"Lullaby" by Miwa Yanagi

"Lullaby," 2009, 12 minutes, edition of 5, image courtesy of the gallery

Kyoto-based photographer Miwa Yanagi is known for her series of images that examine actual and mythical female identities. Her heroines are devoid of commonplace anxiety of time-triggered decay; they only gain from aging that brings the long-sought liberation from their circumscribed societal roles. Yanagi's 2009 cycle of digital photographs "Windswept Women" was chosen to represent Japan at the 53rd Venice Biennale and generated quite a range of critical reactions. Last year she was also exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and at the National Museum of Art in Osaka. Her latest work is now on view at the Rat Hole Gallery gallery in Omotesando. The centerpiece of the eponymous show—a twelve-minute video "Lullaby" is in a dialogue with several of the artist's silver gelatin prints from the fairy tale series of 2004–2006.

I will follow-up with a link to the full review of the Rat Hole Gallery exhibition in the next few days.

Lucky Fortune: ZENSHI and Yuka Sashahara Share Gallery Space

Akiko Yanagimoto, Self-portrait Buddha, 2008, ceramics, 18 x 16 x 10.5 cm

This inaugural joint exhibition of several artists represented by ZENSHI and Yuka Sashahara opened last night at the old ZENSHI location. Its title—"Lucky Fortune"—references the auspicious events of the New Year, and the works in the show offer a range of light-hearted and playful ways to celebrate it.

Kosuke Ichikawa Review/Artforum

Installation view, © Kosuke Ichikawa / Courtesy of the artist and FOIL GALLERY, Tokyo

As promised, here is a link by my Artforum review of Ichikawa's "Murmur" show. The exhibition will be on view through February 6th at the Foil Gallery in Higashi-Kanda. When you visit the gallery do not forget to stop by Taro Nasu and gallery αM. Taro Nasu is closed until January 26 but will be reopened for a new Ryan Gandler's solo show.

If you want to watch an interview with the artist and see some of his earlier work please click here.

Clear your schedules: G-Tokyo at the Mori, 01.30–01.31

For two days only, on January 30th and 31st, the Mori Arts Center Gallery (Mori Tower, 52nd floor, Roppongi Hills, 6–10-1, Roppongi, Minato-ku) will be hosting an exhibition of contemporary art. Fifteen prime Tokyo galleries will contribute their artists' works, so this will be a excellent opportunity to witness what is happening on Tokyo gallery trail in a single day, in a single location. Unlike in the galleries themselves you will have to pay to see the art, but the line up should be well worth ¥1000 of entrance fee. The participating galleries are: ARATANIURANO, Gallery Koyanagi, Gallery SIDE2, hiromiyoshii, Kenji Taki Gallery,Kodama Gallery, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Mizuma Art Gallery, Ota Fine Arts,SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, ShugoArts, Taka Ishii Gallery, TARO NASU, Wako Works of Art, YAMAMOTO GENDAI. For more information in English go to the G-Tokyo webpage.

More New Year Exhibitions: Higashi Kanda

Jay Davis

False Woods, 2009,

8x10"

Acrylic on vinyl

Image courtesy of the Motus Fort gallery

Davis is one of over half a dozen artists in the group show "Drrreeeeaaaaammmmmsssssssszzzzz!!!!" at the Motus Fort gallery. His four paintings on view are done in multi-layered acrylic which plays up the translucent quality of the pigment, exposing plane upon plane of glaring lights. These appear to slide in and out of the foreground, emphasizing dreamscapes that are stabilized, at least in thee of the works, by a grid of tree trunks. Davis's pendant works Happy Boat (2009) and False Woods (2009) are separated by Dan Kopp's Tree Mover of the same year. Thematic and iconographic similarities among these (the artists, according to the dealer Jeffrey Chiedo, shared a studio) set the three works in a dialogue that continues to unfold in the space of the show. The other works in the exhibition range from photographs, to gouaches to 3D objects, are by Kenny Komer, David Kennedy Cutler, Joseph Ari Aloi, Annie Wharton, Mark Gibson, Alin Huma and Chris Jahncke.

View of "Metamorphsis-objects today: Vol.7 Kengo Kito" at αM gallery

Just around the corner, the αM gallery (a non-profit, managed by Musashino Art University) was showing a very peculiar installation by Kengo Kito. The whole space is upholstered in plaid fabrics of contrasting colors, and most of the walk about space held an assemblage of umbrellas and parasols of various elks. As I squeezed between one of the walls and an umbrella cluster I could not help but think of Anish Kapoor's current installation at the Guggenheim in New York. There, an imposing structure of Cor-Ten steel is placed so that in order to view (or experience) the piece one has to approach it from three separate vantage points accessible though three different galleries. The idea behind Kapoor's approach is making the viewer reconstruct the work in its entirety based on a sequence of views. Kito's piece, on the other hand, functions by way of simultaneous under and over stimulation as the tangibility of space is reduced by the same cloths that overwhelm the sense of vision. The exhibit, "Metamorphsis-objects today: Vol.7 Kengo Kito" is curated by Kazuo Amano of Toyota Municipal Museum of art.

Kosuke Ichikawa, "Murmur"

I will follow up this posting with a proper exhibition review, in the meanwhile, I strongly recommend you see Foil Gallery's latest show which features fifteen works by Kosuke Ichikawa (in the photo above). The artist works in an unusual medium of incense, pigmenting or burning designs onto the sheets of washi paper. The images on display contain his memories of the woods as seen in the dark, with only a flashlight lighting the way. According to the artist, this was the first time when the subject of his work was a living thing. Hence the title of the show—"Murmur,"—the sounds still circulating through the paper avatars of nocturnal forest.

