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     (l to r): Courtesy of Japan Society. &copy; Tadashi Kawamata.


  Improvisation in Wood: Kawamata x Munakata
   September 30, 2021 – January 16, 2022

Japan Society presents Improvisation in Wood: Kawamata x Munakata, an ambitious exhibition of major works by two preeminent Japanese artists from different generations: Tadashi Kawamata (1953–) and Shikō Munakata (1903–1975). Each artist made significant contributions to their respective media with unconventional and individualistic approaches to working with wood. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Japan Society’s landmark building designed by Junzo Yoshimura, this two-artist exhibition initiates a cross-generational dialogue that reexamines artistic legacy. Contemporary artist Tadashi Kawamata pays homage to Japan Society’s building—the first permanent structure in New York City built by a Japanese citizen—as well as to the master 20th century woodblock artist, Munakata. Kawamata’s new site-specific installation engages prints by Munakata and draws inspiration from Munakata’s signature materials of wood, paper, and ink.

Known for his architectural interventions on public spaces, Kawamata renegotiates the history and memory of a specific place in time. A throughline of the exhibition centers on the importance of New York City on their careers. Kawamata was the first Asian artist-in-residence in 1984 at PS1, where he fostered his early career with a dynamic scale of projects, including his seminal Project on Roosevelt Island (1992). Munakata, an internationally renowned artist associated with the sosaku hanga (creative print) movement and recognized by leaders of the mingei (folk craft) movement, revolutionized the concept of the woodblock print, shifting its understanding as a traditional craft to neo-traditionalism. Displaying pointed juxtapositions between Japan Society’s core collection of Munakata prints alongside new works and archival material by Kawamata, the installation reveals the ways in which the presentation of art and history are shaped by context and perspective.

Improvisation in Wood: Kawamata x Munakata is supported, in part, by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, The Japan Foundation, and The American Chai Trust.   Improvisation in Wood: Kawamata x Munakata is supported, in part, by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Japan Foundation, and The American Chai Trust.



-->Exhibitions and Arts & Culture Lecture Programs at Japan Society are made possible, in part, by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund, the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment Fund established by the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation, Masako H. Shinn, Peggy and Dick Danziger, Raphael and Jane Bernstein, Friends of the Gallery, and an anonymous donor. Support for Arts & Culture Lecture Programs is provided, in part, by the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund. Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the exclusive Japanese airline sponsor of the Gallery and American Airlines, the exclusive U.S. airline sponsor of the Gallery.



Improvisation in Wood: Kawamata x Munakata (Backup)




From Here to There


  From Here to There
   September 24, 2020&mdash;January 21, 2021

  Enter Exhibition

From Here to There is Japan Society's first online, commissioned project initiated as a testing ground for artistic practice, discussion, and production. This dynamic online programming reflects upon the current moment and responds to our collective resilience and desire for meaningful connections. Striving to deepen understanding and encourage public engagement in the Japan-U.S. relationship has been at the heart of Japan Society&rsquo;s mission for over a century.

The ongoing pandemic has exposed our vulnerability but also our resiliency. It has demanded isolation even as opportunities to make connections continue to evolve. Given the current flux of culture and life, From Here to There introduces the work of Nobutaka Aozaki, Hanako Murakami, and Aki Sasamoto, three visual artists whose new projects reckon with time, place, and context.

Each project takes its own direction and interpretation on the theme through its respective medium and attempts to collapse the distinctions that are particularly resonant today: isolation/community; physical/digital; illusions of control/agency. A dossier-style website for each project serves as an experimental testing site and reveals behind-the-scenes videos, photographs, research notes, related texts, and more&mdash;providing living documentation for each in-progress project with regular updates of new material throughout the duration of the show.

Through new and reframed projects, including commissioned works, performances, and digital programs, the exhibition aims to blur boundaries and create meaningful connections that bridge physical sites of artistic production and display, such as artist studios and spaces for exhibition, with online sites to explore creative processes and to cultivate a dialogue around the visual arts today.

