Tag - contemporary-art

 
 

CONTEMPORARY ART

Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015
Building social change after the earthquake
In 2011, the devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami forced Japanese architects to rethink their understanding of architecture at a fundamental level — to consider closely society's systems and the affect buildings had on not only the life of, but also the psyche of the people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2015
'Gabriel Orozco: Inner Cycles'
To kick start their 20th anniversary year, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is showcasing the work of Mexico-born contemporary artist Gabriel Orozco as one of their three special exhibitions opening this week. This will be Orozco's first solo exhibition in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2014
The man who turned his modernist home into an art museum
It's not all roses being the director of an independent art museum, but for Toshio Hara, the human interaction of the art world is still a more attractive prospect than that of being a businessman. In 1979 he turned the family seat — a small cluster of white modernist buildings in a quiet residential...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2014
Taking flight with Arata Isozaki
I once almost got to interview the architect Arata Isozaki, but it was canceled due to his ill health at the time. No doubt a consideration in the cancelation was the fact that interviews with him can go to extreme lengths, as Isozaki has much to tell, having collaborated with almost every big name in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2014
'Architecture for Dogs'
Despite dogs being "man's best friend," we rarely design our world around the happiness of our pets.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2014
'The Power of a Pencil: Susumu Kinoshita and Yoshio Yoshimura'
A special exhibition focusing on pencil works, "The Power of Pencil" features the drawings of Susumu Kinoshita and Toshio Yoshimura. Both artists focus on portraits for this show, though each produces very different works. Kinoshita illustrates models, capturing their lives through the careful observation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2014
'Ikiru Monotachi e: The message from the nature'
Himeji City Museum of Art has been holding exhibitions featuring contemporary artists from Harima and Tajima in Hyogo Prefecture since 1986. This year, under the theme "Ikiru Monotachi e" ("To living things"), the exhibition explores the value of life and our environment through the works of four artists...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2014
Kunisaki Art Festival shows works worth the hike
To visit Antony Gormley's "Another Time" — a life-sized iron figure which looks eastward across Oita Prefecture's Sento district of Kunisaki from atop a mountain ledge — is a breathtaking experience. Not just because it's a stong piece of art or that the location offers a stunning vista of verdant...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2014
'10th Anniversary Special Exhibition: Japan Architects 1945-2010'
To commemorate its 10th anniversary, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, invited Frederic Migaryou, the deputy director of Paris' Pompidou Centre, to present this exhibition charting the evolution of Japanese architecture from 1945 to 2010.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2014
'Yokoo By Kishin'
Photographer Kishin Shinoyama's book of images "Kioku no Enkinjutsu," which he began in 1968, documents the graphic designer, illustrator and painter Tadanori Yokoo dressed as, and posing with, his personal idols.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 18, 2014
Blum & Poe gets closer to its artists
Some people just can't help liking Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 6, 2014
Yoshio Taniguchi: thriving in the shadow of greatness
Architect Yoshio Taniguchi generally doesn't like having his photograph taken for use in the media. In a way, it's a logical extension of his approach to his work, which could be described as architecture by subtraction. Having painstakingly removed everything extraneous from a design, and having overseen...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2014
Contemporary art is not lost in space
While space art is a relatively small field — in which works that have actually been created in space is an even smaller subset — it can only become more commonplace as costs fall and the private sector promises to open up space travel to non-specialists, albeit very wealthy ones.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2014
Nothing is ordinary for Leandro Erlich
'Swimming pools, staircases and elevators are ordinary places that we never question, as we think that we know about them already. But is that true? Do we really know them?' — Leandro Erlich.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2014
Kids' stuff that adults need to see
Perhaps in the wake of this attack on seriousness, many artists have since taken refuge in childishness, whimsy or playfulness, though these values have been carefully rationed in 'Go-Betweens: The World Seen through Children,' with the emphasis being more on showing childhood as a state of vulnerability and transformation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2014
'Presents from Eiji Mitooka: Designs to Make People and Cities Happier'
Through his train designs and station-building plans for Japan Rail's Kyushu Line, industrial designer Eiji Mitooka has won multiple awards for work that harmoniously reflects locals and their lives.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 19, 2014
Yokohama's French connection
Around 150 years ago, silk traders from Lyon in France went all the way to Yokohama to buy silkworm eggs that they heard could resist an epidemic disease that was ravaging the French silk industry. Since then, the two cities have built a strong business variegated relationship and friendship.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 18, 2014
'Guess What? Hardcore Contemporary Art's Truly a World Treasure'
Contemporary artworks are rarely described as "world treasures," but here The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo has come up with its own definition of the phrase. These are works that are literally "treasures" in terms of their high market value, but also because of their ability to convey universal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 11, 2014
Imagination runs wild in Japanese contemporary art
"Nostalgia and Fantasy: Imagination and its Origins in Contemporary Art" is a ragtag grouping of nine individual artists and one unit, each of whom focus on extremely different things. It is difficult to say, in fact, where "nostalgia" and "fantasy" come into play in some instances. With only minimal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 11, 2014
'Beauty on the Edge: Contemporary Art Nara — Magic of Materials and Wisdom'
Sculptors Takashi Kikuchi and Kei Takemata, stone artist Kota Kinutani, print artist Chihiro Shimotani, wood artist Chuichi Fuji, video artist Yutaka Moriguchi and painter Natsunosuke Mise are all connected by their strong afflilliation to Nara Prefecture.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat