Hope everyone had a relaxing and fun Holiday season. It’s not quite over with New Years coming up. But I plan on staying in anyway. Today I want to share some pictures from my recent visit to the Japan society. I love the Japan Socety. It’s small, but there is always a lot going on. They show films, teach japanese classes, have lectures, and display art exhibits. Its a great place to see art if you are a little overwhelmed by some of New York’s bigger mueusms. You can see each piece and read all the information in under 2 hours. Also the lobby is so beautiful, there is a little pond and indoor garden. There’s a very Japanese aesthetic to the whole building. Learn more here http://www.japansociety.org
Right now there is a show focusing on 3 main artists. The first was Manabu Ikeda. Based in Tokyo, Ikeda is influenced by Anime and animated movies. He makes very multi-faceted and detailed works. You could spend hours looking at his pictures. Inside the larger images hide many tiny action scenes, people skiing, deer prancing in a forest, a boat sailing though the ocean, but if you step back all these things come together and form a giant snake or a frothy wave. So cool! perfect exhibit for kids to, especially if they are fans of games like Where’s Waldo. Here are some pictures.
This is a piece called Victim. A bustling cityscape, but if you step back it’s also the head of a snake.
Here is another interesting a pieces. A praying mantis when you stand back, but at closer looks it is made of leaves and even smaller bugs.
Ikeda was very inspired by the Tsunami that hit Japan and there are lots of water-themed pieces, such as this one
Here is a wave inspired piece
And another wave inspired piece, this was the largest and most impressive piece in the show. He did it all using fine point pens and no sketch! How incredible.
And here are some small details from the pieces, each little inch of the canvas tells a new story.
The second artist in the exhibit was is actually a collaborative, Team Lab, featuring artists, programers, writers, mathematicians and more. With over 300 memebrs. They work in digital and traditional mediums and draw inspiration from japanese themes and images. They explore what creates the japanese look and how certain art forms and themes can to be associated with Japanese art. It was hard to take pictures since many of the pieces were whole room installations. One room had flowers projected on to every wall while music played, and there were also paintings of flowers. Here is a picture of a moving and interactive wall of animals. It was hard to take a good picture because when you move in front of a certain animal they go blurry. Strange piece
Here are some pictures from the flower room. It was hypnotic, I could’ve stayed in there all day.
Lastly was Hisashi Tenmyouya. He painted very conflict ridden and masculine scenes inspired by traditional and religious art. It was very interesting, but not as much to my taste. There was a cool red sand rock garden, featuring black rocks and skulls in the middle of his exhibit which I enjoyed.