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Exhibition Preview







  Past Exhibition Events

                             Virtual Opening: Artists' Presentations &amp; Discussion
            Thursday, September 24, 2020  | Archive

            Nobutaka Aozaki, Hanako Murakami, and Aki Sasamoto&nbsp;introduce their newly developed projects in discussion with Tiffany Lambert and Yukie Kamiya.

                         Nobutaka Aozaki: Retail on Broadway Reading
            Thursday, October 8, 6&mdash;8 PM EDT  | Archive

            Performative reading of the names of all retail businesses currently located along Broadway, brought to life by a collection of invited artists and special guests and choreographed by Nobutaka Aozaki.

                                   Aki Sasamoto: Performance Attempt #1 + Q&amp;A with Daisy Nam
            Thursday, October 22, 6&mdash;7 PM EDT  | Archive

            Artist Aki Sasamoto and collaborators at Yale School of Art participate in an improvisational performance followed by a conversation with Daisy Nam (Ballroom Marfa, Texas).

                                 Hanako Murakami: Making Imaginary Landscapes
            Thursday, November 5, 2&mdash;3 PM EST  | Archive
            Artist Hanako Murakami shows how she processes her work in her personal darkroom.

                                 Aki Sasamoto: Performance Attempt #2 + Q&amp;A with Felipe Arturo
            Thursday, November 19, 6&mdash;7 PM EST  | Archive
            Artist Aki Sasamoto and collaborators at Yale School of Art participate in an improvisational performance followed by a conversation with Felipe Arturo (Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Bogot&aacute;).

                                 Aki Sasamoto: Performance Attempt #3 + Q&amp;A with Kyle Dancewicz
            Thursday,  December 3, 6&mdash;7 PM EST  | Archive
            Artist Aki Sasamoto and collaborators at Yale School of Art participate in an improvisational performance followed by a conversation with Kyle Dancewicz (SculptureCenter, New York).

                                 Nobutaka Aozaki: Artist Talk and Gallery Walkthrough
            Thursday,  December 3, 6&mdash;7 PM EST  | Archive
            Artist Nobutaka Aozaki discusses the development of his commission, followed by a tour of his intervention on view in the Japan Society Gallery.

                              Dialogue: Hanako Murakami x Simon Baker
            Thursday,  January 14, 6&mdash;7 PM EST  | Archive
            This conversation traverses the processes, histories, and strategies of influence from the field of film and photography, exploring how artist Hanako Murakami adapts these techniques in her work. With Simon Baker, Director of Maison Europ&eacute;enne de la Photographie.



From Here to There

Saturday, July 16, 2pm and 5pm

This newly commissioned performance brings to life the works on view in Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line (exhibition now extended through July 24). Yoshiko Chuma, conceptual performing artist, dancer, choreographer and director of The School of Hard Knocks, combines movement and improvised music, erasing the boundaries between onstage and backstage, and between artistic practices. In 1979, Chuma performed among Miyamoto’s string constructions installed as part of the artist’s solo exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery (Yoshiko Chuma in Kazuko Miyamoto: A Girl on Trail Dinosaur). Now, Chuma reconnects with Miyamoto through this event, which runs throughout the entire gallery space. The performance also features three musicians: double bassist Robert Black, viola and violinist Jason Kao Hwang and trombonist Christopher McIntyre.

Concept and direction by Yoshiko Chuma, Artistic Director of The School of Hard Knocks.

Free with Gallery Admission

Performers
Yoshiko Chuma, conceptual artist, choreographer and director
Robert Black, double base
Jason Kao Hwang, violin/viola
Christopher McIntyre, trombone

Yoshiko Chuma is a conceptual artist, choreographer and artistic director of The School of Hard Knocks, founded to create experimental, multidisciplinary, and multimedia work. A firebrand in the post-modern dance scene of New York City since establishing her company in 1980, Chuma produces thought-provoking and category-defying work that is neither dance nor theater nor film. Chuma has performed in over 40 countries throughout the United States, East and Central Europe, Asia, Middle East, and South America and with over 2,000 collaborators, from street performance to formal theater and dance concerts to large-scale spectacles. Notable international performers involved in The School of Hard Knocks include Stephen Petronio, Vicky Schick, Jodi Melnick, David Zambrano, Sasha Waltz, Sarah Michelson, DD Dorvillier, Allyson Green, Miraim Parker, Simon Courchel, John Jasperse and David Dorfman, among others.

