July 13th (Sun)-July 17th (Thu) [W:1-A] Teketekebia "Kijinhenjin Daikyouun" Illustration July 15th (Tue)-July 18th (Fri)[E:201 202] Magnet "2008 A/W" Fashion July 16th (Wed)-July 18th (Fri) [W:2-C] Deekei & Wacwac "Perorinpoi" 2 Artists: Painting and 3D object July 17th (Thu)-July 19th (Sat) [W:2-A] International Culture School Fashion Course "Nothing" Makeup July 18th (Fri)-July 20th (Sun) [W:1-A] Tomomi Miyahara "Anoko wo Umeta Atode.." Illustration July 18th (Fri)-July 20th (Sun) [E:102] Piroko Univers Fashion July 19th (Sat)-July 20th (Sun) [W:1-C] Will Send Later Painting, Multimedia and Installation July 19th (Sat)-July 20th (Sun) [E:301] Gas "Summer Exhibition 2008 -Mix Colors" Group: Illustration and Graphic Design July 19th (Sat)-July 21st (Mon) [W:1-B] Yuko "Kawaii" Illustration July 19th (Sat)-July 21st (Mon) [W:1-F] Love Chookje Group: Photography, Film Screening, DJ and Sweets July 19th (Sat)-July 21st (Mon) [W:1-G] Kodachi Miroku Illustration, Photography and Graphic Design July 19th (Sat)-July 21st (Mon) [W:2-B] Analog Complex "Bamboo Princess" Group: Space Art [Image: Gas "Summer Exhibition 2008 -Mix Colors"]

Takehiko Sanada was born in Tokyo in 1962. After graduating from the Kuwazawa Design Research Institute, he worked as a fashion designer. In search of more free modes of expression, Sanada then spent time in England working as assistant to sculptor Richard Deacon. After studying sculpture, Sanada experienced communal living with Eskimos in Greenland in the Arctic Circle, learning about the indigenous culture of the Inuits. After returning to Japan in 1995, Sanada exhibited his installation and sculptural work using goat and other animal hair and vegetal fibers at various venues, such as the Roppongi Crossing exhibition at the Mori Art Museum and Maison Hermes. In addition, he also organized numerous projects held to reconsider the place of traditional local Japanese textile cultures in places like Koiwai farm in Iwate prefecture and the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale. Sanada, who has in recent years conducted fieldwork projects and organized group exhibitions to involve local areas with a relationship to the ground, will show new works at this exhibition, his first solo show in 6 years, featuring 3D works spun out of the animal and plant materials that were his starting point for sculpture. The result is work that enables viewers to actually feel the palpable sense of "life" that is at the origin of these materials. [Image: "Transition No.1" (2008) wool, alpaca, mohair]

Paper-made cobweb-like laces will envelope exhibition space. Party: July 21st (Mon/ National Holiday) 18:00

This exhibition features media installations centering on sound work by Hidetaka Ito and video work by Hiroshi Suzuki, investigating the ambiguity hidden beneath artistic expression that makes use of digital technology. Although simple in execution, these works express a sensitivity and humor in relation to the issues they tackle. Artist talk: July 19th (Sat) 15:00- with Hidetaka Ito, Hiroshi Suzuki and Takuo Komatsuzaki Party: July 19th (Sat) 17:00-19:00 (after artist talk)

Gallery Point is pleased to announce "Heroic", a solo exhibition featuring new works by Hiro Kurata, showing from July 4th through July 26th. Hiro Kurata is an artist who is based in Brooklyn, New York. One of the characteristics that makes his painting unique is the way he renders his figures with some sort of power and movement. The figures looking innocent and strong are often portrayed as a baseball player, heroes from the Greek myths or comical characters from animation works. Kurata spent his childhood going back and forth between the U.S and Japan. The cultural differences between those places have been a natural source for the themes in his paintings. He skillfully digests the gaps between the two countries and expresses it in his work with a sense of cynicism. Depicted in bright pastel colors, the disproportioned figures simultaneously show confidence and sickness. Innocent but frightened by an enemy at the same time, his subjects being covered with macho bodies seem to hide inside extremely weak souls. Thus the heroes Kurata creates give viewers a complex impression within which happiness and nihilistic feeling coexist. Reception: July 4th (Fri) 19:00-21:00

