big in Japan

The Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (CAC) presents Big in Japan, an exhibition featuring Yayoi Kusama, Paramodel, Hiraki Sawa and Go Watanabe.
The curators produced the exhibition as a set of four solo-projects. Each of theme is thought as a distinctive artistic world and aspires to present contemporary Japanese culture and art.


Paramodel, Paramodelic – Graffiti 2009

















photo: courtesy the artist and Mori Yu Gallery

Hiraki Sawa, Hako, 2007, video installation



















photo: courtesy the artist and Ota Fine Arts

Watanabe Go, "face ("portrait") -8", 2006, digital print

photo: ARATANIURANO

between abstraction and figuration

Tomoo Gokita, Escape into reality, pigment print on etching paper, 2008

Born in Tokyo in 1969. Gokita had his first exhibition at Tokyo's Parco Gallery in 2000, with releasing his remarkable book 'Lingerie Wrestling'. At that time he was mostly making drawings and experimenting with painting, which led to development of his freeform b&w images. In 2006, Gokita had a solo show at ATM gallery NY and in the following year at the Honor Fraser Gallery L.A. He also participated in group shows at Berlin’s Peres Projects, as well as New York’s Dietch Projects. His reviews appeared in the New York Times on two separate occasions which instantly acclaimed him international status. Additionally, Gokita’s works have been shown at the New York Armory Show, Miami’s Nada Art Fair and London’s Frieze Art Fair. In 2008, Gokita had another solo exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery.

Read here about Ashley Rawlings visit to artist's studio.

photo: azito-art.com

exhibition: Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial

One of Japan's biggest contemporary art events held in the Echigo-Tsumari region. Organized by Fram Kitagawa from Tokyo's Art Front Gallery, and supported by Soichiro Fukutake from Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation. This year an extra 200 works will join the over 150 permanent pieces already on display throughout this mountainous rural region.

Chiharu Shiota, Memory House, 2009

Mukaiyama Tomoko, Wasted, 2009

Artist is a pianist based in Netherlands. For the Triennial she prepared an installation using 10.000 pieces of silk clothing.

Hideaki Idetsuki, Connect with the forest, 2006

A ring 16 meters in diameter was placed at a height of five meters, supported by the trees in the Kikyouhara Forest. The artist attempts to find a relationship between nature and human beings.

Yukiki Kasahara, Haruna Miyamori, Rice Talk, 2003

The work is tatami mat made of optical fiber which transmits haiku using Morse code and thus combine old and modern way of communication.

photos: www.echigo-tsumari.jp