Robert Black tours the world creating unheard-of music for the double bass, collaborating with artists in all disciplines. He has been the Bang on a Can All-Stars bassist since their inception. Current projects include First Fridays with Robert Black – a monthly series of streamed bass recitals, a 10-channel audio/video bass installation reflecting on the Anthropocene with sound-artists Brian House and Sue Huang, and an outdoor environmental work for 24 basses with composer Eve Beglarian. He founded and directed the Robert Black Foundation Trust, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support contemporary musical arts activities in all possible manifestations.

The music of Jason Kao Hwang (violin/viola) explores the vibrations and language of his history. His most recent releases, The Human Rites Trio and Conjure, as well as his 2015 have received critical acclaim. In 2020, 2019, 2018, 2013 and 2012, the El Intruso International Jazz Critics Poll voted him #1 for Violin/Viola.  The 2012 Downbeat Jazz Critics’ Poll voted Mr. Hwang as Rising Star for Violin. He has worked with William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Butch Morris, Reggie Workman, Pauline Oliveros, and many others.

Christopher McIntyre performs on trombone and electronics in various musical contexts (from improvisative to interpretive) within the protean NYC music community. He is Director and Co-Founder of Brooklyn’s TILT Brass, curates programs for Either/Or Ensemble, teaches contemporary brass chamber music at Mannes School of Music at The New School, and frequently performs in groups such as TILT, Either/Or, SEM and Talea Ensembles, among many others. He can be heard on recordings released by New World, Tzadik, XI, Mode, Edition Modern, POTTR, zOaR, and Non-Site Records. McIntyre has contributed to the broad revival of composer Julius Eastman’s music, having transcribed and/or created several score realizations since 2006. He also composes his own music for various media and instrumental forces, often employing creative systems suggested by the work of visual artists (particularly Robert Smithson.)

RSVP

Tipping Utopia Toward Kazuko Miyamoto

Saturday, July 9, 2-5 pm

Held in conjunction with the exhibition, Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line (exhibition now extended through July 24), this half-day symposium on the artist features an interdisciplinary group of artists, curators and scholars. Each speaker will discuss an important perspective on Kazuko Miyamoto’s innovative practice over the past five decades. Topics include feminism in the arts, close readings of specific works, the New York avant-garde, and the role of collaboration and community in artistic practice. The closing panel will reflect on the themes and ideas that have emerged from the earlier presentations as well as broaden the conversation to engage with contemporary matters and practices.

Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line—the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition—traces the conceptual complexity and visual range of an artist who has challenged and broadened the legacy of post-1960s international art. Miyamoto was born in Tokyo in 1942, and has lived and worked in New York City’s Lower East Side neighborhood since 1964. From 1968, the artist responded to and critiqued the innovations of Minimalism by emphasizing a handmade process and performance. Her involvement as an early member of New York’s A.I.R. (Artists in Residence) Gallery, the first all-female collective in the United States, and the establishment of her own Gallery Onetwentyeight in 1986, underscore the importance of feminism, collaboration and community in her practice.

Speakers
Elise Armani, art historian
Roxana Fabius, Executive Director of A.I.R. Gallery
Leon Ransmeier, exhibition designer and founder of Ransmeier, Inc.
Barbara Stehle,  curator, and art historian
Kunie Sugiura, artist

About the Speakers

Elise Armani is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History and Criticism at Stony Brook University, where her dissertation examines transnational artist networks on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Her MA thesis was the first scholarly investigation of Kazuko Miyamoto's time in New York from 1964 to the present. She is a Graduate Council Fellow, a recipient of the Miriam and Maurice Goldberger Fellowship, and was the president of the Art History Graduate Student Organization from 2020 to 2022. She holds a BA in Gender Studies and BFA in Art Practice from the University of Minnesota. In correspondence with her scholarship, Armani has an active independent curatorial practice and has contributed to projects at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Weisman Art Museum and TANK Shanghai.

