Posted:Apr 17, 2020

Japanese Art Online: Part 2

Experience more Japanese art from home with these podcasts and virtual shows.

Many Japanese museums remain closed due to COVID-19. As reported previously, however, the internet still provides opportunities for enjoying Japanese art. Here are a few more.

Blum & Poe Broadcasts
Leading gallery Blum & Poe’s branches in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York are all currently closed, but the purveyor of Japanese and international art is filling the void with broadcasts that include online showings, artist-selected soundtracks, videos, and readings. Get the scoop on works from artists such as Paloma Bosquê, who recently held a Tokyo exhibition, and new representee Asuka Anastacia Ogawa.

Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, ‘Medicine girl’ (2019) acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 inches, © Asuka Anastacia Ogawa
Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, ‘Medicine girl’ (2019) acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 inches, © Asuka Anastacia Ogawa
Photo: Courtesy of Blum & Poe

Online Confidential
This spring nearly a dozen cutting-edge Tokyo galleries such as Satoko Oe Contemporary, Anomaly, and Kayokoyuki were set to host shows by counterparts from cities including London, Jakarta, and Mexico City. The event would have included an international art summit at Atami hot springs, giving it the name Onsen Confidential. While the clampdown on international travel has cancelled the promising gathering, its participants have rallied to host a web-based version called Online Confidential. Videos of the works that were to be shown can be viewed through April 12.

Online Confidential logo
Online Confidential logo

Other Online Exhibitions
The experience of Yayoi Kusama’s dazzling Infinity Mirror Rooms is reinterpreted for online audiences with the series Infinite Drone. The videos combine images of Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away” from The Broad in L.A. with a soundtrack of drone, electronic, ambient, and pop music by musicians and sound artists. The hypnotic effects of the immersive installation are recreated through blinking lights and recursive sounds. Videos are to be uploaded to the museum’s Instagram account weekly.

Fergus McCaffrey, an international gallery with a Tokyo location, is also bringing its exhibits to the web. FM Virtual is its new online gallery that lets you tour shows from your computer. Colorful Abstractionist Sadamasa Motonaga is among the artists featured in its inaugural exhibition. Fergus McCaffrey also has an impressive online library of videos about its postwar and contemporary artists. Start with this mini-documentary on Gutai artist Fujiko Shiraga.

Fergus McCaffrey's FM Virtual
Fergus McCaffrey's FM Virtual
Photo: Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey

Jennifer Pastore

Jennifer Pastore

Jennifer Pastore is a writer, editor, and translator. She was editor of Tokyo Art Beat's web magazine from 2015 to 2022. Her thoughts on the Japanese art scene can be found in publications like artscape Japan.