Shugoarts is pleased to present the first solo show in Japan for Ylva Ogland, an artist born in Sweden in 1974 who made her stunning debut in the New York art scene just last year. Ogland's paintings and installations often originate in elements of her own and her family's experiences. Yet, while they are born of an interest in the personal, they also contain markers to a host of dualities that can be far-reaching and even disturbing: wholesome values versus taboo; orthodox art history versus subjective, often abnormal occurrences; decorative presentation versus controversial content. This exhibition, the title of which comes from two classic icon motifs; Hodegetria and Dormition, consists of a series of paintings about mirrors and another painting series that arose from the artist's experience of her father’s big sleep. As part of these works, Ogland revealed to Shugoarts the existence of an alter-ego, Snöfrid (meaning "gentle snow" in Swedish), who lives inside the mirrors of Ogland's art. It was Snöfrid who responded to some questions from Shugoarts recently. Tell us about your works to date and your new works for this exhibition. Snöfrid: My name is Snöfrid, I have been asked by Ylva Ogland to answer these questions. I’m her twin sister and I live in the mirror world. I have the same experiences as her, but from a different perspective – from my view in the imaginary world – and I don’t paint, so I’m free to speak about these things. We meet where fiction and reality become one, in situations that are connected to us and to the imagination and to the history and to art history. The subjects of your artworks are often related to your family. Snöfrid: Try, through the little world, to connect to and mirror the big world, and beyond that, the imaginary world. As Oskar Ekdahl, one of the central characters in Ingmar Bergman’s film Fanny and Alexander says, “…My only talent, if you can call it that in my case, is that I love this little world inside the thick walls of this playhouse, and I'm fond of the people who work in this little world. "Outside is the big world, and sometimes the little world succeeds in reflecting the big one so that we understand it better..." While your works emerge from private issues, it doesn't appear that you are simply translating them into artworks. How do you select subjects and turn them into art? Snöfrid: Experiences serve as a ground where the very personal and subjective can become a reflection of any viewer’s experiences. What is coming, what has past and what is present. The relationship between the real world and the art objects and what they are and what they are representing – if they are representing anything. Tell us about the exhibition of your new artworks, including Oracle. Snöfrid: She Who Shows The Way – Falling Asleep Where past is always present, Where future is always present, Where present is always present. Where the imagination is as real as the reality. Where the reality is as imaginary as the imagination. [Image: "Traveling Oracle" (2008) oil on canvas 81.3 x 68.6cm]

Nadiff's inaugural exhibition at their new location kicks off with an exhibition of the art group Chim Pom, known for their transgressive, performance-based video and installation works. Opening Reception: July 7th (Mon), 19:00

Taro Izumi creates humorous drawings, video and 3D works out of everyday products and introduces them in the form of an installation. In this exhibition entitled "Jungle Book", Izumi presents exploratory work that artfully utilizes a house as an exhibition space. Nowadays, with the rapid growth of the Japanese art market, there have been more and more platforms for exposure and fields of opportunity provided for the benefit of aspiring young artists. In this context, Izumi's use of an alternative exhibition venue has especial resonance. For artists, "alternative spaces", "galleries" and "museums" are not merely sites that enable them to climb the creative ladder, so to speak; they function equally as necessary spaces for them to balance their various creative activities. As more and more artists begin to present their works in different locales, viewers will start experiencing different ways of approaching and appreciating their works as well. Izumi's work springs from his own apartment room and its vicinity. The weaknesses and earnest efforts of people living there, their honesty that comes out of both good and bad intentions, their means of bettering their daily lives... such are the messages embedded in Izumi's work, leaving precious impressions on viewers' minds. -Reception: July 5th (Sat) 18:00-20:00 -Talk Show by the Artist: July 20th (Sun) 15:00

As the title suggests, this exhibition features not well-known pieces but the collection of "unknown ones worth honorable mention", which ranges from works exhibited when the gallery was at the previous location to the ones the gallery owner has collected based purely on his own interest and taste. A lot of works will be on display for the first time ever. [Image: Koji Enokura "Cloth No.2" (1977) silkscreen (waste oil) 77.6 × 108.3cm]

