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November 22, 2024
 

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Monty Dipietro
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 17, 2005
A new art center, in Kiyosumi
This week brings some good news and some bad news to Tokyo's contemporary art scene. The good news is that a group of galleries that have been sharing a building in Shinkawa since January 2003 have relocated en masse, and now all boast significantly bigger spaces. The bad news is that the galleries vacated...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 3, 2005
The Showa 40 select six
The usual reasons for the formation of artists' groups are similarities in media, style or philosophy. But the only link for the six members of the "Showa 40" group, who rank among Japan's best contemporary artists, is the year of their births, 1965. There is nothing else distinctly in common among the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 20, 2005
A circus on the harbor
Following on its impressive inauguration in 2001, the second Yokohama International Triennale of Contemporary Art is finally here, albeit a year late, and I have to say it has turned out far better than I had anticipated.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 6, 2005
New fairy tales of gloom
I have been an admirer of Miwa Yanagi since encountering her series "My Grandmothers" at the 2001 Yokohama Triennale. In that body of work the artist displayed extraordinary skill in using makeup and staging to transform a number of young women into images of their ideal grandmothers, such as screamingly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Sep 22, 2005
Becoming Japanese to satisfy the American eye
The elegant and enigmatic new exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, "The End of Time," is a retrospective on four decades of work by Hiroshi Sugimoto. One of Japan's most internationally acclaimed artists, Sugimoto uses photography to condense events in celebrated time-exposure series such as "Seascapes"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Sep 7, 2005
'Palookaville' gets gallery treatment
I was chatting with old friends in Toronto last week, and our conversation came round to the subject of Japanese manga. I made clear my reservations regarding the popularity of pulp manga in Japan, and bemoaned the fact that many manga artists have even had gallery shows here.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 24, 2005
The best from a bygone era
I was recently tempted to term the handsome old Bridgestone Museum as "the last of a dying breed." But that hardly seems appropriate any more, considering the Nihonbashi art space's ongoing evolution. Instead, the Bridgestone might be better described as "a survivor" -- and one of the best -- from a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 10, 2005
Market dreams of glory
Tokyo art collectors were out in force as the first-annual Tokyo Art Fair (TAF) debuted this past weekend (Aug. 6-8) at the Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho. The fair saw participation from 81 galleries and art-related companies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 27, 2005
Funhouse of the avant-garde
Like many people of my generation, I became aware of Laurie Anderson in 1981, when her song "O Superman" was an improbable radio hit. The eight-minute number featured a simple and hypnotic, breathy backing track, over which Anderson half spoke and half sang through a vocorder. The quirky lyrics repeatedly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 13, 2005
Interesting times in China
Chinese contemporary art made a splash in the late 1990s with the so-called Mao Goes Pop movement, which broke big among Western gallerygoers and collectors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 29, 2005
World Press prizewinning photos get to the heart of the story
Every year the Dutch-based non-profit organization World Press Photo sifts through thousands of news photographs from around the world in search of images that "represent an event, situation or issue of great journalistic importance and demonstrate an outstanding level of visual perception and creativity."...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 15, 2005
The art that rocks the boat of war in Iraq
If you don't like U.S. President George W. Bush -- particularly if you don't support his war in Iraq -- then there is a new gallery exhibition in Tokyo that you will relish.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 1, 2005
A voyeur for today
The photographer Richard Kern grew up in a small town in North Carolina, the son of a newspaperman. As a teenager, Kern had a part-time job changing the marquee at the local cinema, and one of the perks was free films. It was during a screening of Roger Vadim's camped up 1968 sci-fi flick "Barbarella"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 18, 2005
Roppongi's art gallery boom
Roppongi, which used to be chiefly known as a pick-up party pit for Tokyo's ex-pat population, has recently begun to emerge as a contemporary art center. Spurred by the Mori Art Museum's opening in 2003, the neighborhood now presents the possibility of a short walking tour of new and interesting art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 4, 2005
Girls in the company of wolves
For more than a decade female Japanese artists have been a dynamic force in contemporary photography, and now they are making big waves in other artistic media as well, as the phantasmagoric work of Tomoko Konoike best illustrates.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 27, 2005
Soft-focus images to unsettle us
The first Yokohama Triennale, held back in 2001, was a critical success, and so I was delighted to hear that the second incarnation of the contemporary art extravaganza has been set for September.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 6, 2005
From Zen to story, a tale of artists East and West
The Mori Art Museum in Roppongi is not yet two years old but the two new Mori shows that opened last weekend -- "The Elegance of Silence: Contemporary Art from East Asia" and "The World is a Stage: Stories Behind Pictures" -- suggest a space now comfortable with its potential and its limitations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 23, 2005
Drawing circles is the secret to a new visual language
It is exceedingly rare for a contemporary art show to sell out at the opening reception, and especially so in Japan. It is rarer still to arrive at a vernissage to discover that the show has sold out even before it opened. But that was the case with the Keegan McHargue exhibition that debuted at the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 9, 2005
Thank you to all art
Today, in case you didn't know it, is Thank You Art Day, a day to celebrate contemporary art made by anyone anywhere. Artist Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, a Tama Art University graduate, began the annual event in 2001 with an eye to, as he says, "vitalizing the Japanese art scene, because the Japanese art market...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 23, 2005
Lights up on gifted artist
The Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts is the ne plus ultra of honors in Canadian art. Some 2,000 of the country's cultural elite attend the annual awards ceremony, a black-tie affair held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. But last year, organizers faced a dilemma:...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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