"Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York"

For Immediate Release

Japan Society Gallery Presents
Making A Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York
October 5, 2007 through January 13, 2008

Featured Exhibition of the Centennial Program
JAPAN100: CELEBRATING A CENTURY (1907 -2007)

New York, NY, August 8, 2007--To celebrate the strong and historic cultural links between Japan and New York, Japan Society Gallery presents Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York from October 5, 2007 through January 13, 2008. The second featured exhibition of Japan Society's 2007-08 centennial celebration, Making a Home is a large-scale group exhibition featuring the work of 33 Japanese contemporary artists who call New York City home.  The show not only includes a broad range of media--from painting, sculpture, and photography to fashion, architecture, and sound art--but also covers diverse age groups, identities, experiences, and styles that display the breadth and depth of Japanese contemporary art as developed, practiced, and presented in New York.  Ranging from Misaki Kawai's playful sculptures that capture the artist's interior fantasy world to the renowned artist Yoko Ono's poignant conceptualism, the artists and works included in the exhibition provide insight into ideas and processes stimulated by the confluence of cultures that is New York City.

Presenting works by artists who have been active in New York since the 1960s as well as young artists who have been in the city only a few years, Making a Home emphasizes that Japanese artists have made the city their home for decades, and for a variety of reasons.  Some came for enhanced exposure to the international art world; some came to escape restrictions in Japan; still others came for the challenge of taking their artwork in wholly new directions.  In each artist’s case, the city has provided a context and catalyst for his/her work to flourish and develop.  Although their individual practices are unique, these artists share the common trait of venturing from their homes in Japan to stake claim to the capital of the international art world, New York City, where each has created a new aesthetic vocabulary influenced by Japan, New York, and the world beyond.

About the Exhibition
Making a Home will include works by such luminaries as Fluxus founding member Yoko Ono, Yasunao Tone, and Ushio Shinohara—some of the vanguard leaders of contemporary art in both Japan and the United States.  In addition, the show will introduce the work of several emerging artists, including Misaki Kawai, Hiroyuki Nakamura, and Hiroki Otsuka.  The entire gallery space and other public areas of Japan Society will come alive with a massive wall mural painted in Japanese ink by Otsuka and mannequins wearing the creations of fashion house United Bamboo, among several other installations.  A number of new works were also commissioned specifically for the exhibition.

Making a Home also aspires to expand the concept of “Japanese contemporary art” and establish the idea of a Japanese aesthetic diaspora in New York City.  In doing so, it will examine the contribution of Japanese contemporary art to global trends, identities, and outlooks.  Today, it is no longer possible to speak of Japanese contemporary art as a purely Japanese phenomenon.  The increasingly rapid flow of information around the world has made it necessary to view the production of Japanese artists both inside and outside Japan within a global framework.  This ongoing international dialogue has changed the Japanese contemporary art scene into a melting pot of ideas, visions, and identities, much like New York City itself.

The exhibition has been divided into six sections, each closely connected to the notion of what separates a mere “place” from a “home”: “Building Environments,” “Intimacy and Identity,” “Coping with Loss,” “Meditative Space,” “The Process of Making,” and “Referencing the Landscape.”

“Building Environments” focuses on artists who have examined, interpreted, and manipulated the various spaces of New York, Japan Society, and the world around them, often via site-specific installations.  Artists in this section include Misaki Kawai; her Space House draws upon past anecdotes and mementos of her life to create a whimsical spaceship that hovers above Japan Society’s first-floor pond.

“Intimacy and Identity” explores the unavoidable close proximity in which both New Yorkers and Japanese live and its impact on personal and social consciousness.  Photographer Takahiro Kaneyama’s images document the daily minutiae of his aunts’ and his mother’s lives, from famous tourist sites across Japan to the hospital where his mother receives treatment for schizophrenia.

“Coping with Loss” addresses the subject of loss and grieving, where home is the first and often ultimate refuge.  The artists of Making a Home engage this topic in a variety of ways, from the loss of the personal to the inevitable and universal loss of youth.  New Yorkers experienced no greater a collective loss in the city’s history than the 9/11 tragedy; reflecting upon it, Hiroshi Sunairi has created an installation with a sculpted white elephant, a Buddhist symbol of benevolence, distributed piece-by-piece throughout a quiet room.

