Painting for Joy
Pao Gallery
Ends tomorrow
If you still have not caught this exhibition, you have a couple more days to do so. A show from the Japan Foundation, this painting exhibition features nine mid-career artists, several of whom are major players in the Japanese contemporary art scene. Although the work may appear playful or frivolous, there is a serious side to it. Ranging from the highly technical to the more free form, Painting for Joy: New Japanese Painting in 1990s provides a rare glimpse into contemporary Japanese works.
Most interesting are the those by Takashi Murakami, whose small paintings belie the incredible breadth and depth of his work. Murakami makes everything from conceptual sculpture to cartoon characters - and much in between. But there is always a dark vs playful side, critical of the qualities and characters his work exposes. The King's Seat of Two-dimensional Perspective plays with conventional one-point perspective, illustration techniques, and repeated objects (the rice bowl, house and face).
Makato Aida's Design, based on a photograph of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, is a deftly painted and disturbingly beautiful image.