Celebrating the publication of Fuyuko Matsui's monograph from Kawade Shobo Shinsha and Editions Treville, this exhibition showcases her selected works from the gallery collection. A wide range of works, such as her early representitive "yurei-ga" (depiction of ghost), dynamic drawings from her years as a student which reveal her gift and capability, the anatomy charts considered as her life-long theme, as well as the sketches rarely exhibited before, will be presented with the aim to overview her aspiring career. [Image: "A Study" (2000) color on silk]

This exhibition features 70 masterworks of 20th century Japanese art, divided into 3 sections: "Drawing", "Pasting", and "Taking". Most of these works are rarely displayed. In addition, all 34 works from pioneering Surrealist Max Ernst's "Natural History Magazine" collection will be on display as a special exhibition.

Gardens are things that evince the various relationships between nature and humans. This exhibition explores the notion of the garden in modern and contemporary art, taking the light-filled third floor exhibition space to be an rooftop garden of sorts. Whether idealized as a sort of lost paradise in our memories, or captured as a record of nature's myriad phenomena, or even a kind of ludic space freed from the orderly strictures of the conventional world, artists have interpreted and recast this age-old trope in a stunningly varied number of ways. Showcasing their works in 10 different sections, each artist in this exhibition will approach such "cut-off pieces of nature from the land" through their own unique ways. For related programs and more, please see the museum website.

Hirofumi Toyama has continued to develop a distinctive style through his meticulous control of his canvas. However, his style dramatically changed in 2005, at which point he elected to combine concepts of both drawing and painting. Placing his paper as well as canvas side by side on the floor, he creates a painting and a drawing simultaneously. The form of the resulting work is dictated by the process itself, eliminating the contrived approach of pictorial composition. [Image: "Tableau 1" (2008) Canvas, acrylic urethane 240 x 164cm]

Celebrating the opening of new metro Fukutoshin Line, 14 works by 12 representative Japanese artists are now on view at 8 stations along the line. Celebrating the completion of these public art pieces, this "Public Art" exhibition showcases original drawings of all the works. Additionally, each artist's production process will be introduced through video screenings and photographs, revealing the starting points of their creative ideas which all resulted in achieving spaces filled with a sense of plenitude and affluence.

Exhibition of original drawings by award winner at the 13th Shogakkan Ohisama Picture Book exhibition in 2007. In addition to the 8th issue of Ohisama to be published on July 1st, this is Imada's second burst of fire at Nishi-Ogi!

"Here’s why patterns" features artists: Josh Blackwell (born in 1972, USA, lives and works in New York) utilizes the visual vocabulary (and occasionally the material itself) of fashion to further explore abstraction within art context. Fergus Feehily’s (born in 1968, Ireland, lives and works in Dublin and Stuttgart) self-reflexive paintings, drawings and objects gently assert the place of art/abstraction in examining themes like the grand and modest. Ruth Laskey’s (born in 1975, USA, lives and works in San Francisco) weaving and watercolor studies re-assert the value/place of art/abstraction in the everyday context. Rooted in the day-to-day experience of life in Tokyo, Shimon Minamikawa’s (born in 1972, Japan, lives and works in Tokyo) works illustrate the relevance of art to contemporary culture. [Image: Josh Blackwell "Verlyn (XXL)" (2007) Paper, gouache, pins 59.5 x 53 inches 151 x 134.5 cm]

Girls hitting each other, skateboarding teenagers. Enami Nara won the gold award at Takashi Murakami's "Geisai #10" exhibition held in September 2006, gaining much attention for her images that were initially featured in magazines, on TV, and the Internet. Her work cycles between subject and object, filled with a sense of dynamism and premised on strange sense of reality in which features someone who we have neither met nor spoken to in a "one-scene" that gradually comes into view for our senses. This exhibition is Nara's first solo show since the Geisai award. In addition to new paintings, acrylic on canvas, prints and drawings focusing on her representative "Fight" series will be on display.

Yu Akinaga's recent pencil drawings and his past works are on display. Limited editions of specially packaged book by Akinaga will be also available at the gallery. This exhibition aims to present a "quiet carnival" with his delicate small works.