“Meditative Space” draws upon the difficulty New Yorkers face in finding a tranquil place, and the precious nature of such places when they are discovered.  For Making a Home, several artists have created their own places of thoughtful refuge.  Kunie Sugiura has crafted a room that is literally reflective with mirrored floors and Mylar-covered walls; large photograms of Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, and Ushio Shinohara within present themselves for the consideration of artist and audience alike.

“The Process of Making” focuses on the complex and unique techniques that define the aesthetic of each participating artist.  For mixed-media artist Mayumi Terada, this process involves the building of small, carefully detailed dioramas, which are then photographed in a way that transforms the model into what appears to be a life-sized room, literally “making a home” for the viewer’s eye.

“Referencing the Landscape,” the last segment of Making a Home, considers the environment and structures of New York City itself.  This is typified by Go Sugimoto’s photographs, which he created by walking the city’s streets at night and capturing images of its trees and buildings illuminated solely by streetlamps and moonlight. 

Making a Home concludes with a series of Toru Hayashi’s drawings of environments crafted with a sparing use of lines. Displayed in Japan Society’s lower level, this series thematically encompasses all six sections of the exhibition and serves as an epilogue to Making a Home. In addition, each artist has been asked to respond to a ten-question survey regarding their experience of becoming New Yorkers and its impact on their practice, selections from which will be reprinted in the exhibition catalogue.

The artists featured in Making a Home (see list below) are all Japanese-born. Migration experiences range from Kyoko Sera who came to the US at the age of 44, to the "accidental New Yorker" Yoichiro Yoda, who was brought to New York by his artist parents at the age of three months. Widely diverse in terms of generation, personality, and practice, all of the artists have met the uncertainty that comes with starting afresh. They have dedicated their lives and careers to creating work in an adopted milieu, and in the process have established a true Japanese contemporary art diaspora in the very midst of New York City.  For them, making a home and making art are one and the same.

Artists featured in Making a Home are: ON megumi Akiyoshi, Noriko Ambe, Ei Arakawa, Satoru Eguchi, Ayakoh Furukawa, Toru Hayashi, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, Takahiro Kaneyama, Emiko Kasahara, Misaki Kawai, Miwa Koizumi, Yumi Kori, Nobuho Nagasawa, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Yoko Ono, Hiroki Otsuka, Katsuhiro Saiki, Kyoko Sera, Noriko Shinohara, Ushio Shinohara, Go Sugimoto, Kunie Sugiura, Hiroshi Sunairi, Mayumi Terada, Yuken Teruya, Yasunao Tone, Momoyo Torimitsu, United Bamboo, Aya Uekawa, Junko Yoda, Toshihisa Yoda and Yoichiro Yoda.

About the Curator
Eric C. Shiner is an independent curator and art historian specializing in Japanese contemporary art.  He holds master’s degrees in the history of art from Yale University and Osaka University and focuses on the concept of bodily transformation in postwar Japanese photography, painting, and performance art.  Shiner was an assistant curator of the Yokohama Triennale, Japan's first-ever large-scale exhibition of international contemporary art, held in 2001.  He has also organized exhibitions in Chicago at Julia Friedman Gallery (2002) and in New York City at Ise Cultural Foundation (2004), Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, and White Box (2007), ChinaSquare Gallery, Onishi Gallery and Zone:Chelsea Center for the Arts.  In addition, Shiner has assisted in organizing exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.  He is an active writer and translator, a contributing editor for ArtAsiaPacific magazine, and adjunct professor of Asian art history at Pace University.

Exhibition Catalogue
The full-color catalogue is authored by Eric Shiner and Reiko Tomii, a leader scholar of contemporary Japanese art who has worked on many previous Japan Society exhibitions. Published by Japan Society and distributed by Yale University Press, it includes extended essays by both authors, as well as shorter texts, many of them contributed by other specialists, on each of the artists in the exhibition.

