Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s

A thorough introduction to the “New Wave” multimedia art of ’80s and ’90s Japan.

Focusing on themes of retro-futurism, noir, satire and simulation, Parergon presents the work of over 25 Japanese visual artists who were making vital work throughout the 1980s and 1990s ― including EYE, Kenjiro Okazaki, Mariko Mori, Kodai Nakahara, Masato Nakamura, Yukinori Yanagi, Kenji Yanobe and Tadanori Yokoo ― whose work features mediums spanning painting, sculpture, performance, noise, video and photography.

The title makes reference to the gallery in Tokyo (Gallery Parergon, 1981–87) that introduced many artists associated with the Japanese New Wave of the 1980s, its name attributed to Jacques Derrida’s essay from 1978, which famously interrogated the “framework” of art.

Parergon brings together some of the most enigmatic works that were first generated during a rich two-decade period that is pivotal to the way we perceive and understand contemporary Japanese art today.