ART JAPANESQUE［絵画と彫刻について］─About: Paintings and/or Sculptures─

参考写真
伝尾形光琳「月華白梅図」、福田篤夫「Color and/or Monochrome」

ART JAPANESQUE［絵画と彫刻について］
─About: Paintings and/or Sculptures─
　
このたび、Concept Space、Concept Space/R2、そして Ais Gallery において、企画展 ART JAPANESQUE［絵画と彫刻について］─About: Paintings and/or Sculptures─を3つの展示空間で同時開催いたします。
本展では、明治維新以降の日本において、急速に変容した「絵画」と「彫刻」のあり方を再考し、国内外のアーティストによる多様な視点から、その本質と現在の姿に迫ります。
　
【日本独自の美術表現への問いかけ】
明治以降、無防備に流入した西洋文化の影響により、それまで日本独自の思考と風土に根ざしていた「絵屋」と「彫り物」の伝統は大きな変化を余儀なくされました。一方で、江戸期までの “鎖国” によって育まれた日本独自の美術表現、特に「並行視」などの視覚的手法は、独自性の高さゆえに世界からの羨望を集め、多くの作品が国外へ流出したという歴史もあります。現代において、世界がますますボーダーレスになる中で、改めて「日本の絵画」「日本の彫刻」という視点に立ち戻り、その現在地を見つめ直すことは、これからの美術のあり方を考える上でも意義深い試みです。
　
【小さな作品に宿る大きな視点】
本展は、大作を並べる展示ではありません。約30cm前後の小さな「絵画」「彫刻」「器」を中心に、現代アーティストたちが制作した作品を展示します。これは、日本の伝統的な住空間、特に長屋の10畳間のような限られた空間での鑑賞を想定した、きわめて機能的で象徴的なサイズ感です。このような小作品にこそ宿る「凝縮された視点」や「細部に宿る精神性」に注目し、日本の「根付け」などにも通じる繊細な鑑賞体験を提案します。
また、Concept Space の長屋式アパートの空間性、Ais Gallery の鉄板の黒い壁や茶室の躙口（にじりぐち）を思わせるユニークな出入口など、会場そのものが作品の一部となるような展示構成も見どころです。
　
【過去と現在をつなぐ作品群】
展示には、現代作家だけでなく、国内外の古典作品や物故作家の作品も加わります。彫刻とは何か、絵画とは何か。
その境界線は、時代や文化によってどう変容してきたのか。たとえば、1987年の「ミュンスター彫刻プロジェクト」に参加したトーマス・シュトゥルートが、写真作品を白壁に投影することで「彫刻として意味が生まれる」と語ったように、表現方法そのものへの問いかけも本展の大きなテーマです。「ART JAPANESQUE［絵画と彫刻について］─About: Paintings and/or Sculptures─」は、ジャンルや形式にとらわれず、美術の存在意義や鑑賞方法そのものを見つめ直す、挑戦的かつ実験的な展覧会です。
以上のように、この展覧会は国内外各国のアーティストが参加する社会的、美術的な意味で国際交流を根本とした展覧会です。
　
お誘い合わせの上、ご予約の上ご高覧賜りますようお願い申し上げます。
　
　
　
We are pleased to announce the simultaneous opening of the special exhibition ART JAPANESQUE [About: Paintings and/or Sculptures] at three venues: Concept Space, Concept Space/R2, and Ais Gallery.
　
This exhibition revisits the history of painting and sculpture in Japan, particularly the profound transformations these forms underwent following the Meiji Restoration, when Western concepts and systems of art were rapidly introduced into Japanese society. Through a diverse selection of works by artists from Japan and abroad, the exhibition explores the distinctive qualities of Japanese artistic expression while considering what painting and sculpture mean today.
　
Reconsidering Japanese Artistic Expression
　
Following the Meiji Restoration, Western culture and ideas about art entered Japan at an unprecedented pace. Traditional forms of expression that had developed within Japan’s own climate, philosophy, and everyday culture—such as eya (painting-related practices) and horimono (carved works)—were consequently compelled to undergo significant change.
　
At the same time, the distinctive aesthetic sensibilities and visual languages that developed in Japan during the Edo period, when international exchange was highly restricted, attracted considerable attention from abroad. Since the modern era, numerous Japanese works have left the country and entered collections around the world.
　
Among the characteristics often associated with Japanese art are particular approaches to space and vision, including ways of presenting a subject through multiple viewpoints and overlapping moments rather than from a single, fixed perspective. Such approaches have had a lasting influence on artistic practices beyond Japan.
　
Today, as the world becomes increasingly interconnected and cultural boundaries continue to dissolve, there is renewed significance in returning to the questions of what might constitute “Japanese painting” and “Japanese sculpture.” This exhibition considers what forms of artistic expression have emerged from Japan, and what possibilities they may hold in the contemporary world.
　
A Large Perspective Within Small Works
　
The exhibition does not center on monumental works. Instead, it focuses primarily on small-scale paintings, sculptures, and vessels, many measuring approximately 30 centimeters.
　
This approach is informed in part by the traditional Japanese living environment and its modes of viewing art. In relatively confined spaces, such as those found in traditional row houses, viewers encountered objects at close range, allowing them to observe their surfaces, details, materials, and subtle qualities. This intimate mode of appreciation also resonates with the Japanese tradition of netsuke—small yet extraordinarily refined objects in which an immense degree of craftsmanship and expression can be concentrated within a very limited scale.
　
There are things that become visible precisely because a work is small.
　
By reducing the physical scale of the works, the exhibition invites viewers to approach them closely and encounter the artist’s gaze, material sensibility, and spiritual dimension through minute details. In this sense, the “small works” presented here contain what might be called a “large perspective.”
　
The architectural character of each venue also plays an essential role in the exhibition. Concept Space, with its spatial qualities reminiscent of a traditional row-house apartment, and Ais Gallery, with its distinctive black iron walls and an entrance suggestive of the nijiriguchi—the small, low entrance traditionally associated with the Japanese tea room—create environments in which the architecture itself becomes part of the viewing experience.
　
Rather than treating the exhibition space simply as a neutral container for artworks, this exhibition considers the space itself as an integral part of the work.
　
Beyond the Boundaries of Painting and Sculpture
　
Alongside works by contemporary artists, the exhibition also includes classical works and works by artists of earlier generations from Japan and abroad.
　
By bringing works from different periods and cultural contexts into dialogue, the exhibition seeks to reveal that the categories of “painting” and “sculpture” have never been entirely fixed.
　
What, after all, determines whether a work should be called a painting or a sculpture？ Who established these distinctions, and when？
　
Photography, video, three-dimensional forms, space, light, and materials: in contemporary art, the boundaries between such forms of expression are constantly shifting. Since the latter half of the twentieth century, the concept of sculpture in particular has expanded beyond the traditional notion of a three-dimensional object to encompass site, space, photography, light, time, and other elements.
　
ART JAPANESQUE [About: Paintings and/or Sculptures] deliberately questions these boundaries. It is an experimental exhibition that asks what constitutes a work of art and, more fundamentally, how and what we choose to see.
　
From the Past to the Present, Across Borders
　
The exhibition brings together artists with diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds from Japan and abroad.
　
When works created in different periods, cultures, and media are placed in dialogue within the same spaces, new relationships and interpretations emerge. This is not an exhibition intended simply to introduce Japanese art to an international audience.
　
Rather, it seeks to reconsider the aesthetic sensibilities that have emerged from Japan and place them in dialogue with diverse artistic expressions from around the world, creating a space in which we can reflect on the future of art.
　
The title “ART JAPANESQUE” expresses our desire not to regard “the Japanese” as something closed or fixed within a particular cultural identity, but rather as something that continues to evolve and expand through encounters with other cultures.
　
Between past and present, painting and sculpture, Japan and the world, artwork and space, artist and viewer—the exhibition seeks to cross these boundaries and, in doing so, become a site for new artistic dialogue and international cultural exchange.
　
We sincerely hope that you will join us at the three venues and experience not only the works themselves, but also the spaces in which they are presented and the new perspectives that emerge from their encounter.
　
We would be most honored by your visit and look forward to welcoming you to ART JAPANESQUE [About: Paintings and/or Sculptures].
　
　
Concept Space
Ais

