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 Mio Yamada

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Mio Yamada
A freelance arts and lifestyle editor and writer, Mio Yamada focuses on design, crafts and architecture. When she’s not visiting galleries and trade fairs, you'll find her taking photos of everything and being distracted by shiny objects. She's also surprisingly British.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013
What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?
In 1968, as the world reeled from The Prague Spring, the turbulent union and student strikes in France, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Japan, like so many other nations, found itself in the midst of social unrest. Citizens questioned the West's involvement in the Vietnam...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
May 27, 2013
Can Etsy's crafty goodness be recycled in Japan?
Advertising titan Dentsu and NTT DoCoMo take a stab a launching a Etsy-like site of homemade goodness.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2013
Smuggling art into fashion
In 1943, in the midst of World War II, a U.S. Army propaganda drop over Berlin distributed leaflets bearing gruesome images of Adolf Hitler's face partially obscured by a calf's skull. Those who dared to pick one up would never have guessed that the artist who created that foreboding picture was born...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2013
Edward Steichen's great American Dream
“I don't think that many people in Japan know who Edward Steichen is,” says curator Miki Tsukada in a surprisingly honest comment about visitors to the Setagaya Art Museum's current exhibition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013
The future of fabrics woven with the past
The textile work of Junichi Arai is renowned for its complexity and innovation. Often three-dimensional in nature, his fabrics appear as undulating landscapes of puckering, crumpling, puffs, pleats and protruding felted yarns. Many of them glimmer with metallic or translucent sheens, some seem understated...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 24, 2012
Chips and Art Garden make art accessible to everyone
It's not easy for young artists to show their work to the public and get feedback, or for the public to find artworks that they can easily afford.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2012
From Comme des Garcons to Somarta, Japanese fashion excels at weaving past, present and future
In 1981, while Western designers focused on shoulder-padded power suits, bright colors, sharp stiletto heels and statement jewelry, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo sent their models down the runway in defiant black, voluminously draped garments, accessorized with nothing but flat shoes....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2012
Christian Boltanski's mesmeric "No Man's Land" draws visitors to the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2012's new Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art
Christian Boltanski's "No Man's Land" is both daunting and mesmerizing. It's difficult to take your eyes off the 20-ton mound of clothing, which at 9 meters tall dwarfs an accompanying crane that tosses on more T-shirts, trousers and dresses with a giant claw.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2012
Architect Andrew Burns and artist Brook Andrew introduce Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale's new Australia House
"Surely, post 3/11, post Global Financial Crisis, we need to make buildings and spaces that are simple and allow us to remember essential things," says Andrew Burns, the architect behind the new Australia House in Urada, Tokamachi City.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Japan Pulse
Jul 13, 2012
The Korean beauty secrets are out
Japanese women, keen to emulate their favorite K-pop idols and K-TV actresses, make a beeline for 'Made in Korea' cosmetics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 10, 2012
Being in the doghouse is not always a bad thing
Joseph Kosuth, an American artist famous for conceptual, text-centric works, just put one of his good friends — Joni Waka — in the doghouse.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2012
Takeshi Kitano takes on a different beat
"I want you to have fun. It's the only aim of this exhibition," said Takeshi "Beat" Kitano when "Gosse de peintre" originally opened at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris two years ago. For an artist, that's quite an unusual goal — but then Kitano is not your usual artist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2012
The precious qualities of today's art jewelry
"The difference between art jewelry and a painting or a sculpture is that jewelry is closer to the heart — literally. Because you can wear it, it's actually even more intimate and personal than other artwork."
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2012
The precious qualities of today's art jewelry
"The difference between art jewelry and a painting or a sculpture is that jewelry is closer to the heart — literally. Because you can wear it, it's actually even more intimate and personal than other artwork."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2011
'Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue'
21_21 Design Sight
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 20, 2011
"Good Design Exhibition 2011"
Design Hub, Tokyo Midtown Closes Nov. 13
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 6, 2011
"Japan's long-selling products"
P&P Gallery/Printing Museum, TokyoCloses Nov. 6
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 14, 2011
"Kokeshi Doll Exhibition"
CLASKA Gallery & Shop "Do" Closes July 31
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 29, 2011
ArtGig offers 'Dirty, dirty! Sex, sex!' — for free
When curator Shai Ohayon says he's organizing 12 hours of "dirty, dirty, sex, sex" in Shinjuku, he's not making a sordid offer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2011
'Artists' Action For Japan'
Tokyo Midtown Atrium

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