Momoyo Torimitsu rejects kawaii culture
An interview with the New York-based Japanese artist, Momoyo Torimitsu, ran in The Japan Times.
Rejecting kawaii culture: New York-based Momoyo Torimitsu refuses to lump herself in with artists inspired by anime
Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007 - By Kay Itoi
Momoyo Torimitsu (b. 1967) is a little tired of being remembered for Jiro Miyata, a life-size robot she created based on a middle-aged salaryman in 1994. But who could forget? Miyata, which Torimitsu had crawl around the streets of Tokyo, Paris, New York and other cities, so brilliantly embodied the hard working, misunderstood, badly dressed everyman of Japan's post-bubble era. But the artist has since moved on.....
To read more, go here. (Free registration needed.)
Rejecting kawaii culture: New York-based Momoyo Torimitsu refuses to lump herself in with artists inspired by anime
Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007 - By Kay Itoi
Momoyo Torimitsu (b. 1967) is a little tired of being remembered for Jiro Miyata, a life-size robot she created based on a middle-aged salaryman in 1994. But who could forget? Miyata, which Torimitsu had crawl around the streets of Tokyo, Paris, New York and other cities, so brilliantly embodied the hard working, misunderstood, badly dressed everyman of Japan's post-bubble era. But the artist has since moved on.....
To read more, go here. (Free registration needed.)
Yasumasa Morimura interview on ArtNet
Yasumasa Morimura prepares for his performance at Shugoarts on Nov 11, 2006. Photo by David Noble.
"Season of Passion: Interview with Yasumasa Morimura" is up on ArtNet magazine.
It was a rare opportunity to witness the artist Yasumasa Morimura transforming himself into a work of art. At the opening of his show at Shugoarts on Nov. 11, 2006, titled "Season of Passion/A Requiem: Chapter I," Morimura showed up in a plain black sweatsuit, and talked in his typically gentle tone for 10 minutes about his new series to an attentive, overflow audience.
Click here to read more.
Edo Art Revealed: Ukiyoe in Boston
(this article first appeared in the october 23, 2006 issue of newsweek international)
Works Long Stored in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Reach Tokyo
Though it happened a decade ago, Masato Naito vividly remembers the moment of discovery. He and fellow art scholars were studying old Japanese paintings in a research room at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Unfolding a piece of old fabric, they glimpsed a rare cotton banner bearing the portrait of Zhong Kui, the Demon Queller, the legendary Chinese figure believed to ward off evil. The piece was quickly confirmed to be the only existing banner handpainted by the renowned Edo artist Katsushika Hokusai. "We were so excited," recalls Naito, the chief curator of Tokyo's Idemitsu Museum of Arts. That wasn't the only surprise they found while studying more than 700 ukiyo-e paintings collected by a 19th-century Boston surgeon named William Bigelow, which had never been thoroughly examined before. "We didn't know of the existence of 90 percent of them," says Naito. "Those were the happiest days of my career."
Works Long Stored in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Reach Tokyo
Though it happened a decade ago, Masato Naito vividly remembers the moment of discovery. He and fellow art scholars were studying old Japanese paintings in a research room at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Unfolding a piece of old fabric, they glimpsed a rare cotton banner bearing the portrait of Zhong Kui, the Demon Queller, the legendary Chinese figure believed to ward off evil. The piece was quickly confirmed to be the only existing banner handpainted by the renowned Edo artist Katsushika Hokusai. "We were so excited," recalls Naito, the chief curator of Tokyo's Idemitsu Museum of Arts. That wasn't the only surprise they found while studying more than 700 ukiyo-e paintings collected by a 19th-century Boston surgeon named William Bigelow, which had never been thoroughly examined before. "We didn't know of the existence of 90 percent of them," says Naito. "Those were the happiest days of my career."
Regional Roundup Tokyo is up at ARTINFO
"A. 2005" (2005)
Futo Akiyoshi Courtesy of Taro Nasu Tokyo
Regional Roundup - Tokyo is up at ARTINFO. Go to http://www.artinfo.com/News/Article.aspx?a=22611.
Shows mentioned are: Miyako Ishiuchi's "mother's" at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Leiko Ikemura's "Pacific" at Shugoarts; Yosuke Amemiya at Yuka Sasahara and Futo Akiyoshi at Taro Nasu.