Roxana Fabius  is the Executive Director of A.I.R. Gallery, an artist-run nonprofit arts organization and exhibition space founded in 1972 as the first all-female artist cooperative gallery in the United States. She has served as an adjunct professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, and Tel Aviv University, and has organized exhibitions at the Judd Foundation (New York), The Park Avenue Armory (New York) and the Cultural Center of Spain (Uruguay), among others.

Leon Ransmeier is the founder of Ransmeier Inc., a New York-based design office. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, his work has been published internationally and is included in permanent collections at SFMOMA and The Corning Museum of Glass. Clients include 2016/ Arita, HAY, Herman Miller, Japan Creative, Maharam, Mattiazzi, and SPACE10. He is a founding member of the Tokyo-based coffee products company ENTO. Ransmeier has spoken at Aalto University in Helsinki, California College of the Arts and Pratt Institute, and has lectured and led multiple design workshops at Cranbrook Academy of Art. He is an ongoing visiting critic at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Parsons School of Design and his research has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Dr. Barbara Stehle is an art historian and independent curator. She worked at the Pompidou Center in Paris before moving to the US. She has given a Tedx talk about “Architecture as Human Narrative” and writes about Art, Architecture and Women’s contribution to the art historical field. She teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2021, she curated “Kazuko Miyamoto in the Sol LeWitt Collection” at Zürcher Gallery. She is putting the final touch this summer on a book about Kazuko Miyamoto’s works in the Sol LeWitt Collection.

Kunié Sugiura practice explores a diverse range of photographic expression. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1967. At SAIC, Sugiura studied under the conceptual photographer Kenneth Josephson. After experimenting with color photography in the 1960s and combining acrylic paint with photography on canvas in the 1970s, Sugiura began producing photograms with everyday objects in the 1980s. While pursuing connections between photography and other media, she has also been interested in photography’s materiality, and the way that this materiality can be abstracted. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Register

Kazuko Miyamoto: A Symposium



  Courtesy of the artist and Zürcher Gallery, New York/Paris


  Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line
  April 29 – July 24, 2022

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日本語はこちらから open_in_new

Tickets are available for Japan Society members only through Thursday, April 14. Not a member? Join today!-->
Japan Society will present the solo exhibition Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line between April 29–July 24, 2022. The exhibition will be the first institutional survey of Kazuko Miyamoto (b.1942, Tokyo), a relatively little-known but significant artist, and will provide a long overdue examination of this singular artist’s career. This exhibition reclaims Miyamoto’s contributions to the development of Minimalism, challenging its general understanding as male dominated, and embraces her highly individual artistic pursuit to reveal a sustained interest in the body through evocative conceptual experiments and investigations in performance and textiles.

Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line provides an overview of the artist’s work, moving from her contributions to the Minimalism movement through early paintings and drawings from the 1960s, and her increasingly spatial string constructions in the 1970s, to her conceptual experiments in performance, culminating in her kimono series from 1987 through the 1990s. A number of works that will be on view have never been shown publicly, offering a crucial opportunity for the public to encounter Miyamoto’s rich oeuvre for the first time.

#KazukoMiyamoto

Ticket Prices
            $12 non-member/$10 students and seniors
            Admission is always free for members, patrons with disabilities and an accompanying Personal Care Assistant

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Japan Society is a proud member of Museums for All and accepts Culture Pass. If eligible, please select these options at check-out. Please bring proof of your enrollment in Culture Pass or present your SNAP or EBT card to access Museums for All benefits.

Timed Tickets
Plan your visit in advance by reserving timed tickets today.

                 Timed Tickets between:

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                 12:00-2:00 pm

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                 2:00-6:00 pm

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Exhibition Dates
April 29 - July 24, 2022


Digital Exhibition Guide (PDF)


Exhibition Preview







Exhibition 3D Tour

Related Events

			Kazuko Miyamoto: A Symposium

				In-Person Event
          Held in conjunction with the exhibition, Kazuko Miyamoto: To perform a line, this half-day symposium on the artist features an interdisciplinary group of artists, curators and scholars. Each speaker will discuss an important perspective on Kazuko Miyamoto’s innovative practice over the past five decades. Topics include feminism in the arts, close readings of specific works, the New York avant-garde, and the role of collaboration and community in artistic practice.

