10 Things in Tokyo: October 2019

Hiroko Komatsu, winner of the prestigious Kimura Ihei Award, is an avant-garde photographer known for her immersive installations of black and white prints. See her work in the solo show Price of Life Guarantee at IG Photo Gallery in Ginza through October 10.

Visible Nature/Invisible Nature is Watari-um’s tribute to Lois Weinberger, a Vienna-based artist intrigued by all things horticultural. Spanning Weinberger’s 40-year career with some 100 pieces including drawings and soil sculptures, the show considers nature’s invisible energies. Ends October 20. ¥300 admission discount.

This year marks the centennial of the modernist art and architecture movement Bauhaus, and Tokyo is celebrating with an array of events. Bauhaus Open-End at Goethe Institute Tokyo is one of the most innovative with multilingual lectures, films, and virtual-reality experiences. Through October 25.

Decode / Events & Materials The Work of Art in the Age of Post-Industrial Society at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama is a must-see for fans of Mono-ha and postwar Japanese art in general. The show is a deep dive into the work of Nobuo Sekine and contemporaries with extensive research and documentation. Other artists from the post-war period through today are also considered through a broader “post-industrial” lens. Until November 4.

Festival/Tokyo, an autumn showcase of contemporary stage performance, returns with 15 main and nine affiliate productions. Wondering if it might be possible to slow down the frantic pace of our existence, directors Kaku Nagashima and Chika Kawai view the performing arts as “an examination of our lives at the speed of the body.” Highlights include a float parade through the shotengai shopping streets of Ikebukuro, Polish director Magda Szpecht’s adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Always Coming Home,” and Megumi Kamimura’s “Strange Green Powder,” a dance performance in a tea room. Most events are multilingual. The festival concludes November 10.

Mino Tea Wares: Kiseto, Setoguro, Shino, and Oribe at Suntory Museum of Art looks at three forms of Japanese ceramics from what is now Gifu Prefecture. These richly colored, irregularly shaped vessels often used in tea ceremonies flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and enjoyed a revival in the 20th century. Masterpieces owned by important collectors are on display. Ends November 10.

Image Narratives: Literature in Japanese Contemporary Art at The National Art Center, Tokyo features six artists whose works deal with multifaceted narratives rather than the written word in a strict sense. Video artists Futoshi Miyagi and Chikako Yamashiro weave together stories of place and personal history. Multimedia installations by Erika Kobayashi and Yuichiro Tamura form immersive worlds that shed light on the past and alternate realities. Yasuko Toyoshima’s sculptures reconsider the picture frame while Keizo Kitashima’s photography looks unflinchingly at people and landscapes. Through November 11.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Made in Japan pulls from the Haitian-American artist’s extensive body of graffiti-inspired work to present around 130 of his paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The show considers how Japan and its iconography influenced his style. Until November 17.

Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey at Nerima Art Museum is a chance to see the gothically morbid but much beloved picture book artist’s illustrations in Tokyo. Over 350 original drawings and documents will be shown through November 24.

Japanese Bamboo Art from New York: The Abbey Collection showcases 75 pieces from a collection donated to Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ranging from baskets to abstract sculptures, these works demonstrate the technical skill and three-dimensional beauty of this particularly Japanese art form. Ends December 8.