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November was a busy month on the art calendar for Tokyo as galleries were busy adding in their last exhibitions of the year, while museums amped up their offerings for the throngs of tourists visiting the capital for the holiday season. The outcome was an impressive roster of artists on display from around the globe.
The Doraemon Exhibition Tokyo 2017
Various Artists
Nov 1, 2017 – Jan 8, 2018
It will be Doraemon-mania at the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi as we enter 2018, as the much-loved robot cat holds center stage at the special exhibition complete with new paintings, multimedia works, video and sculptures. The organizers of “The Doraemon Exhibition Tokyo 2017” asked 28 artists and groups to create their own versions of the cartoon character for display. The results are surprisingly diverse—and in some cases surprising—reinventions of a character that has been around since the 1970s. Those invited to undertake the concept of what Doraemon means to them included a who’s who in Japan’s art scene. Takashi Murakami’s playful My Summer Vacation with My Little Brother and Doraemon (2002), which introduces the cartoon series’ characters into the artist’s animated world, was a particular crowd pleaser, as was Tomoko Konoike’s Shinzuka’s Cave (2017), a large installation of Doraemonesque cave drawings.
Surrogate Structures
Sam Stocker
Nov 6, 2017 – Jan 22, 2018
To visit The Container, one must travel to Tokyo’s Meguro neighborhood and visit a hair salon, and then enter a shipping container that is housed within. This month, the gallery is hosting a solo show by Sam Stocker, a British-born, Tokyo-based artist who is a recent PhD graduate of Geidai (the Tokyo University of the Arts).
“Surrogate Structures” makes use of the space’s entire (but limited) square footage, starting with the container as a blank canvas for inspiration. The artist’s fascination with what a shipping container’s existence entails—its endless reuse as a vessal to move tangible objects and the memories attached to them—is apparent throughout the installation. Stocker spent months researching the historical and geographical area around the gallery, and his work takes note of the site’s surrounding structures, such as a Fujizuka (small mounds made in or around Tokyo meant to represent Mount Fuji) located nearby, creating a unique, site-specific experience for visitors.
Chinese Cutting Edge
C.H.I
Nov 17, 2017 – Feb 14, 2018
Fashion brand Diesel invited Chinese artist C.H.I to exhibit a large collection of his staged photographs, featuring speculative, futuristic scenes of life. The Beijing-based artist is well known in China for his use of digital manipulation and highly stylized images, blurring the line between what is real and fantasy. The curator of the exhibition is noted Japanese photographer and DJ Yasumasa Yonehara, who met C.H.I in China in 2012 and became transfixed by his eccentric style. “Chinese Cutting Edge” is the artist’s first solo show in Japan.
Toiletpaper: Collaboration Maurizio Cattelan / Pierpaolo Ferrari
Nov 22, 2017 – Jan 10, 2018
Perrotin’s Tokyo space was given a fresh coat of bright red paint to showcase the latest collaborative work by Toiletpaper art magazine’s Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. The duo is known for building their art magazine with pages torn from others, as well as a subsequent line of products featuring their signature “hyperreal imagery” of found images that the artists have labeled “creative eco-sustainability.” For their gallery presentation, Cattelan and Ferrari created a collection of nine gilded wooden mirrors with UV prints on the glass.
The second room of the Perrotin Tokyo houses a small selection from the gallery’s star artist roster, including Mr., JR and Takashi Murakami.
Greater Jars and Ordinary Vessels: Turning Fray into Faculty
Atsushi Ogata
Nov 25 – Dec 20
Kaikai Kiki Gallery opened a solo show this month featuring an impressive set of work by Japanese ceramist Atsushi Ogata. The artist employs two techniques to create of his pottery: hakeme, using brush strokes to create delicate patterns, and kohiki, utilizing white porcelain powder. Each piece is fired in a noborigama (climbing kiln) that Ogata built in his studio in Nara.
In the main gallery space, the artist displays several large-scale creations, which he calls “jars,” each towering over two meters tall. They are surrounded by smaller objects, including wooden shelves packed full of unique unglazed plates, mugs and trays, displayed as if you are shopping in an a brick-and-mortar retail location—and in a sense, you are. Visitors to the exhibition will find that all items are marked with a price tag, and can be picked up, paid for, and taken home immediately. Several other offerings by Ogata are in a separate, large tatami mat room , where you can rummage through the beautiful collection after removing your shoes.
Peter Augustus Owen is the Tokyo-based associate publisher of ArtAsiaPacific.
Notes from Nippon is a monthly blog, featuring a roundup of news and exhibition openings from Japan.
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