Magical, Artroom is reopening at their new site in Ebisu. As for the organization of the gallery, Satoshi Okada assumes the role of president, Masami Shiraishi is joining as a professional advisor, and the Cue International company forms the nucleus of the gallery, which is run by Haruka Ito. Kentaro Ichihara and Shigeo Goto will remain as advisers. In the coming years, the gallery aims to enhance their management skills to further pursue their goal of introducing young Japanese artists to audiences within and outside Japan. Their program to support young and upcoming artists and disseminate contemporary art through various social platforms will include magazine production, publishing, music distribution, radio programs and all manner of other media exposure, the organization of Art Award Tokyo, as well as the establishment of educational programs and art salons. Magical appreciates your continuous support. The inaugural exhibition at the new space entitled “New Biginning - The Show Must Go On!”, is composed of eleven gallery artists, including Fumiaki Akahane, Miyuki Akiyama, Yohei Imamura, Tadasuke Iwanaga, Daisuke Ohba, Emi Otaguro, Hitoshi Kuriyama, Hyon Gyon, Takehiko Hoshino, Miyako Masaki, Yamataka Eye, presenting the direction of new magical, Artroom. Opening Reception: July 7th (Mon), 19:00

Opening party: July 12th (Sat) 18:00- Midsummer's Night: July 19th (Sat) 19:00- Night Theater Ide (handmade puppets): July 26th (Sat) 19:00- Closing BBQ party: August 2nd (Sat) 18:00- Fee: ¥1000 (includes food)

An installation that invites the audience to actively investigate and in some ways participate in a frozen hyperreality. This is the first solo exhibition in Japan by the remarkable installation artist Mark Jenkins. Also not to be missed is Miho Kinomura's film about the making of Jenkins' work.

In Ayako Maruta's installations, arches and pillars, which were were used to form spaces in classical architecture, are created with construction cable and industrial lampshades. Rather than create arches supported from the ground, they are instead suspended from the ceiling or supported by a single pillar. Murata's works use industrial cables and lampshades that are normally used at construction sites. She also uses denim with an aged, vintage look. This new uses of common materials can create a new sense of aesthetics.

"Criterium" (criterion in Latin), is a series of exhibition introducing new works by emerging artists working in Japan. This exhibition presents an installation work by Tetsuya Umeda, who creates works in response to the space using electric fans. Performance Date & Time: July 21st (Mon) 15:00 Location: Mito Art Museum 2F *You can see the performance with the admission ticket to the museum.

Yoshiaki Kaihatsu creates installations using everyday materials, transforming them into something completely unexpected. His humorous and ironic works include an outdoor food stand and tearoom made out of expanded polystyrene, an installation covering an entire room with dust, and a diary consisting of receipts from daily purchases. This time, Kaihatsu has embarked on his new project, called "Funny-ture," his own twisted version of "furniture." Combining useless items found in daily life with cardboard boxes and modifying them with plastic wrap, the result is a playful series of furniture. During his stay at the museum, he will present a space that anyone can enjoy and interact with. -Open Studio Schedule Saturdays and Sundays on May 28th (Wed), May 31st (Sat) through June 29th (Sun). 12:00-17:00 -Artist Talk "Here goes Yoshiaki Kaihatsu" July 12th (Sat) 14:00 at the lecture hall. Free. No reservation required. [Image: "Foam Garden in Winterthur" (2007) Winterthur, Switzerland]

