ESPRIT

A couple of my works are in a group show at Sumida Riverside Hall Gallery, in close proximity to the historic district of Asakusa. The peculiar title “Shitamachi de Hassei shita Misemono, Esupuri-ten”, which roughly translates as “Esprit – Downtown Spectacle”, alludes to the origins of modern visual art in late 19th-century Tokyo. In downtown, with its street theatres, haunted houses and cabinets of curiosities, western-influenced painting and sculpture first emerged as a form of urban entertainment. In Japanese, visual art and related phenomena of the period are perhaps best summed up in the word misemono, meaning spectacle or exhibition. As modern art became more established, these (supposedly low-brow) origins gave rise to the institutions we know and love, such as galleries and museums, theatres and cinemas.

Participating artists: Toyomi Hoshina, Hirotoshi Sakaguchi, Russel Craig, Jo D'Hage, Tatjana Preuss, James Jack, Jak Peters, Takahiro Ando, Akiko Muto, Yuji Ota, Takuma Ikeda, Yume Akasaka, Akito Nakai.