Untitled, paper and incense, mounted on wood panel, 1050 x 1060 mm, detail

The works are finely presented, with the artist's latest creation (the image at the top) placed on the axis with the entrance, and another, a lush composition with endless shades of black—a focal point of the entrance space.

An absolute must see.

Kabutocho Nihonbashi Exibitions

Masao Kinoshita, Top: Yoga Asura, 2009, 62 cm(H), Painted stone clay; Bottom: 鳥獣戯画　兎,2009, 58cm (H), Painted Glassfiber. Image courtesy of the artist and the gallery

Unseal Contemporary and gallery Frantic, both located in 16–1 Kabutocho Nihonbashi, are holding two ostensibly different exhibitions that are still very much united by their shared focus on the grotesque. Unseal is showing Masao Kinoshita's painted glassfiber and stone clay sculpture where bodybuilding hares and frogs flex their outrageously ripped human bodies, while hybrids of man and beast meditate—their exposed muscle and cartilage poised and stretched out in attitudes of high yogic concentration. According to my colleague, a scholar of Buddhist art Eric Huntington: "The artist seems to be referencing both specific poses of human yogic practice and the multi-limbed and multi-faced deities well known in Hindu and Buddhist iconography. The title “Yoga Asura” probably refers to the Asuras, a class of supernatural beings typically at odds with the Devas, the “gods” of Hinduism who also appear as heavenly beings in Buddhism. Some view Asuras as nearly demonic, while others interpret them like the Greco-Roman Titans, who once had divine power but were overthrown by a new order." Perhaps, the sculpture of the muscle-flexing hare could then be referencing the Greco-Roman component of the power stand-off.

Shu Ohno, Incomparable Something, 2009, ink on paper panel, 24.3 x 33.5 cm. Image courtesy of the gallery.

One floor above, at Frantic, five young artists represented by the gallery (Aya Ohnishi, Haruki Ogawa, Naoki Sasayama, Ryoji Suzuki, Shu Ohno, Taisuke Mohri) are showing their latest drawings. The tamest of all are Ogawa's works—ripped and tinted paper, as thoroughly tactile as his paintings but without any of the oils' analytical baggage. Shu Ohno's nightmares of a "Huge Slug," attacking apartment buildings look quite surreal, but their placement in Paolo Veronese-like environments transforms their threat into pure pictorial fancy. Something similarly intricate happens in Aya Ohnishi's organic visions where tubular forms turn and twist their way into the oubliette doors of fantastic looking interiors. Then there are the baddies of Ryoji Suzuki, one particular character caught the attention of my seven-year old son by drinking, eating and smoking simultaneously, with smoke billowing out into a space helmet of a bubble around his head. Have fun looking!

New Tokyo Contemporaries 3

Starting January 26th (and though February 21) a group of young but important galleries known as the New Tokyo Contemporaries will hold a series of events and exhibitions related to the theme of contemporary culture and business. Among the participating galleries are: AOYAMA/MEGURO, ARATANIURANO, Take Ninagawa, ZENSHI, MISAKO & ROSEN and Yuka Sashahara Gallery. Lotte Lyon's exhibition at AOYAMA/MEGURO (see posting from January 11) is one of many exhibitions taking place as part of the NTC 3. Check NTC website for the complete list of events.

Openings: 1LDK x Lotte Lyon

Aoyama/Meguro gallery's opening reception for Lotte Lyon (in the foreground), was one of the busiest I have seen so far. The artist, now on the Austrian government residency fellowship in Japan, was showing a recent selection of photographs and drawings. The centerpiece of the installation is a plywood model—a prototype of an earlier exhibition venue scaled 1:2—with an overdrawing of a grid. Lyon's spatial investigations, uncomplicated as they seem at the first glance, have an unexpected depth to them both literally and figuratively. This is especially visible in a series of photographs showing origami paper constructions where the space is rendered through a combination of actual shapes (rectangles of paper) and the linework covering their surface. When you visit the exhibition, pay particular attention to what Lyon is doing with color. She does not take it for granted, instead, trying to introduce it into the photographs incrementally, fusing drawing and color.

Also featuring a paper sculpture (look up towards the heating/cooling unit) by another Austrian artist, Christian Hutzinger. More of his work could be seen at the rooftop of the "Nakameguro Mansion" (1-5-1- Kamimeguro, Meguro).

The exhibition will be on through February 7.

Hisashi Tenmyouya's "Furyu—Extravagant"

Mizuma Art Gallery newly opened Ichigaya location is featuring a selection of recent works by Hisashi Tenmyouya—a Neo Nihonga painter who brings together traditional Japanese art and contemporary Western aesthetic (including Hip Hop). Tenmyouya's elegant, extravagant and elaborate designs show the familiar Edo warrior images through a prism of anachronistically hip drama. This, of course, only adds to the well-rehearsed complexity—the five paintings based on Musashi's "Book of Five Rings" strike a perfect balance of pattern and narrative. The dynamic bombast of the figures is almost Baroque, and the effect is amplified by stereoscopic finish of the works. All the objects on view are mixed media, combining acrylic, gold leaf, fabrics and wood. There is tension in Tenmyouya: the scale, bold designs, even the works' placement in the galleries stand poised to overwhelm. Yet the threat never materializes because for all their elegance and extravagance his paintings remain decoratively hermetic.

The exhibition will be on through the end of January.