Art Scope, a mécénat activity of Daimler Foundation in Japan, provides contemporary artists from Japan and Germany the chance to experience life in each other’s country. For the 2007/2008 year, Izumi Kato and Yuken Teruya were invited to reside in Berlin and Eve Teppe and Ascan Pinckernelle in Tokyo. The Hara Museum has been a partner in the Art Scope program since 2003, and as such will once again host an exhibition to showcase the results of this year’s artistic exchange. The methodologies used by the four featured artists range from painting, sculpture, installation, video and drawing. Izumi Kato creates paintings and sculptures that seem to touch upon the root of life and existence, using as his motif human figures with apparently fetal-like aspects. Yuken Teruya uses a variety of materials that include ready-made objects to make installations that speak to the workings of human society, the roots of human values and the sense of aesthetic beauty. The video artist Eva Teppe uses image media to explore the essence behind our sensory awareness and consciousness. In drawings of great detail and delicacy, Ascan Pinckernelle revisits the fundamentals of expression through the process of observation with the eye and representation with the hand. Different though these four artists may be in methodology and personality, their sensibilities, imagination and power of expression give rise to a shared ability to train their sights upon human existence and make us reconsider the ambiguous and complex properties that are fundamental to our lives as both discrete individuals and members of a larger whole. Through it all one might find a hint of the many possibilities that lie hidden in the act of creation and the experience of viewing. Artist Talk Date: June 28th (Sat) 15:00 - 17:00 (tentative) Place: The Hall at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art For reservations, contact: info@haramuseum.or.jp or (Tel.) 03-3445-0669 Speakers (to be scheduled): Izumi Kato, Yuken Teruya, Eva Teppe, Ascan Pinckernelle, Dr. Renate Wiehager (Senior Manager, Corporate Art Department, Daimler AG), Atsuo Yasuda (Hara Museum of Contemporary Art) Fee: Regular ¥2000 (includes museum admission), Hara Museum Members and up to two guests ¥1000 Reservation required: info@haramuseum.or.jp, or Tel: 03-3445-0669 starting from June 10th (Tue) [Image: Eva Teppe, "The World Is Everything That Is The Case" (2003), video still, courtesy of the artist]

The world of colors is entering a new era. Thanks to the development of computers, LED and display technologies, we can now freely choose colors from an infinite selection with a single switch. Colors are generated from relationships between light, objects and our sense of sight. Techniques of color arrangement have developed mainly from the colors (pigments and dyes) of non-moving objects. But now that we can freely control light, we are encountering a new problem: how to show moving colors. Changes in our sense of color have a powerful influence in the fields of household goods, fashion and interior design. More people are not simply passively choosing colors but are doing so as a way of expressing themselves and conveying messages. Gathered under a single roof at this exhibit are works that lead a new generation of colors, such as interactive art, visual works and interior goods and lighting from advanced companies. -Talk Session "Where Colors Exist" Takayuki Fujimoto is a spatial designer & lighting artist. He produced the highly-acclaimed play, "True", which made dynamic use of LED lighting. Fujimoto will talk about lighting effects in this particular play and about his past productions. Tetsuya Osaki, chief editor of the Japanese-English bilingual website "Realtokyo" and "ART iT" magazine, will be the other guest at the talk. Date & Time: July 6th (Sun) 14:00-16:00 (Doors open at 13:30) Location: Skip City Sainokuni Visual Plaza 1F HD Studio Capacity: 70 people Admission: Free Contact: Eizo Museum 048-265-2500

This exhibition is part of a special "Dialogue with Materials" series at the Tatebayashi Museum in Gunma Prefecture. Taking paper as its theme in 2002 and wood in 2004, the exhibition series introduced audiences to notions of shape and form through ancient relics, daily household goods, toys and works of contemporary art that made potent use of properties unique to each material. The museum also provided a space for a wide range of people to engage first-hand with the art, organizing a variety of events that included creative workshops for parents and children and sessions for getting up and close with artists and their process of creation. This exhibition is the 3rd installment in the series, taking earth as its theme. This material has been instrumental in the cultivation of crops and fields since ancient times, also effectively acting as a convenient and malleable tool for artistic production, occupying a central role in the life and work of humans. The unique appeal and qualities of this material will be on display over 2 sections: "The Relationship between Man and Earth" puts on display a wide range of materials such as Jomon era clay vessels, tiles, earthen pipes and clay dolls, while "The Colors, Sounds and Shapes of Earth" focuses on works by contemporary artists that use this material as either their medium or subject. In addition, a space for visitors to become more closely acquainted with the museum will be set up - a space where events such as artist talks and workshops conducted by contemporary artists and creative DIY "ateliers" and corners will be set up. See the museum website for more details on the schedule of events.