            Saturday, July 9, 2-5 pm

Learn MoreRegister


For the health and safety of our staff and visitors:

- Full vaccination, plus booster (if eligible) is required to enter the building. Masks are required at all times. Masks with vents/bandanas are not permitted. A mask can be provided if you do not have one.

- The hours of 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm are reserved for Members and higher-risk individuals. Capacity is strictly limited via timed ticketing, and social distancing is required at all times.
  - During hours of 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, capacity is limited via timed ticketing. Social distancing is strongly encouraged to the extent possible, but not guaranteed.
    - Children must be accompanied by a fully-vaccinated adult. Children aged 5-11 must show proof of full vaccination (both doses, final dose received at least 14 days prior). Children under the age of 5 will be admitted with no testing required.

Please be sure that you have read and can follow our  Visitor Policies and Safety Protocols before purchasing tickets.


Kazuko Miyamoto

In-Person & Virtual Lecture
Sunday, March 20 11 am ET
 | Calculate your local time


In celebration of Asia Week New York 2022, the Japanese Art Society of America (JASA) is delighted to invite you to join JASA Members for the 2022 Annual Meeting and keynote address by well-known ukiyo-e collector George Mann, who will speak about extraordinary prints and legendary figures in the Japanese print world.

Each lecture ticket will include one free admission to the exhibition Shikō Munakata: A Way of Seeing before the lecture starts. Timed tickets will be required after the lecture. Redemption code will be included in the ticket confirmation email.

Note: Advance registration is required. To purchase in-person tickets or register for the free virtual lecture, click the "Tickets" button at the top of this page. If joining virtually: Once your order with Japan Society is complete, you will receive an email with a link to complete the Zoom registration. Zoom will also send you a reminder one week before the event, one day before the event, as well as one hour prior to the event. For any questions, please contact boxoffice@japansociety.org or (212) 715-1258.

Tickets:
Free for Japan Society members
Free if joining virtually
$12 for general audiences attending in person



Tickets

JASA Lecture: Reflections of a Collector: George Mann

YouTube Premiere
Tuesday, March 8 at 6 pm EST
 | Calculate your local time


“How does the artist breathe life into his work? By summoning the spirit of the art that lives inside him… Power comes from the artist’s spirit, warmth from his tenderness, and serenity from his prayers.” —Shikō Munakata, Hanga no Hanashi (1954)

In this virtual walkthrough of Shikō Munakata: A Way of Seeing, D. Max Moerman, professor and chair of Asian & Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College, delves into the artist’s rich Buddhist roots, unveiling key philosophies, motifs and figures at the heart of Munakata’s oeuvre. In conversation with Japan Society’s Chief Program Officer Ramona Handel-Bajema, Ph.D., Moerman discusses the religious significance of works such as Eulogy to Shōkei (1945), a six-panel screen containing 24 individual prints, and The Ten Great Disciples of Buddha (1939/1948), a set of 12 expressive, black-and-white hanging scrolls, as well as several calligraphic works.

This free program will premiere on YouTube on Tuesday, March 8 at 6 pm EST. Register in advance to receive a reminder email and viewing link the day before the event.


D. Max Moerman is Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College. He is Co-Chair of the Columbia University Seminar in Buddhist Studies and an Associate Director of the Columbia Center for Buddhism and Asian Religions. He holds an A.B. from Columbia College and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research interests are in the visual and material culture of Japanese religions.


Sacred Screens and Scrolls: Decoding Buddhist Symbols in Shikō Munakata’s Prints



    Shikō Munakata, Mukō-machi: Crossing Point of Highways, from the Tōkaidō Series, 1964 (detail). Photograph by Nicholas Knight and Eline Mul. Collection of Japan Society. © Shikō Munakata


  Shikō Munakata: A Way of Seeing
  December 10, 2021 – March 20, 2022

This new presentation of nearly 100 path-breaking works by celebrated artist Shikō Munakata (1903-1975) is organized from Japan Society’s rare collection—the largest Munakata collection in the United States. Primarily known for his powerfully expressive woodblock prints, this exhibition reveals the breadth of Munakata’s oeuvre, which spanned from prints to calligraphy, sumi ink paintings, watercolors, lithography, and ceramics.