Organizers & Sponsors
Making a Home:  Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York is sponsored, in part, by Nooka Inc.  Additional support is provided by The Japan Foundation, the New York State Coucil on the Arts, Tug Studio, Jack and Susy Wadsworth, Chris A. Wachenheim, and the Leadership Committee for Making a Home.  Media sponsorship is provided by WNYC and LTB Media.  As part of the Millennium on View program, Millennium UN Plaza is the preferred hotel partner of Japan Society’s Centennial.  Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines. Exhibitions at Japan Society are also made possible in part by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund and the Friends of the Gallery.  Installations at Japan Society Gallery are supported by a generous gift from Henry Cornell.

Related Programming
In conjunction with Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists in New York, Japan Society presents a full slate of education and lecture programs, tours, and special events, including:

Docent Corps
Japan Society's provides interactive, docent led exhibition tours complimentary with admission. Volunteer members of the Docent Corps participate in a multi-part training course, which includes lectures, workshops, curatorial walkthroughs and selected readings. Daily throughout Making a Home at 12:30 pm with additional tours Saturday & Sunday at 2 pm and Japanese-language tours Fridays at 6 pm.

The Student Docent Program
This school program for grades 10 through 12 equips students with the skills to discover and engage with the arts and culture of Japan. Select students are taught techniques to facilitate conversations about art with their classmates and participate in a multi-part training course, which focuses on the critical study of cultural products within historical, social, and cultural contexts. Throughout October 2007.

Student Gallery Lessons PreK-12: Making a Home
Planned in collaboration with teachers and group coordinators, students take part in object-centered, guided discussions of Making a Home and respond through drawing, writing and movement assignments. Themes explored include issues of identity and place origin, self-expression, and social responsibilities of artists. Tuesday-Friday, 11 am-Noon and by appointment throughout Making a Home.

openhousenewyork (OHNY) at Japan Society
During the opening weekend of Making a Home, Japan Society makes its inaugural appearance in the OHNY Weekend, which showcases exemplary structures in all five city boroughs over two days. Exploring the Society's distinctive building, designed in 1971 by Junzo Yoshimura site-specific programming includes adult and child-friendly docent-led tours of the building and Making a Home exhibition. Saturday & Sunday, October 6 & 7; adult tours: 12:30 pm, 2 pm, 3:30 pm; family tours: 11 am.

Homes & Houses Japan/New York
Families discover the materials, structures and techniques common to traditional and contemporary Japanese home interiors. A child-friendly talk on Japan Society's building is followed by model house making. For children ages 8-12 and accompanying adults. Part of OHNY Weekend. Sunday, October 7, 2 pm - 4 pm.

Family Tours of Making a Home
Engaging young children with Making a Home while guiding adults in age appropriate, interactive activities, tours use games, puzzles, storytelling, and other techniques for discussing art while exploring broader themes such as the relationship between where one is born and where one lives. 2nd Saturday of each Month: October 13, November 10, December 8, 2007, 2-3 pm.

Open Studios (Off-site Event)
A unique opportunity to meet some of the Making a Home artists in their creative environments and view work in progress. Saturday, October 20, 10 am – 4 pm: Emiko Kasahara, Nobuho Nagasawa, Noriko Shinohara, Ushio Shinohara, Kunie Sugiura, Toshihisa Yoda, Junko Yoda, Yoichiro Yoda; Sunday, October 21, 10 am – 4 pm: Noriko Ambe, Miwa Koizumi, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Hiroki Otsuka, Go Sugimoto.

New Yorkers/Nihonjin/Artists: What Does it Mean to Make a Home?
Using Making a Home as a starting point, this lecture explores identity, place, and nationalism within culture, and their ultimate influence on art. Michael Auslin, Resident Scholar in Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; New York-based artist Naota Nakagawa; and Dore Ashton, Professor of Art History at the Cooper Union School of Art, discuss critical issues of identity, migration, and social integration in the historical, social and political context of the 1950s through the present. Moderated by Eric C. Shiner, curator of Making a Home. Tuesday, November 6, 6:30 pm.

Art Cart: Where do you Call Home?
Families have the rare opportunity to work closely with a New York City-based artist featured in Making a Home. During the event, children and accompanying adults explore issues of residency, permanence and identity as they create their own works of art that consider the meaning of “home”. Sunday, November 11, 2007 2-4pm.