Suma Maruki (1875-1956) began painting after she turned 70, and for the 11 years until she passed away at the age of 81, she created more than 700 works. She was encouraged to start painting by her sun Iri Maruki and his wife Toshi, known for their collaborative work "Hiroshima Panels". Suma painted trees, flowers, her pet dog and cat, fresh vegetables, insects, and birds, depicting lives seen in everyday life. Suma's energetic and rich colors gained much acclaim at Female Painter's Association Exhibition and Nihon Bijutsu-in Exhibition. Today also, sincere and gentle feelings expressed in her work are communicated to many people. This exhibition consists of around 100 works mainly from the collections of Maruki Gallery in Matsuyama City in Saitama Prefecture. Also, this exhibition presents works by contemporary artists such as Eisaku Ando, Yoko Kawashima, and Yoshihiro Suda, who share same interest as Suma, focusing on fragile and yet immense power of lives in nature. -Talk "Where Painting Exists - Modern Times and Suma Maruki" July 13th (Sun) 15:00-16:30 Where: Lecture Hall (2F) Lecturer: Arthur Binard (poet) Capacity: 100 people (first come first serve, numbered ticket will be available at the reception from 10:00 on the day of the talk). Free. -Artist Talk July 6th (Sun) 15:30-16:00 Yoko Kawashima August 9th (Sat) 15:00-15:30 Eisaku Ando August 10th (Sun) 15:00-15:30 Yoshihiro Suda Where: Gallery space (2F) Fee: admission ticket required [Image: Suma Maruki "Vegetables" (1953) Maruki Gallery Collection]

TWS Shibuya is hosting two up-and-coming artists' exhibitions "TEAM 13 Yosuke Amemiya -Whiplash Neuron" and "TEAM 14 Kei Takemura -Apart a Part" starting from June 28th. Yosuke Amemiya has introduced video installation works with which viewers can go back and forth between reality and fiction. In his multilayered space with mirror-like structure, motifs like flogs, plants, apples, which all have repetitively showed up in his work before, are arranged in a way that they intricately intermingle with each other. Once stepping into the space, viewers experience a sensation that they can't figure out where they are and what they just underwent, starting to reconsider what is reality and what is not. Kei Takemura is based in Berlin, Germany. After observing his friends' daily activities and rooms closely, Takemura reenacts their living using media like embroidery, drawing and performance. Such a method seems to evoke a sense that the fragments of intimate feelings and memories toward certain spaces and people are layered one after another. In this exhibition entitled "Apart a part", Takemura introduces his new series which reconstructs his friend's everyday life in a space where embroidered organdie cloth is displayed, while in another series, he restores broken cups and plates. By deciphering and radicating touchable yet ungraspable phenomena on transparent organdie and in gaps between the lines depicted on tracing papers, Takemura awakens memories and senses of viewers. -Opening Reception: June 28th (Sat) 18:00-20:00 -Other related events Open House with Yosuke Amemiya & Kei Takemura: June 14th (Sat) 16:00-17:00 @ TWS Aoyama Gallery Talk by Yosuke Amemiya & Kei Takemura: June 29th (Sun) 16:00-17:00 @ TWS Shibuya Performance by Kei Takemura: July 6th (Sun) 16:00 @ TWS Shibuya [Image: Yosuke Amemiya "Knowledge" (2006-2007) Oil paint, plastic cast, wood]

After graduating from Kyoto University of Art in 1991, Tadasu Takamine received the Special Encouragement Prize at the 2nd Sony Music Art Artist Audition in 1993, and then joined the performance art group Dumbtype from 1993-1997. After leaving Dumbtype, Takamine studied media art at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) in Gifu prefecture. In 2002, he exhibited a huge 2-ton ironical video installation work called "God Bless America" at the 50th Venice Biennale, which paved the way for numerous other commissions and invitations to various art events both in Japan and abroad. Takamine is a multi-disciplinary artist working in installation, video and performance, and recent years have seen him compose and perform theatrical stage works by himself, further expanding the boundaries of his artistic practice. From the outset of his career Takamine has unfailingly tackled the variety and profusion of human life in all its forms and conditions with a knowing irony and ambivalence, reconfiguring his own bodiliness in an attempt to point out issues inherent to our own physicality. In this exhibition, Takamine tackles the electricity storage system found in dreams, the double-layered electrical supercapacitor. Abu Dhabi is an existing example of an artificial city whose energy needs are met entirely through natural energy sources, representing a shift away from an energy dependency on fossil fuels. In the middle of this new energy movement, supercapacitors have attracted particular attention for the possibility of large-scale and high-capacity electricity storage that they promise, and the key they hold to an important technology that will hopefully provoke an energy revolution: a durable, harmless energy storage device has long been the dream of the human race. The technology is now at hand, and its dissemination could change the world. However, the costs of the technology are still prohibitive, and capacitors are in general a costly proposition. This exhibition sees Takamine experiments with the branding of these enigmatic supercapacitor energy storage systems. This August, Takamine will be involved in a collaborative event together with musician Yoshihide Otomo at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM). In November, he will also mount a solo exhibition at the Sendai Mediatheque, and publish a book with Kawade Shobo Shinsha.