With his bold, spontaneous, and sketch-like lines, Munakata developed an innovative style that revolutionized the woodblock print. A highlight of the installation is his complete Tōkaidō Series (1964), a set of 61 newly rediscovered prints that depict scenes the artist witnessed while traveling along the vital coastal route between Tokyo and Kyoto, which Munakata extended to Osaka. This full set will be on view for the first time since 1965.

No matter the medium, Munakata’s artistic explorations were characterized by a spirited curiosity and relentless experimentation. Munakata incorporated diverse sources and inspiration in his dynamic works, including Japanese folk tales, Buddhism, Western literature and poetry, and nature motifs, represented by works in the exhibition. The exhibition underscores Munakata’s first visit to the United States in 1959 as a Fellow in Japan Society’s Print Artists Program, and includes works he made expressly for Japan Society during his time in New York. Original, experiential exhibition design is by New York- and Barcelona-based MAIO Architects, with graphic design by Eline Mul.

View our visitor guidelines and safety protocols here.

  Admission: $12/$10 students and seniors. Free for Japan Society members.
  ON-SALE DATES FOR TIMED TICKETS
    Members: November 11
    General Public: December 2-->

Reserve Timed Tickets

Become a Member

Japan Society members enjoy free gallery admission and priority access to timed tickets through December 1. Not a member? Join today and start planning your visit.-->

#SeeingMunakata

Shikō Munakata: A Way of Seeing




  GUN, Events to Change the Image of Snow (detail), 1970. Documentary photograph of performance art. Photo &copy; Hanaga Mitsutoshi.


  Boro Textiles: Sustainable Aesthetics
   March 6&mdash;July 19, 2020

 Boro (&ldquo;rags&rdquo; or &ldquo;tatters&rdquo;) are patchwork textiles hand-pieced by peasants in Japan in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The inability to cultivate cotton in the northern climate of Tohoku necessitated the practice of stitching remnants of used fabric into utilitarian items, including blankets, coats and mittens. These hard-used garments &ndash; reworked over generations &ndash; express essential principles of Japanese ethics and aesthetics, such as an appreciation for distinguished imperfections and the avoidance of waste.

For the first time in the U.S., this exhibition assembles over 50 archival pieces from the personal collection of folklorist and cultural anthropologist Chuzaburo Tanaka (1933&ndash;2013) presented alongside new portraits by editor-photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, designs by pioneers of Japanese avant-garde fashion Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and textile-based works by Susan Cianciolo and Christina Kim &ndash; part of a generation of contemporary artists influenced by the aesthetics and ethics of mending, patchwork, and re-use. The installation, designed by New York architecture firm SO&ndash;IL, rediscovers this traditional handicraft, its history of survival and ingenuity, and its continued legacy within creative practices today.



Exhibition Preview







Exhibition 3D Tour

  Catalogues
    Guest Curator Reiko Tomii&rsquo;s award-winning book Radicalism in the Wilderness (2016) is available for purchase at the Welcome Desk or at shop.japansociety.org for $25. A limited number of copies signed by the author and members of GUN, which include a set of GUN postcards, are available at $30 while supplies last.
-->

Boro Textiles: Sustainable Aesthetics



    © Naho Kubota


  When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan
   March 11 – July 11, 2021
  May Reservations:
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  June Reservations


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 July Reservations: Members Only


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  Please Note: July reservations will be made available to the general public on June 16.


Corporate Members: Please email the Box Office at boxoffice@japansociety.org to reserve tickets.-->

