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November 24, 2024
 

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Andrew Maerkle
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 8, 2011
'Mama Bush' puts black women in a powerful light
Based in New York, Mickalene Thomas is known for mixed-media paintings, photographic collages and videos that explore representations of beauty in art history and pop culture through images of African-American women.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 15, 2010
Fischli and Weiss: Creative pile ups
I n 1987, the Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss completed a film of what can best be described as a dysfunctional experiment carried out in an anonymous warehouse space.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2010
New history of art in the 21st century
To the extent that it exists in the popular consciousness, contemporary art is frequently associated with ideas of "newness" and "antitradition." This is partly to do with the legacy of the early 20th-century Dada movement. Responding to the social ferment surrounding World War I, the Dadaists rejected...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 9, 2010
Modernism put in perspective
Currently based in Seoul, Lee Bul is one of Korea's leading contemporary artists. She first became known for street performances incorporating provocative soft sculptures of her own design and then went on to create sculptures and installations commenting on contemporary culture and aesthetics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2010
More than a few favorite things
Museum curators are usually in the position of assessing an artist's career, but rarely turn that same critical lens upon themselves. However, the exhibition "My Favorites-Index of a Certain Collection: Selections from the MoMAK Collection," which opened to the public on March 24 at the National Museum...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2010
Chronicling a collection
Last fall, Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT) quietly launched a series of exhibitions seeking new interpretive approaches to the institution's permanent collection of modern and contemporary art. Tucked away in a modest group of second-floor galleries, the first exhibition in the series, "Chronicle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2010
Reinterpretations of modern history
One of Japan's pre-eminent contemporary artists, Yasumasa Morimura is known for his gender-bending self- portraits reinterpreting canonical works of Western art history. His works combine aspects of painting, sculpture, set design, performance and photography, and often use humor to subvert revered icons....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2010
Dan Graham: In defiance of convention
New York-based Dan Graham is a pioneer of conceptual art who has defied convention throughout most of his 40-year career. Born in Illinois and raised primarily in New Jersey, he started out by creating text-based concept pieces intended for distribution in magazines. Then he moved on to performances...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2010
Visions of art in an alternative key
In its own quiet way, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions was one of the standout art events of 2009.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2010
Spring blooms early in art world
Seasons play an important role in Japanese culture, which has long celebrated the appreciation of ephemeral beauty as a reflection of life itself. One of the most important seasons in Japan is New Year's, a time for families to gather and celebrate with several days of elaborate feasts. Traditionally,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2010
G-tokyo: The 'boutique' art fair
Although its contemporary art market is considered small in relation to the country's overall economy, Japan has no shortage of commercial art fairs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2010
Yang Fudong on the beauty of living
Based in Shanghai, Chinese artist Yang Fudong has gained worldwide recognition for his multimedia installations incorporating material shot on richly textured, black-and-white 35 mm film. His five-part film cycle "Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest" (2003-07) was one of the defining works in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2009
Australia shows off Asia's talent
BRISBANE, Australia — Over the past year, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made waves in his country and across the region with his plans to spearhead the development of an Asia Pacific Community. Rudd is in part picking up where former Prime Minister Bob Hawke left off 20 years ago, when Australia...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009
Nature's way of perceiving things
Born in Denmark to Icelandic parents, Olafur Eliasson is best known for large-scale works that, in recreating natural phenomena, ask viewers to reconsider how they perceive their daily environments. In the "Weather Project" (2003), Eliasson installed a blinding sun — made of hundreds of mono-frequency...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 2009
Rediscovering Rebecca Horn
If you've been paying attention to recent contemporary art, both in Japan and abroad, you might be struck by the question "Why now?" during a visit to German artist Rebecca Horn's survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT), Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2009
No longer going straight to video
In addition to exhibition and workshop components, the recently opened International Festival for Arts and Media Yokohama 2009 (also known as CREAM) features a monthlong screening program of international feature-length and short films as well as prize-winning submissions to the CREAM Competition, which...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2009
Not all smooth at CREAM festival opening
The celebratory mood surrounding Yokohama's new CREAM — Creativity for Arts and Media — festival was disrupted when one of the participating artists, Masaki Fujihata, unexpectedly announced that he would be withdrawing his work.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2009
Yokohama gets creative directive
In 2004, Yokohama launched an ambitious initiative to promote urban renewal centered in its Minato Mirai district called Creative City Yokohama. Rather than simply attempting to attract business, the Creative City initiative has focused on building cultural capital through the funding of alternative...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009
Bringing SecondLife into the real art world
Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and now based in Beijing, Cao Fei is one of China's most prominent young artists, known for photographs and videos that combine elements of fantasy and documentary to reflect on cultural shifts since the country's economic opening at the start of the 1980s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2009
Love and light at Hara Museum
In 1979, when he founded the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in his grandfather's former residence in Tokyo's Shinagawa district, Toshio Hara was driven by the vision of creating one of Japan's first institutions dedicated to living artists. At the time there were precious few other venues for contemporary...
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
Tokyo police care for lost umbrellas, keys and flying squirrels
An employee at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo bags, tags and organizes thousands of items.
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Woman dies after train collides with car in Tochigi
A Moka Railway train car
Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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