The permanent exhibition "Information Science Technology and Society" focuses on work that encourages active first-hand participation while learning more about information technology. For this exhibition, this floor of about 150 square meters has been renovated in order to create the "Media Lab," a flexible space capable of accommodating various exhibition configurations. In the ever-changing field of information technology, the content of permanent exhibitions on the topic frequently faced difficulties in keeping pace with what they attempted to showcase. Instead of changing exhibitions frequently, the same space of the exhibition venue is remolded each time in a manner befitting the exhibition contents, flexibly. The "Media Lab", unlike existing conceptions of permanent exhibitions, is distinguished by a space made up of several modular, flexible "media walls" for display purposes, which are themselves not limited to that one use. In order for it to become a space that is continually made and remade, endlessly, the actual structure of the space is simple and terse, allowing a flexible response to viewer needs and the requirements of the exhibition materials. From April 24th (Thu) to August 31st (Sun), a special exhibition entitled "Expressive Researchers" will be held, taking its inspiration from the intersection and fusion of art, technology and science, showcasing the "device art" mechanisms that will challenge future frameworks through which art will be created.

The Hakone Open-Air Museum was opened in 1969 to create a harmonic balance of the great nature of Hakone and Art. The unique experiences of open-air museum await you, as different seasons and weather create an ever-changing sensation of true art. The Museum realizes the philosophy of Henry Moore “Sculpture is an art of the open-air” with a grand backdrop of Hakone's great nature.

Our permanent exhibition, held on the first floor, features the work of metal-cast artists Hotsuma Katori and Shinobu Tsuda. Both being born in the same period, in the Hokuso area of Chiba Prefecture, the two were opposites in artistic viewpoints; Katori emphasized tradition while Tsuda called for revolution. Works on display will be rotated every three months.

Artist Motohiro Tomii will create sculptural works using ready-made objects. The sculptures will then become permanent collections of ARCUS Project and exhibited inside Building B. Moriya Manabi-no-sato, where ARCUS Studio is located, has a music room, cooking room, and craft shop, and the facilities are used by neighborhood residents regularly. The exhibition does not have a closing date, and all works will be exhibited until they decay naturally. Opening Reception: March 22nd (Sat), 18:30- at ARCUS Studio Please contact venue to attend by phone or fax. (0297-46-2600)

July 21st (Mon)-July 27th (Sun) [W:1-A] David Wang Painting and Illustration July 21st (Mon)-July 27th (Sun) [W:2-A] Ikue Furuichi Exhibition Painting July 23rd (Wed)-July 25th (Fri) [W:1-G] Broccoli & Co "New Product Public Relations." 2 Artists: Installatiuon, Art Book and Product Design July 24th (Thu)-July 26th (Sat) [W:2-B 2-C] Japan Women's University Nishiikuta Photo Club Group: Photography July 25th (Fri)-July 27th (Sun) [E:202] Temple University Japan "Tokyo Stories Summer 2008" Group: Photography, Multimedia [Image: Broccoli & Co "New Product Public Relations."]

[Image: "Portable House" (2008)]

[Image from Kiyooka's previous exhibition]

Joseph Bolstad and Mayuko Kono will be exhibiting 14 works in the gallery space as well as one large-scale outdoor collaborative work made of plastic baskets. Having worked closely together for the past five years, both artists have developed a keen interest in ordinary objects as a starting point for creating their works. Bolstad frequently manipulates toys and other items into darkly humorous patterned configurations, while Kono’s works are ethereal transformations of items seen in everyday life. Opening Reception: August 29th (Fri) 18:00-20:30 *Open on weekends only.