    As its first exhibition upon reopening to the public, Japan Society is pleased to present When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan. Opening on the tenth anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the exhibition celebrates the resilient spirit of Japanese architecture and craftsmanship through woodworking tools, architectural patterns, and models. Featuring a variety of hand tools and wooden models reflecting joinery techniques that have been used for hundreds of years to build Japan&rsquo;s wooden architectural masterpieces (from temples and shrines to bridges), the exhibition unpacks the intangible qualities of craftsmanship, such as consummate experience, expertise, and the honed skills of master carpenters in Japanese architecture.
A diverse array of tools&mdash;planes, chisels, saws&mdash;have played an important role in the development of architecture in Japan, and this philosophy extends to Japan&rsquo;s cultural heritage today. Integral to the processes of master carpenters (tōryo) is their extensive knowledge of the local environment and of wood as a material. Using natural resources and learning from their predecessors&rsquo; practices, they construct buildings using a refined methodology. Their philosophy of sustainability&mdash;for example, joinery can be restored or repaired as needed by future craftspeople&mdash;has been handed down over generations. The site-specific exhibition design, conceived by the esteemed architect Sou Fujimoto in collaboration with Brooklyn-based Popular Architecture, introduces major themes from the exhibition and is in dialogue with the gallery&rsquo;s spaces, highlighting an enduring connection between traditional Japanese wooden construction and modern architecture.

    View our visitor guidelines and safety protocols here.

  Admission: $12/$10 students and seniors.
To celebrate the reopening of Japan Society, we are offering all visitors Free Admission during March, courtesy of TAKENAKA CORPORATION. All tickets will be dispensed on a first come, first served basis, with advance timed ticket online reservations.-->


Exhibition-Related Programming

      Setting Up a Japanese Chisel | Thursday, April 29, 6 PM EDT
      Tools for Working Wood | Thursday, May 13, 1:30 PM EDT
   Family Art Day | Sunday, June 6, 1:30 PM EDT
  Sou Fujimoto: Between Nature and Architecture (Online) | Thursday June 24, 7 PM EDT


Exhibition Preview

Virtual Exploration with Sou Fujimoto

  Publications
    A complimentary downloadable digital publication with full color images, and commissioned drawings and design by artist Nathan Antolik, with a supplemental coloring book of tools also available. Download the publication.

Selected Works



When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan



    New National Stadium (detail), 2018. Photo &copy; Takashi Homma.


  Made in Tokyo: Architecture &amp; Living, 1964/2020
   October 11, 2019&mdash;January 26, 2020


Tokyo, the transforming metropolis, has experienced a variety of social, economic and political shifts. The 1964 Summer Games, hosted by Tokyo, was the trigger to facilitate the rapid improvement of infrastructure. And the city is still changing—in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. Following a period of strong economic growth up to the 1970s, Japan's bubble economy of the 1980s greatly reduced property values. In the new century, the population ratio shifted to elderly-dominant, and the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake critically altered the population's sense of values for living. In response to these significant changes, how does architecture embody the city's transition? What role has architecture played in developing Tokyo? With Japanese architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow taking on a double role as curator and exhibition designer, this exhibition explores the development of socio-architectural facilities and compares landscapes with art and performance generated from Tokyo between the two seminal worldwide games, in 1964 and 2020.




Exhibition Preview

  Publications
    The Made in Tokyo Guide Map is available for purchase at the Welcome Desk or at shop.japansociety.org for $15. Written by famed Japanese architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow, six types of facilities—stadiums, stations, retail spaces, offices, capsules and homes—are explored, illuminating differences in the ever-changing Tokyo environment.


Made in Tokyo: Architecture & Living, 1964/2020




  GUN, Events to Change the Image of Snow (detail), 1970. Documentary photograph of performance art. Photo &copy; Hanaga Mitsutoshi.


  Radicalism in the Wilderness: Japanese Artists in the Global 1960s
   March 8&mdash;June 9, 2019

Delve into the radical experiments of artists from 1960s Japan who made groundbreaking contributions to the development of international postwar art in defiance of existing conventions. Little known in the U.S., artist Yutaka Matsuzawa and the two collectives The Play and GUN challenged established norms to expand the definition of visual art through language, performance, mail art, land art, and political art. Radicalism in the Wilderness surveys the range of their projects, at times colorful, imaginative, and playful, but also inextricably linked to complex social, political, and cultural issues of the turbulent and innovative 1960s.

This exhibition is part of our Japan in the Global 1960s series.




Exhibition Preview







Audio Tour
Listen to the audio tour of Japan Society's spring exhibition, Radicalism in the Wilderness: Japanese Artists in the Global 1960s, on view through June 9, 2019. Hear the full audio tour here.



