Organised with the backing of Art Basel, Art Week Tokyo (3–6 November 2022) spreads over 50 venues this year, connecting museums, galleries, and art spaces across the city. Ocula Magazine shares its selection of must-see Tokyo exhibitions for the occasion.
Kenjiro Okazaki: TOPICA PICTUS Revisited
Forty Red, White, And Blue Shoestrings And A Thousand Telephones
Blum & Poe, Harajuku Jingu-no-mori 5F
24 September–6 November 2022
Following a recent stroke, Kenjiro Okazaki believed he would never paint again. The artist's ten-month-long rehabilitation prompted a reflection on the mind-body connection, which is explored across small-scale abstract works at Blum & Poe.
Reflecting this state of disembodiment, abstract works like Announcement to Mac the Finger / How can this be since I do not know myself physically? / 黙示 (2022) build upon the canvas with textured smears and recover the artist's distinct use of the canvas frame.
Segmented in places and doubled in others, its wooden border opens gaps within the artist's subtle suggestions, where dense strokes of canary yellow and dripping blues overlap with rose and white blends.