The Asia Society Texas Center presents work from a one-of-a-kind artist in its current exhibition, “Traditions Transfigured.” Bridget Bray, curator
and director of exhibitions at the center, tells us, “We wanted Houstonians to have an understanding of contemporary art in Japan. Yamaguchi is a unique artist. No one else is doing what he is doing.” What Yamaguchi is doing is taking Noh masks — that is, traditional character masks from centuriesold Japanese dramas — and bringing them into the 21st century.
The first sections of the four-part exhibition “unpack and explain the tradition the artist is working off of.” Here viewers see videos and unfinished masks that detail the carving process, other works of his art and the history of Noh theater. “The process area helps the viewer really connect with the artist,” Bray says.
In the last sections of the exhibit, viewers see how Yamaguchi plays with traditional elements of Noh mask-making to create pieces of contemporary art in works from his series and European portrait series. In his European portrait series, Yamaguchi has created three-dimensional Noh mask interpretations of iconic female portraits like da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Botticelli’s Venus. The exhibition includes a mask that visitors can try on and take photos with (selfies!).
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays. Through February 15. Asia Society Texas Center, 1370 Southmore. For information, call 713‐496‐9901 or visit asiasociety.org/texas. $5.
Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Starts: Oct. 30. Continues through Feb. 15, 2014
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2014.