Hailing from Shimo Suwa in mountainous central Japan, Matsuzawa was one of Japan&rsquo;s pioneer conceptual artists. He made a complete break from materiality in his art through his drastic proposal of &ldquo;vanishing of matter,&rdquo; best exemplified in his landmark exhibition Independent &rsquo;64 in the Wilderness (1964). The exhibition completely eliminated the physical presence of artworks, instead showcasing &ldquo;formless emissions&rdquo; by himself and other artists. Informed by his interests in contemporary science, parapsychology, and non-Zen Buddhism, Matsuzawa established his immaterial art using &ldquo;kannen,&rdquo; a Buddhist-derived practice of &ldquo;meditative visualization&rdquo; to unleash the viewer&rsquo;s mental faculty to see the mind&rsquo;s eye. Using the principle of vanishing of matter and the method of kannen, he formulated Non-Sensory Painting, an attempt to make the invisible visible through a theoretical construct akin to astrophysics and quantum mechanics.-->



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  Publications
    Guest Curator Reiko Tomii&rsquo;s award-winning book Radicalism in the Wilderness (2016) is available for purchase at the Welcome Desk or at shop.japansociety.org for $25. A limited number of copies signed by the author and members of GUN, which include a set of GUN postcards, are available at $30 while supplies last.


Radicalism in the Wilderness: Japanese Artists in the Global 1960s



White Discharge (Built-up Objects #36), 2015. Courtesy of Jane Lombard Gallery, photo by Christine Pan.


  En/trance

    En/trance is a series of projects providing a platform for the presentation of contemporary visual arts for year-long periods. In 2017, New York/Tokyo based multi-talented artist Hiroshi Sugimoto renovated the Japan Society foyer garden and it became a stage for welcoming visitors with immersive experiences with art. For the 2020-21 edition of En/trance, Teppei Kaneuji introduces his new site-specific installation.



  Teppei Kaneuji
Through 2021

  Artist Teppei Kaneuji investigates the mass consumption of contemporary society, sourcing materials from everyday life, found objects, and figures in popular culture to create artworks that are at once playful and critical. For his new installation in the garden pond, S. F. (Splash and Flakes), he combines natural elements &mdash; tree branches from New York City &mdash; with ready-made artificial items &mdash; tubing and pipe fittings &mdash; in bricolage sculptures that add a dynamic narrative to the space. On the second floor, he displays works from his signature series, White Discharge, for which he assembled various everyday objects and plastic goods covered with white resin. His complex arrangements become fixtures that expand the garden&rsquo;s original context, presenting a dialogue between the artworks and the plants.

Teppei Kaneuji (b. 1978, Japan) lives and works in Kyoto, Japan. He earned a Masters degree in Sculpture at Kyoto City University of the Arts and was in the exchange program at Royal College of Art, London, UK. He has participated in various international exhibitions including the Setouchi Triennial (Japan, 2019), the Echigo Tsumari Triennial (Japan, 2017), and Japanorama, at the Pompidou Center Metz (France, 2017), as well as solo exhibitions at Jane Lombard Gallery, New York; STPI Singapore; the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, China; Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan; and others. Kaneuji has also directed theater works including Tower (theater) (2017), developing concepts from his drawing and video works. He often collaborates with creators across genres and most recently worked as scenographer for Eraser Mountain with playwright Toshiki Okada and chelfitsch at NYU Skirball, which will tour to Europe this summer.

Watch artist Teppei Kaneuji introduce his new site-specific installation for the 2020-21 edition of En/trance.



Exhibitions>Past

Improvisation in Wood: Kawamata x Munakata (Backup)

From Here to There

Tipping Utopia Toward Kazuko Miyamoto

Tipping Utopia Toward Kazuko Miyamoto

Tipping Utopia Toward Kazuko Miyamoto

Tipping Utopia Toward Kazuko Miyamoto

Kazuko Miyamoto: A Symposium

Kazuko Miyamoto

JASA Lecture: Reflections of a Collector: George Mann

Sacred Screens and Scrolls: Decoding Buddhist Symbols in Shikō Munakata’s Prints

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