Beginning in 1994, a group of Japanese curators and art critics put together an annual exhibition of about three dozen young emerging artists whom they want to spotlight. The exhibition, now hosted by the Ueno Royal Museum, is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue where these curators and critics introduce their nominees in short essays. Because the participants must be selected from among many whom the nominator believes to have a particular promise this exhibition is very selective: after all, each of the people who endorse have to put their art-critical weight behind just one contemporary artist. This year's VOCA opens February 14 and will run through the end of the month. The webpage for the event appears to be in Japanese only, so you might want to note the address of the venue (Ueno Royal Museum): 1-2 Ueno Park, Taito-ku.