Responding to Making a Home
Two groups of youth engage in activities including Gallery lessons, scholarly lectures and artists’ demonstrations, culminating in an exhibition of student work created in response to Making a Home. Throughout Making a Home; student exhibition dates TBD.

Turning Japanese
In conjunction with Making a Home, Japan Society's performing arts program presents a fall season dedicated to the influence of Japan on New York City and U.S.-based artists. Onsite programming includes Basil Twists' Bessie Award-winning Dogugaeshi (September 12-22); over 30 world-class butoh dance performers for Kazuo Ohno 101: 3-Week Butoh Parade (October 9-27); and the first full scale remounting since the 1969 world premiere of Harry Partch's noh-inspired masterpiece Delusion of the Fury (December 4, 6-8). In honor of Japan Society's centennial, the celebration goes city-wide as several major organizations offer Japan-related programming as part of Turning Japanese, including BAM, P.S. 122, and Dance Theater Workshop among others.

About Japan Society Gallery
Japan Society Gallery is among the premier institutions in the United States for the exhibition, research, and publication of Japanese art.  Extending in scope from prehistory to the present, the Gallery's exhibitions have covered topics as disparate as classical Buddhist sculpture, contemporary photography, and media arts.  The Gallery presents two major exhibitions each year, working with leading museums in Japan, United States, Asia, and Europe to bring together objects of cultural significance, historical importance, and high aesthetic value.  In conjunction with exhibitions, Japan Society Gallery publishes scholarly catalogues and conducts educational programs including lectures, guided tours, and symposia of international importance.  Through these activities, the Gallery contributes to the scholarship, connoisseurship, and appreciation of the art and culture of Japan and East Asia.

Recent internationally recognized exhibitions include YES: Yoko Ono (2000); Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, curated by Takashi Murakami (2005); Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History (2005), touring the United States and Canada in 2007; and Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century (2006), organized and presented by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and curated by Joe Earle.  Japan Society produced its first exhibition in 1911, which inspired the Society's first major publication, Japanese Colour Prints by Frederick Gookin (1913), and presented numerous exhibitions thereafter at various venues.  After the completion of the Society's landmark building designed by Junzo Yoshimura located near the United Nations, Japan Society Gallery opened in 1972 as a permanent home for the visual arts.  Past directors of Japan Society Gallery include founding director Rand Castile (1971-1986), Anthony Derham (1986-1989), Gunhild Avitabile (1990-1998), and Alexandra Munroe (1998-2005).  Appointed in April 2007, Joe Earle assumes his role as Japan Society's Vice President and Director of the Gallery on September 4, 2007.

About Japan Society
Founded in 1907 by prominent New York City business people and philanthropists, Japan Society has evolved over 100 years into an internationally recognized nonprofit organization presenting a full range of programs within arts and culture, business, education, family, and public policy.  Through over 100 events annually, Japan Society creates rich encounters and exchanges that offer opportunities to experience Japanese culture; foster sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the United States, Japan, and East Asia; and improve access to information on Japan.

Japan Society celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding with Japan100: Celebrating a Century, an unprecedented array of high-profile programming in 2007-08.  The celebration occurs throughout New York City and in Japan with further national and international exposure through traveling exhibitions, performing arts tours, symposia, fellowships, and exchanges.  Visit www.japan100.org for more information on centennial events and a historical tour of the Society.

Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street between First and Second Avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 and 7 subway at Grand Central or the E and V subway at Lexington Avenue).  Call 212-832-1155 or visit www.japansociety.org for more information.
 
Japan Society Gallery hours: Tuesday through Thursday, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; the Gallery is closed on Mondays and major holidays.  Admission: $12; students and seniors $10; Japan Society members and children under 16 free.  Admission is free to all on Friday nights, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

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Media Contacts

For further information, interviews, and images, please refer to the following contacts:

Kellie Honeycutt
Blue Medium, Inc.
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E: kellie@bluemedium.com

Shannon Jowett
Japan Society
T: (212) 715-1205
F: (212) 715-1262
E: sjowett@japansociety.org