Untitled Document

A snapshot of contemporary Japanese art is on display at the Saison Gallery in an exhibition of the work of three sculptors. Using industrial materials such as lead, metal, wax and fiberglass and exploiting aspects of gravity, these artists have created works of delicacy and beauty. Makoto Ito draws shapes in the air in steel while Kiyoshi Kawashima's work attempts to capture gravity in a box or wrap it in lead sheet. The cascade of wax by Wakiro Sumi is particularly impressive. Days of dripping wax over a wooden form have left a frozen waterfall pouring from the gallery wall and then sliding off around the corner like a mountain trail.

	Tokyo Nobody: Masataka Nakano
	Tokyo as you have never seen it before -- Masataka Nakano's Tokyo, captured in immaculate photographic detail, includes all the famous areas of Ginza, Shinjuku and Shibuya but there is not a soul on the streets. The seething mass and momentum of 30 million people are gone. Left is the motionless and intricate detail of urban clutter. This stillness makes you slightly uncomfortable. But a Ginza or Shinjuku without the bustle of humanity allows you to concentrate on the details. By doing this you discover things you never noticed before in the many times you've crossed those same streets. FULL REVIEW
	Art Today 2000 Preview
	A snapshot of contemporary Japanese art is on display at the Saison Gallery in an exhibition of the work of three sculptors. Using industrial materials such as lead, metal, wax and fiberglass and exploiting aspects of gravity, these artists have created works of delicacy and beauty. Makoto Ito draws shapes in the air in steel while Kiyoshi Kawashima's work attempts to capture gravity in a box or wrap it in lead sheet. The cascade of wax by Wakiro Sumi is particularly impressive. Days of dripping wax over a wooden form have left a frozen waterfall pouring from the gallery wall and then sliding off around the corner like a mountain trail.
	Dream Reality: The Animated Sculpture of Gregory Barsamian
	Wallace and Gromit go to the Art Gallery. If you've ever laughed and marveled at plasticine animation you'll enjoy this show. Barsamian takes a series of sculptured objects each a little different from the last, spins them around with a motor and by use of a strobe light fools our minds eye that they come to life. Like movies his sculptures rely on mechanical movement and the persistence of vision to create an illusion of action. The exhibition contains about 10 of Barsamian's sculptures each of which is as delightful in its illusionistic fantasies as it is profound in its rapidly cycling story. FULL REVIEW
	Territory of Fantasy: Figurative Paintings from the Terada Collection
	"For the Snark was a Boojum, you see." As in Lewis Carroll's literature nothing is as it seems in this exhibiton which is overflowing with Victorian spirit of fantasy and quaint dreaminess. Over 100 works by about 20 Japanese artists display glittering old fashioned techniques of paint and pencil to create a wacky world of Topsy Turvy.FULL REVIEW