2017
Painting between the lines
The pairing of Hideki Kimura's prints with the seemingly sculptural assemblages of Sadaharu Horio is perhaps unexpected. What draws them together, however, are conceptions of their practices as painting. Both veterans of Japan's contemporary art scene, they pursue painting by other means, working within self-imposed limitations that engage conventions across art genres in alluring small-scale works.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 28, 2017
The tortured artist is not just a cliche
Sai Hashizume's latest exhibition of precision realist painting, "This Isn't Happiness," is about updating some of the masters of Western art history. In her five new works, she deals prominently with the surrealist Rene Magritte and Vincent Van Gogh. She also adopts the ominous chiaroscuro of 17th-century Baroque painting, as well as some often darkly symbolic references from 17th-century Dutch still-life painting. Her themes are known, but remain enigmatic. As the title of the exhibition indicates, they are not altogether rosy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2016
Fujiwara wants the dirt to stick
White often seems to be used in contemporary art in Japan as a kind of short cut to signify "beauty," "purity" or "spirituality." Simon Fujiwara's show "White Day" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is, as the title suggests, overwhelmingly white, but it's designed not to stay that way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2015
Seduced by the Undercover labyrinth
It's undeniable that when designer Jun Takahashi founded Undercover — which celebrates its 25th anniversary with its first retrospective at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery — he was strongly influenced by the pioneers of deconstruction fashion Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. His first few collections from 1994-99 exhibit the unmistakable muted tones, raw edges and asymmetry that his mentors famously used to eulogize imperfections in the 1980s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 13, 2015
Usugrow feels the art of skulls in his bones
With shows four times a year, Diesel Art Gallery in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward is one of the best free art venues in Tokyo and is well worth checking out. Located in the basement of the clothes brand shop, it puts on consistently good shows that steer clear of the pretentiousness of more "artsy" venues, while remaining edgy in the way that shop-supported art spaces are seldom comfortable with.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 8, 2015
Pure landscape photography
The exhibition "Stream of Consciousness" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is an extremely successful representation of contemporary Japanese photographic art. It combines some of the salient aspects of Japanese culture with the aesthetically formal, yet emotive imagery that is indicative of what gives photography in Japan its particular flavor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2014
Sculpting the uncanny space between permanence and evanescence
Sculpture is supposedly the most solid and permanent of the creative arts, so it is a paradox that an artist like Junichi Mori — whose work often focuses on impermanence and evanescence — has chosen to work in this style, using materials like marble and wood, instead of something more fleeting and tenuous such as spider's webs or dandelion fluff.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2014
Nothing goes out of fashion quite like the future
Vincent Fournier's exhibition at the Diesel Art Gallery shows a love and fascination with technology, but it is not a straightforward adoration. The French photographer combines this with an impish sense of humor and also brings a sociologist's view to his subjects, which are portrayed with luscious precision.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2014
'Field Reflection'
For this show, "field" is not simply a geographical space; here it refers to a delicate composition of nature, weather and people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2014
Hiraki Sawa’s dream world: Worth the pause for thought
Sometimes it can be irritating visiting an exhibition of video-based art. You come in halfway through one of the videos or near the end of another, and you feel that you've missed something and wonder if you should stick around to watch it from the start.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2013
Japanese collectors take a conceptual turn
Echoing the choice of Koki Tanaka — a conceptual artist — for the Japanese pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale this year, "Why Not Live For Art? II: 9 collectors reveal their treasures" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery suggests that art collecting in Japan has taken a conceptual turn.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2013
'Why Not Live for Art? II: 9 Collectors Reveal Their Treasures'
First held in 2004, this exhibition is the second by Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery to present works owned by individual collectors. In the past 10 years, art collecting has become more common and the network between collectors has expanded. As the gallery revisits the world of private acquisitions, it also reflects on how art collection has changed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2013
The humor of candid camera
With the advent of the digital camera, mobile phones and social networking, the world is now drowning in photographic imagery. This raises the question: Can photography survive as an art form in a world where it is ubiquitous?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Mar 19, 2010
Curator Shihoko Iida reveals lessons learned from stint at foreign museum
Japan's art world is occasionally compared to the Galapagos Islands — and not just because it is inhabited by some curious creatures; sorry, I mean artists.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
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