“Miwa Yanagi – Deutsche Bank Collection”

There’s a nasty joke in Japan about unmarried women older than 25: They’re called “Christmas cake” — as in, no one wants them after the 25th. Much like our own culture, Japan’s suffers from an obsession with youth and beauty, and it is this bias that inspired the exhibition “Miwa Yanagi — Deutsche Bank Collection.” Now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Japanese photographer’s vibrant (if at times a little dark) photo series takes on conventional images of women and fights them, as in the series Fairy Tales, which clashes too-perfect young girls with too-ugly old hags. For Elevator Girls, Yanagi shot young mall employees in deserted shopping malls; for My Grandmothers, she asked young women to imagine their lives five decades in the future and created photos of those visions. See her fight image with imagination from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays, and 12:15 to 7 p.m. Sundays, through May 4. 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7300 or visit www.mfah.org. $3.50 to $7

Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 5. Continues through May 4, 2008

This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2008.