Between June 21st and July 18th, TKG Daikanyama will be showing works by Tam Ochiai, Dennis Holingsworth, Bohnchang Koo, Keisuke Yamamoto, Adam Silverman, Nobuhiro Fukui and Nana Funo. Works include Tam Ochiai's "cat sculpture" series exhibited at Tomio Koyama in 2007, alluring photographs of used soap reminiscent of jewelry by Korean artist Bohnchang Koo, a drawing from Dennis Holingsworth's "Wet on Wet" series, and Keisuke Yamamoto's fantastical painting consisting of playful motifs such as trees, plants, mushrooms, and fairy-like girls. Also this exhibition presents four works by young emerging photographer Nobuhiro Fukui and a painting by Nana Funo, who is also currently holding a solo exhibition in Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kiyosumi. Flower vessels from the "Hyena" series by Adam Silverman are also on display. [Image: Nobuhiro Fukui]

This is a retrospective exhibition of representative Yo-ga painter Hiroshi Okutani. Okutani was born in Shukumo City in Kochi prefecture in 1934. He studied oil painting at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music, exploring representational painting while the trend of the time was abstract painting. After graduating, he began working as an assistant at the school, creating fresco painting. While doing this, he began to incorporate the technique of using thin layers of paint. His work began to be known in public in 1967, and Okutani took a chance to go to France with government sponsorship. After absorbing various expressions found in western painting, Okutani returned to Japan, but decided to go back to France in 1971. Living there for three years, he expanded his interest and established his original style of vividly composing images and colors. Okutani has received a number of awards, including the "Person of Cultural Merits" award last year. This exhibition showcases 57 paintings as well as drawings he created since the age of 20, introducing his career, which spans half a century. Related Events (1) Hiroshi Okutani x Museum Director Ichikawa Gallery Talk Dates: June 18th (Wed) & July 5th (Sat) 13:30-14:30 Exhibition ticket required. (2) Gallery Talk Date: July 19th (Sat) 13:30-14:30 Exhibition ticket required. (3) Night Time Gallery Talk by Museum Curators Dates: June 13th (Fri), June 20th (Fri), June 27th (Fri), July 4th (Fri), July 11th (Fri), July 18th (Fri) 18:00-18:20 Exhibition ticket required. [Image: "Budda's Head" (1998) Private collection]

Reception: June 24th (Tue) 17:00-19:00

The animated film "Tekkon Kinkreet" (adapted from the original work by Taiyo Matsumoto) was released in theaters in the winter of 2006, receiving much acclaim from viewers. The movie won the best animation prize in the 31st Japan Academy Awards. This exhibition presents original illustrations and sketches created for the production of the film. Editor's comments and notes along with the drawings show how the film was created. Enjoy the never-before-seen creation of "Tekkon" through these original illustrations. [Image: (c) Taiyo Matsumoto/ Shogakukan, Aniplex, Asmik Ace, Beyond C., Dentsu, Tokyo MX]

Commemorating the Yokohama France Month, the 8th exhibition at Yokohama Bayquarter Gallery Box presents French artist Audrey Fondecave, who is working in Japan. Fondecave creates drawings and installations based on children's stories that are widely read in her home country France. Referring to the cultural viewpoints of French tradition, she creates works that are intertwined with her own ideas. For this exhibition, Fondecave created a total of 27 works to be displayed in Bayquarter Gallery Box located on each floor of the Bayquarter building. "L’histoire dans la boîte" - her unique stories are contained inside the box.

