Reviews | TABlog | Tokyo Art Beat

Black baby dolls are venturing out into the Australian outback to reclaim the land that was taken from them by white colonists 200 years ago.

Perhaps it was the acrid smell of busted electronics covering the walls, but some thing about Scott de Vacherie’s exhibition Art Front Gallery immediately had me feeling disturbed.

The Diesel Denim Gallery in Daikanyama is hosting a collection of illustrations and graphic art inspired by the theme ‘Japan’.

The highlight of the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemprain exhibition is undoubtedly Ron Mueck’s “In Bed” (2005), also shown in the poster.

I was having dinner in Shibuya. In a cafe, mostly women around, floating laces and floral cloths, spring plucked on string, the waitress, like a friend, was joking with me and I was replying with my broken Frenglish remixed with meager 日本語.

A friend and I ended a recent weekend tour of Tokyo’s galleries at Roppongi’s Complex building, and though much of the work there was compelling, it was Daisuke Ohba’s exhibition “Labyrinth” at the newest of the building’s spaces -Magical Artroom- that seemed to be the focus of our coffee shop recap afterward.

I attended Naoki Honjyo’s “Small Planet” exhibition in Daikanyama’s Good Design Gallery with a friend, after giving up on a planned field trip to Yokohama that day (he overslept big time, and we figured it wasn’t worth going all the way up there so late in the afternoon).

The “Mirrorball” Music Video Festival is being held this weekend (April 15th and 16th) at Ropppongi’s Super Deluxe. I was able to catch the “Best of the Best” session on Saturday.

At the beginning of spring, “Tokyo Blossoms” is blooming in Shinagawa. It is the title of the new exhibition held at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art.

When the Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami launched the first ever Geisai art market in Tokyo, he hailed it as ‘a revolutionary art event in the 21st century that will pave the way for a friendlier, interactive art world’.

“A-Lunch” started in the last year 2005, as an initiative by artist Tomoko Konoike to offer an alternative relationship between artists and the audience.

Drawing Restraint 9, which is currently being screened at Cinema Rise in Shibuya, marks the 9th installment of Matthew Barney’s ongoing Drawing Restraint series.

Photographer James Welling is showing 8 new pieces at Wako Works of Art in Shinjuku.

Japanese illustrator/artist Nobumasa Takahashi is a friendly guy. As we walk into the gallery space of his month-long exhibition “Japanese Graffiti” held in the café/bar area of Space Force in Nakameguro, the petit, ponytailed Takahashi beams at us from the top of a stepladder, black marker in hand.

In a sketchbook in 1856, the French painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot wrote, “Whatever the site or the object, let’s submit ourselves to the first impression.

This show, organized within a series of exhibitions curated by Command-N, an activity-based art collective directed by artist Masato Nakamura, highlights the newest activities of artist Hideki Nakazawa, focused on the actual patents he has obtained during the past recent years.

As I was exiting the first room of the Hiroshi Sugimoto show, End of Time at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, I became aware of a slight tension in my head, the kind I remember from the sixth grade when working on a lengthy, puzzling but pleasant math homework.

This week Taro Morimoto is on display in two places in the city. His signature works are flower paintings that he creates by photoshopping images into simple compositions with few colors and then paints over.

The French New Wave filmmakers formed out of classic Hollywood cinema. Those directors learned to make movies through adapting the tools of the highly codified industry to make their very personal films while also theorizing about the industry.

A great American poet once wrote, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” These words characterize the ambience felt at Design Festa vol. 22.

‘You have a much better life if you wear impressive clothes’, Vivienne Westwood says, and you know what she means.

Chikako Hasegawa’s show entitled “Gift - Powder” explores the centuries-long connection between striving for beauty and suffering for it.

Yoshito Ikeda’s video installation at Futaba Gallery is a one-channel, short video reflection on narration.

In a tiny Ginza gallery that looks a lot like a student dorm, complete with three students sitting on a comparatively large sofa, Yoichi Umetsu’s paintings and sketches are on display.

If enjoying the beautiful weather by the ocean, a short train ride away from Tokyo, and seeing some art seems like a good idea, Hayama is just the place for this weekend.

Swiss artist Elodie Pong is now showing her exhibition Peripheral Area at Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya. She shows her video works A Certain General, Ford, Secrets for Sale and Script, Set and Characters.

Along with Mizoguchi, Kurosawa and Ozu, Naruse is a “classic” Japanese director. His works are familiar to the average Japanese person, as they are often shown on Japanese TV screens, or so I gather.

When I met Rachel Rosalen, an artist from Brazil temporarily working and living in Tokyo, it was natural that we chose to talk while walking around Tokyo’s Ginza, given her her self-proclaimed nostalgia for cities.

So we had a huge night! With more than 400 (!!!) people coming, I think we made one of the biggest nights that Super Deluxe has ever seen!

Did you come to Design Festa #21 in mid-May? Did you come to our booth?