The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) 10:00
¥2,000, college students ¥1,000, high school students ¥500
With ‘Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989–2010’, the National Art Center, Tokyo offers an illuminating look at how Japanese and international artists responded to an era of seismic change – namely the two transformative decades that followed the end of the Showa era (1926–1989), when the Cold War’s conclusion and the onset of globalisation reshaped the world’s cultural landscape.
Featuring works by over 50 artists, the exhibition traces the evolution of contemporary art in Japan from the early stirrings of internationalisation in the 1980s through a period of creative fermentation marked by technological shifts, socio-political upheaval and the expansion of global dialogue. Across three thematic sections, visitors will be able to view a diverse array of works that grapple with identity, memory, war trauma, and the forging of new communal bonds.
Like a prism refracting light into myriad wavelengths, the exhibition highlights the multiplicity of perspectives that shaped artistic expression in Japan between 1989 and 2010, offering visitors a powerful lens on a pivotal cultural moment in Japan’s (and the world’s) history.
