"Kyoto Art For Tomorrow" at The Museum of Kyoto draws together single pieces by 43 up-and-coming artists under the age of 40. Focusing on a new generation, the exhibition looks forward to the international attention Japan will receive for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Indeed, the show adopts Pierre de Coubertin words, the so-called father of the modern Olympics, who called it "the wedding of sport and art."

The exhibit's main draw is a new animation by Japan's 2011 Venice Biennale representative, Tabaimo. Her surrealist-type shorts often deal with partitioning and discontinuities, though there are continuities of motif such as her collaged plants, body organs and her use of the dollhouse as a metaphor for the body and mind. "Inner-net" begins by zooming through enclosing gates to arrive in a grand European-style interior that acts as a stage backdrop before which things are literally dropped in — a chair that sprouts mushrooms, a birthday cake that attracts flies, and ghoulish white wigs that settle upon brain stems. Tabaimo is often seen as representing the forgotten generation who enjoyed bubble-era privileges in their youth but who fumbled in uncertain directions during the protracted recession.

Highlights among the newcomers include the manga-trained Taro Sakakibara's "Koto Fight," an arcade video game image of a tag-team battle between national art treasures, the Gods of Wind and Thunder representing Kenninji Temple and the Buddhist Nio guardians Agyo and Ungyo who protect the entrance to Todaiji Temple in Nara. These swoop down from the sky for combat in front of a ramen shop announcing that it offers both an English menu and university student discounts.