Making a Home: Exhibition Walkthrough

Japan has been a constant presence in New York since 1860, when Walt Whitman witnessed a samurai delegation riding down Broadway. Not long after the first political and commercial visits, awareness of Japanese art began to trickle into Gotham, slowly at first but later building into a thriving network of creative exchange. Making a Home both celebrates the dynamism of artists who have moved here from Japan in recent decades and expands our understanding of Japanese contemporary art. The exhibition shows how a thriving artistic diaspora has developed and contributed to global trends while reaping the benefits of working within the global framework that New York provides.

The 33 selected artists, all Japanese-born, are extremely diverse, but the exhibition’s six sections are linked by ideas we associate with “home,” ranging from comfort and safety found in physical structures to angst and loneliness experienced when living in solitude. All of the Making a Home artists are true citizens of the world who have ventured beyond their homeland to enjoy the advantages of being an artist in New York, as well as experience the uncertainty that comes with starting afresh. They have dedicated their lives and careers to creating beautiful and thought-provoking works in the very midst of our city. For them, making a home and making art are one and the same.

—Eric C. Shiner