The two architects, Peter Märkli (b. 1953) from Switzerland and Jun Aoki (b. 1956) from Japan, share a strong interest in paintings and sculpture. This exhibition presents many of more than 300 drawings and 100 study models to capture the flickers that emerge while architects' ideas take form. [Image: Peter Märkli "Drawing" (date unknown) © the artist]

Drawing collaboration between Shantell Martin and Sara Partch at Ebisupark. Closing Party: August 9th (Sat) 14:00-17:00

Location: Exhibition Room 3

The Canadian Embassy presents an exhibition of around 25 works by George Raab who is based in Millbrook, northeast of Toronto. Raab has gained an international reputation for his wilderness landscape etchings. His etchings for the most part are peaceful and contemplative. Some have a sense of mystery and many are winter scenes; the season in which the landscape is reduced to mere silhouettes of leafless trees and little colour. This exhibition features his landscape etchings of Canada’s natural areas including the new work of the large screen of a forest landscape. His intention was to create a bridge between his imagery and a traditional Japanese presentation. Raab also has the hope that in some way, his images kindle a keener appreciation of our diminishing natural environment and in turn cause us to think more about the importance of protecting it for aesthetic inspiration and biological diversity. The techniques he uses to create his original intaglio prints are etching, aquatint, engraving, photo-etching, and watercolour painting. The etching plates are hand worked, proofed and printed on his manual etching press and some of the resulting images are hand coloured. He has held dozens of solo exhibitions and has participated in more than a hundred group shows worldwide, and his work is included in many public, private, and corporate collections.

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]

Walking around the museum grounds reveals a wealth of color, sound and light waiting to be discovered. In addition, the various exhibited works, workshops - not to mention the picturesque pond facing the Kamukura annex - all serve as a connecting point for the art, expanding the horizon and experience of the exhibition. A total of 5 workshops are planned over the period of the exhibition. [Image: Masamichi Yamamoto, "Landscape with Visible Ruins", 1976]

1. Opening Talk April 26th (Sat) 17:00-18:00 Speaker: Fabrice Hyber Hyber will speak about the exhibition theme of "growing seeds," his recent activities, as well as the farms he has helped to build in Vendée. Fee: ¥1500 (Watari-Um museum supporters and members free) 2. "Seed and Grow" exhibition talk 1st session: May 17th (Sat) 19:00-21:00 "The 21st century is the age of farming" Speaker: Isoya Shinji (Tokyo Agricultural University) Agriculturalization of our cities. Coexistence of humans and nature. 2nd session: June 21st (Sat) "Where will we go to live? Urban agriculture" Speaker: Yoshitaka Shiraishi (Shirashi Farm) Runs the experiential farm "Kaze no Kakko" in Nerima Ward, Tokyo. Conducts activities linking the local people to each other through farming and agriculture. Shiraishi will speak about the importance of local farming and procurement of ingredients. "In Search of the original 'Farm'" Speaker: Shinji Abe (Tsubura Farm) Born in Tokyo and raised in Yokohama, Abe will talk about how he got acquainted with farming despite an urban, salaryman existence. 3rd session: July 5th (Sat) "About Tokyo today" Speaker: Michihiko Yanai (creative director) Established "Kaze to Rokku" in 2003 after working in advertising. A practiced copywriter, Yanai will speak on the future of Tokyo. Fee: ¥2000 per talk (Watari-Um Museum supporters ¥1000, normal members ¥1600) Season pass for all three talks: ¥4800 (Watari-Um Museum supporters ¥2400, normal members ¥3840) 3. "Lunch in a vegetable field" tour July 21st (Mon, national holiday) Speaker: Yoshitaka Shiraishi (Shiraishi farm) Visit to Shiraishi's "Wind School" experiential farm. First-hand experience of how vegetables are grown. The tour will conclude with a delicious vegetable lunch. Fee: ¥2500 + lunch fee (about ¥1800), limited to 28 people. August 8th (Fri) 19:00-21:00 "Bees are our bridge to nature" Speaker: Mitsuo Matsuka (Tamgawa University) Bees visit flowers, gathering pollen and making hives. From bees and royal jelly gathered from hive boxes, this talk introduces this living agricultural product. Fee: ¥800 (Watari-Um Museum supporters ¥400, normal members ¥640) *Please see website for details on attending.

