Image ©Acky Bright
Acky Bright: Studio Infinity
October 4, 2024 – January 19, 2025
Live Drawing Sessions: See schedule below
Acky Bright: Studio Infinity showcases the rising star’s unique kawakakkoii (cute and cool) style of illustration and product design. Conceived as Acky Bright’s design studio, the exhibition offers visitors an exceptional opportunity to meet the artist, witness his freestyle “live drawing,” and participate in making a series of manga-style murals. Performative and interactive, the exhibition will evolve as Acky Bright makes intermittent appearances in the gallery.
The exhibition will feature two new painting series by Acky Bright, KBK-18 and Ah-Un, that each draw inspiration from traditional Japanese art and theater. Underscoring the impressive range of his contemporary art practice, the show will also highlight Acky Bright’s promotional campaigns designed for major companies, including his multimedia designs for the nationwide “WcDonald’s” campaign, YOASOBI x Vaundy’s FRIES BEAT 2024 music video, and Squid Game coloring book illustrated for Netflix.
Acky Bright was on site for live drawings on the following dates:
November 7 & 8, 11 am to 7 pm
November 9 & 10, noon to 7 pm
November 14 & 15, 11 am to 7 pm
November 16 & 17, noon to 7 pm
To learn more and view a 3-D tour, click here.
Courtesy of National Bunraku Theatre, Osaka
Bunraku Backstage
October 4, 2024 – January 19, 2025
Alongside the live bunraku performances held at Japan Society this fall, Bunraku Backstage offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the theater. Bunraku, a dramatic art integrating performances of skilled puppetry, shamisen music, and narration, has evolved since the early 17th century in Japan and is recognized by UNESCO as a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.” Showcasing actual working puppets, costumes, props, and instruments on loan from the National Bunraku Theatre, Osaka, in celebration of their 40th anniversary, this exhibition unveils the collaboration that goes into staging a bunraku production. Unexpected multimedia installations by contemporary artists—Sugimoto Hiroshi, Tamura Yuichiro, and Basil Twist—all of which re-interpret and revive the artistic language of bunraku, explore the theater’s ongoing inspiration and influence.
To learn more, click here.
PAST RELATED TALKS
Sugimoto’s Sonezaki Shinjū: Onstage and Backstage
November 12, 2024 at 7pm EST
In conjunction with the fall gallery exhibition Bunraku Backstage, the contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto will discuss his innovative reimagining of the 18th century classic play Sonezaki Shinjū (“The Love Suicides at Sonezaki”). His production deployed striking adjustments: faster puppeteering, a dramatically illuminated stage, and an animated video backdrop by the artist Tabaimo. Alongside clips from the 2012 NHK recording Hiroshi Sugimoto meets Bunraku: Love Suicide Sonezaki, Sugimoto will provide insight into the onstage and backstage workings of his novel approach. This will also be a special opportunity to see Sugimoto perform his Ohatsu puppet as she makes a cameo appearance.
To learn more and buy tickets, click here.
Picturing Three-Man Puppets: Lecture and Tour with Dr. Henry Smith
November 15, 2024 at 10am EST
In conjunction with the exhibition Bunraku Backstage, join us for coffee and a lecture by Dr. Henry Smith, Professor Emeritus of Japanese History at Columbia University. The three-man puppet system (sannin-zukai, “three-person handling”) that has been carefully preserved in the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka since its opening in 1984 seems timeless, but a close look at its history from its 18th-century origins reveals considerable diversity and change. This talk looks at the pictorial evidence in printed handbills and other publications that illustrate actual performances, revealing that the standard assertion of the “invention” of three-man puppets in 1734 by the master puppeteer Yoshida Bunzaburō is misleading. Innovation in puppetry had been continuous since the Genroku period (1688-1704), while one-man puppets continued as a vital and active tradition on to the end of the Edo period. The talk will be followed by a tour of Bunraku Backstage.
To learn more and buy tickets, click here.
