Painting for Joy is an attempt to show how young Japanese artists have understood and tried to further develop artistic expression in painting during the final decade of the twentieth century, a time of rapid development in information networks and communications technology.

What is the role that painting can play amid the tumult of today’s rapidly changing world, or even within the world of art? This is a question of concern not only in Japan but throughout the world. If the viewer gains no enjoyment from what is seen in a painting, and if a painting does not establish some kind of communication between the work and the viewer, or between the viewer and the artist, the raison d’etre of painting itself may be at risk.

The nine artists whose work is featured in this exhibition were born in or around the 1960s and grew up in an advanced consumer society, surrounded by a plethora of semiotics and information. By portraying the realities that actually surround us, they are attempting to open up new horizons in communication between people and painting. We hope that this exhibition will enable viewers to enjoy this sort of communication.