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]

Ryusei Kishida (1891-1929) is well-known for this "Portrait of Reiko", in which he used his own beloved daughter as model. He was one of the most outstanding and unique painters in the Japanese "yoga" style during the Taisho and early Showa periods. Although he passed away at the young age of 38, Kishida produced an oeuvre of disproportionate impact, with many works that brought about fruitful change for the genre. Kishida entered the Hakuba-kai for yoga painting at 17 and studied oil painting with Kiyoteru Kuroda, while simultaneously becoming influenced by the work of the late Impressionists, such as van Gogh and Cezanne, through the pages of the art and culture magazine Shirakaba. Later, Kishida fell for the photographic realism of northern European Renaissance painters like Durer, and began pursuing his own studies of painterly realism, seeking to evoke the "inner beauty" of things and people. From the latter half of the Taisho period onwards, Kishida did a volte-face and turned towards eastern art, in particular Chinese painting of the Song and Yuan dynasties, as well as early ukiyo-e woodblock prints. This eastern aesthetic attracted him and began to be reflected in his own work. In addition to works from the collection of the Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, this exhibition showcases self-portraits and other oil paintings, nihonga, watercolors, rough sketches and book binding illustrations - a total of about 70 works. Please visit the exhibition website for more details. [Image: "Portrait of Girl (Standing Image of Reiko)" (1923) oil on canvas, 53.2 x 45.5 cm. From the collection of the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art]

Exhibition of about 80 single-frame manga by 32 prominent manga artists and illustrators on the theme of "turning points" in relation to people, the environment and the Earth. In the face of worsening global environmental conditions and a diminishing sense of human compassion, many now believe a dramatic change is now absolutely essential. With these works, the artists convey the message that a "return to the future" is possible. [Image: Yoji Kuri, "Scorched Earth"]

Starting from April 16th until the first half of December, exhibitions of around two months each every season are planned. Map series, works on paper, fingerprint series, and cross-sections.

Over 300 treasures derived from Horyuji Temple are stored and displayed here.

Seiki Kuroda (1866-1924) left huge footprints in modern japanese art as a painter, pedagogue and art administrator. He helped revolutionize mid-Meiji period painting, and his influence reached far and wide throughout the literary-art world. 126 oil paintings, 170 dessins, sketchbooks and letters are on exhibit in the Memorial Hall.

Using three floors of the main building, this permanent exhibition presents about 200 to 250 pieces selected from our museum's collection of about 9,200 works, including Japanese- and Western-style paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, photographs and sculptures, to provide a historical overview on modern Japanese art from the beginning of the 20th century to present. The show also includes some overseas works related to Japanese pieces. Many of the exhibits are largely replaced five times a year. In addition to the historical approach, a smaller show, "Topic in Focus" is given in each exhibition period to shed new light on modern Japanese art. The permanent collection is displayed in regular rotation. Please check the museum's website for details.

Works, studies, sketches, ceramics, kimonos, artworks by friends, letters, bamboo crafts, and other belongings of Yokoyama Taikan are on display. Exhibits will change every three months. Closed during summer, winter, and rain season. May be closed in heavy snow or hurricane.

Tatsuo Ikeda celebrates his 80th birthday this year, on the anniversary of the end of WWII. This exhibition centers on his new paintings, as well as valuable drawings and etchings from 1949-50 (during his student days at Tama Zokei Art College), and previously unexhibited pen drawings from the 1950s. Talk show Date and time: July 12th (Sat) 17:00-18:30 Topic: "Overview of postwar Japanese art history" Speakers: Tatsuo Ikeda (artist), Yoshio Ko (producer) Venue: Gallery 58 Free entry, reservation not required [Image: "Eye Within The Eye" (1974) etching in acrylic and pen, 200 x 65mm]

Features the work of Shizuka Goto, an artist who exhibited at the "Who's Next" exhibition in April. With titles like Imoarai, Kurigohan and Yosegaki, Goto draws scenes of wartime events, including one that valorizes her own granduncle who starved to death during the war, rendering the scene in a large-scale manga-style sumi ink painting. Runs until the anniversary of the end of the war. Opening Party: July 8th, 18:00-20:00 (artist will be present) [Image: Yasuka Goto, "Autograph Collection" (2008), oil, acrylic and gouache on canvas, 300x500cm]