参考写真
伝尾形光琳「早春図屏風」、俵屋宗達「水墨画」、本阿弥光悦「舟橋蒔絵硯箱」（レプリカ）

中野西敏弘　Nakanosai Toshihiro
佐藤勲　Sato Isao
白川昌生　Shirakawa Yoshio
橋本夏夫　Hashimoto Natsuo
宮﨑優花　Miyazaki Yuka
福田周平　Fukuda Shuhei
山口牧生　Yamaguchi Makio
Russell Maltz　ルッセルマルツ（アメリカ）
Christoph Dahlhausen　クリストフダウハウゼン（ドイツ）
John Beech　ジョンビーチ（アメリカ）
Piotr Zamojski　ピオトルサモイスキー（ポーランド）
Norbert Pümpel　ノルベルトピュンペル（オーストリア）
Dorothee Joachim　ドロシーヨアキム（ドイツ）
Karin Lind　カーリンリンド（デンマーク）
Simon Patterson　サイモンパターソン（イギリス）
Roger Ackling　ロジャーアックリング（イギリス）
福田篤夫　Hukuda Atsuo
　
本阿弥光悦　Honami Koetsu（1558–1637）
尾形光琳　Ogata Korin（1658–1716）
尾形乾山　Ogata Kenzan（1663–1743）
俵屋宗達　Tawaraya Sotatsu（生没年不明）
　
Auguste Rodin　オーギュストロダン（1840–1917）

ART JAPANESQUE［絵画と彫刻について］─About: Paintings and/or Sculptures─
会期：2026年10月10日（土）〜10月25日（日）
開場：金・土・日曜
時間：13:00〜17:00
電話：090-8582-0414
入場方法：前日まで e-mail（hukuda3323@yahoo.co.jp）にて人数を明記の上申し込み。
入場料：無料
　
会場（Part1、Part2）：Concept Space、Concept Space/R2
住所：群馬県渋川市石原309-8
　
会場（Part3）：Ais Gallery
住所：群馬県渋川市渋川1763-12