Monday, July 06, 2009

Neoteny - Contemporary Art Exhibition , Tokyo

I don't always like modern art, but the exhibition currently on at the Royal Museum in Ueno Tokyo showed some of the most interesting and intriguing pieces I've seen in a long time.

cropped image of poster for neoteny.jp Exhibition, Royal Museum, Ueno , Tokyo. copied (without permission ) from neoteny.jp Image shamelessly copied from neoteny.jp.

From the mirrored sculpture of a six legged wolf by Konoike Tomoko at the start, to the small group of creatures made of bamboo (perhaps?) on the way out, I was enthralled.

The exhibition includes almost one hundred works from thirty three Japanese artists. The range of material and subjects was outstanding. Some of my favourites included :

"History of Rise and Fall" by Ikeda Manabu. This 2m by 2m canvas includes such an enormous amount of detail in the imaginary landscape I could have looked at it for hours and still discovered something new.

The huge canvas from Aida Makoto entitled Giant Salamander. If it hadn't been for the title, I might have missed the very large aquatic creature in the middle of the picture.

"Human Lesson, Dress 01", which is where the wolf's head in the poster comes from, (and yes, it is a dress.. kind of) and the Victorian looking instrument of torture entitled Fingerspanner both from Odani Motohiko.

A modern take on a classic Japanese style of painting from Yamaguchi Akira entitled Modern Times.

And many many more. I highly recommend it, but hurry, the exhibition ends on July 15th.

Location:

The Ueno Royal Museum ,Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0007
TEL: 03-3833-4191 http://www.ueno-mori.org

Until : Wednesday, July 15 2009

Opening Hours:
10:00 to 18:00. Fridays until 20:00. (Admission up until 30 minutes before closing)

Access:
3 minutes walk from JR Ueno Station

Admission:
Adults 1200 yen
Students 1000 yen

More photos on the blog neoteny.jp blog

5 comments:

dokebi said...

haha i dont get modern art either.

a lot of them seem to be works by a bunch of picasso-wananbes who got no talent nor the will to be detailed & precise

its like those artists have no confidence & can't control the direction at which their works are moving & just go by accidental mistakes

Those are very helpful links by the way

zaou said...

i think bunkamura also has a rather neat visual deception exhibition going on right now. a kinda fun thing.

MJ Chan said...

hi! I just came across your blog. Great blog and you are so lucky to have lived and be living in two of my most favorite cities :D More power to you!

Jon Allen said...

Dokebi : I hate artists with no talent too. Glad you liked the links.

Zaou : Yes, I saw a poster for that exhibition on the way home! That's the plan for Sunday.

MJ: Thanks for dropping by.

Andy Wong said...

Nice photo on your blog...how I wish I can work in Tokyo...I still miss my Seoul...