As Japan's art scene has gone through a recognized renaissance over the past few years, with a combination of influential voices from decades past getting their due respect and a younger generation taking the torch for years to come, NANZUKA Underground has been at the epicenter of the literal underground movement and it's position to global prominence. By taking Japanese artists and creating a program that is both international and local in scope, NANZUKA continues to have one of the best programs that we cover. From Sorayama and Haroshi, to Jess Johnson and Todd James, NANZUKA has found a way to be both historical and contemporary in focusl, and with a blockbuster curation in Tokyo Pop Underground at Jeffrey Deitch's LA and NYC spaces last year, the gallery will now expand its curation to include their full international roster for Global Pop Underground at the Parco Museum in Tokyo from July 4—26, 2020.
In many ways, this show at Parco is a narrative of how both Japanese and American (and Western) outsiders have become incresingly more important in the current contemporary art lexicon. From Peter Saul and Joyce Pensato, to Sorayama and Keiichi Tanaami, art inspired by comics, sci-fi, music, erotica, pop art, psychedelia, graffiti and a bit of the absurd has become the narrative of today. As the museum notes, "Global Pop Underground, while following the above context, as an anti-thesis to the stereotypes of 'high' and 'low' within the framework of art academism, serves to interactively mix and bring together the explosive and simultaneous outbursts of 'outsider' discourse taking place on a global scale." What NANZUKA is talking about in this show is exactly the language that Juxtapoz was founded on and continues to explore. That Japan continues to grow as an international powerhouse in the underground art movement feels like the right place to reengage with the conversation. —Evan Pricco
Artists in the exhibition include: Christian Rex van Minnen, Erik Parker, Hajime Sorayama, Haroshi, Harumi, Yamaguchi, Hiroki Tsukuda, James Jarvis, Javier Calleja, Jonathan Chapline, Joyce Pensato, Katherine Bernhardt, Kazuki Umezawa, Keiichi Tanaami, Koichi Sato, Makoto Taniguchi, Masato Mori, Oliver Payne, Peter Saul, Todd James, Toshio Saeki and YOSHIROTTEN