Yesterday afternoon did a short run of Chelsea art galleries and after numerous badly curated, overly packed rooms of drivel was very pleased to discover a show where the curator got it right.
Just opened this weekend is THE MASKED PORTRAIT: Aspects of Japanese Contemporary Art 1949-Present at the Marianne Boesky Gallery on West 24th, curated by Midori Nishizawa (on show until February 9th). With works by thirty artists it really has something for everyone. I was excited and pleased to see the always marvelous totally unique Yayoi Kusama. Her mixed media piece (see above) "Compulsion Furniture, 1962-63/1993" was the central feature of the main room (rightly so) where it beat out massive recent scupltures from Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara for attention.
Towards the entrance was a pair of classic Tadanori Yokoo classic silkscreens including the (above) pivotal "An Aesthetic of the End" 1968 silkscreen dedicated to writer Yukio Mishima. Also pleased to see Minoru Hirata's photographs of the underground anti-art action group Hi Red Center which I recently read about in Julian Cope's tasty Japrocksampler book. Perhaps my favorite work was a small 1949 photograph by Shoji Ueda of a family (top photo). I don't know why I haven't seen his work before but I most certainly will now be seeking it out. Honestly I could quite happily have taken in another two rooms of the this show. Shame it's not up for long too.
Also worth a mention was photographer Pieter Hugo's show of photos taken in Nigeria - "The Hyena and Other Men" at Yossi Milo Gallery on West 25th.
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