Current and Upcoming Art Exhibitions in Tokyo

'On Double-Dealings, Demos & Discontent' Exhibition

The exhibition "On double-dealings, demos & discontent" at Watowa Gallery features works about the notion of protest by the Japanese artist Sacco Fujishima and the Brazilian designer and social activist Pedro Inoue. The exhibition includes works on paper, paintings, sculpture, video installations and a live demonstration on the metaverse, fueled by social media and audience interaction with AI avatars.

“Between Pixel and Particle” by Sander Wassink

Contrast is holding an exhibition titled “between pixel and particle” by Sander Wassink, a Dutch artist and designer based in Japan and the Netherlands. As Wassink lives in Japan and works primarily for European clients, his daily life unfolds largely within the digital realm—through pixels, screens, and virtual interactions. While this mode of existence has advantages, it has, over time, fostered a profound sense of disconnection from the tactile world that exists outside his studio. This exhibition arises from his quest to reconcile these two realms, softening the divide and addressing the alienation he has felt. The primary goal of the work is to push him away from my computer and towards engaging with the physical world. The exhibition invites visitors to contemplate the flow of energy that connects the dots between pixel and particle, digital and physical, isolation and interconnectedness. Each piece is a portal through which we might glimpse the foundational energies that animate both our world and the digital one. There will be an opening reception party on June 28 from 6 – 9 p.m.

One's Room Exhibition

"One’s Room・おねの部屋" will be held at Datsuijo, an independent-run DIY space in Yanaka, Nippori. It features a collection of works by 20 international artists curated by Li Jingwen (Seibun) and Cleo Verstrepen. Exhibiting artists include Jackson Kaki and Niko Wu. Special events will be hosted every week, including a tattoo workshop on July 13 and a closing party on July 28.

Glen Snyder's "Yorumo Hirumo" Photography Exhibition

Inspired by Glen Snyder’s daily work commute, "Yorumo Hirumo" offers a unique view of life along the Tama River, which separates Kanagawa from the urban metropolis of Tokyo. This marks Snyder’s first gallery showing at ephemere. and showcases a stunning blend of digital and traditional film photography. Accompanying the show, the photobook Yorumo Hirumo explores the interplay between light and dark, infused with echoes of a traditional Zen verse. Snyder's collection draws inspiration from noir cinema and the evocative documentary photography of the mid-20th century. As Snyder's neighborhood undergoes rapid transformation, "Yorumo Hirumo" preserves moments of its past, capturing buildings and streets that exist now only in memories and this artistic documentation. This underscores the vital role of curating and sharing documentary photographic art in capturing fleeting urban landscapes.

Yorumo Hirumo Event Details and Location

Fragments of the Future: Laboratory of Science and Design Exhibition

Design dreams of possible futures in this exhibition directed by engineer Shunji Yamanaka. Based around the theme of a more beautiful, surprising and engaging world, visitors can see prototypes, robots, and materials made by Yamanaka and others collaboratively. Showing what can emerge from combining design and scientific thinking, it asks, what could the materials of the future look like?

Sense of Structure: From Horyuji Temple To The Universe Exhibition

Architects design buildings, but structural engineers make a building possible. "Sense of Structure" is a celebration of materials, knowledge, and creation — looking at how we're able to exist alongside nature, minimise natural disasters, and create masterpieces of architecture using structural design.

Perfect Guide to Japanese Swords Exhibition Returns

Seikado Bunko Art Museum is bringing back Perfect Guide to Japanese Swords, a Japanese swords exhibit in their new premises in Marunouchi. The exhibition was a hit in the days when the museum was located in Okamoto, Setagaya city. It brings together nine swords from the museum’s collection that have been designated as national treasures and important cultural assets and provides the ideal introduction to the appreciation of Japanese swords, with a focus on the Kamakura Period.

Trio: Modern Art Collections from Paris, Tokyo and Osaka

The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka have worked together to foster something truly unique. In a collaborative experiment, the three museums, which have cultivated their own distinct cultures, have selected works that share a commonality to showcase as a trio. With 34 trios from a wide range of mediums and backgrounds, the exhibition explores works from a lens of global interconnectedness and surprising similarities.

"Head Games"by Elizabeth Glaessner

Elizabeth Glaessner often begins a new painting with a pour of oil paint. As it pools on the surface of her canvases, it becomes something to which she can react; she pushes, spreads, layers, builds up, or wipes away paint to create mysteriously ethereal figures that consume her compositions. “Head Games,” an exhibition of fifteen of Glaessner’s small paintings alongside two of larger scale, demonstrates the strength and scope of her painterly aesthetic. Pictorialism, process, and performance converge in these works, revealing not only her facility with the oil medium but also how our perception of ourselves and others depends on a play of imagination and reality. Seldomly exhibited altogether, the small-scale paintings offer a survey of Glaessner’s particular process, and a glimpse inside her mind.

Perrotin Salon Inaugural Exhibition

Perrotin Tokyo is pleased to announce the opening of Perrotin Salon Tokyo this July, in the Piramide Building in Roppongi where the existing gallery and its associated store are located. Situated adjacent to the Roppongi Hills complex, with Mori Art Museum a stone’s throw away, the building serves as a hub of art galleries and related offices. The concept for the Perrotin Salon derives from the salon culture in 17th and 18th century France, during the Age of Enlightenment. The salon was a private social gathering in which guests of varied social backgrounds discussed the arts, philosophy and politics, exchanging fresh, liberal and radical ideas, eventually contributing to the rise of the Enlightenment. As such, Perrotin Salon aims to provide a space for open exchange and inspiration. The inaugural exhibition, a group show, will run from July 2 to August 31.

Perrotin Salon Inaugural Exhibition Details and Location

Summer Night Museum

A Night at the Museum

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo will be extending its opening hours until 9 p.m. on Fridays from August 9 until August 30. Some of the exhibitions will be free or discounted. Enjoy an evening at the museum to get a glimpse of art from a different perspective and ambiance.

Summer Night Museum Event Details & Location

Tatsuya Tanaka: Miniature Life, Mitate Mind

Step Inside a Miniature World

Previous Tokyo Weekender interviewee Tatsuya Tanaka comes to Nihonbashi's Takashimaya department store for a special exhibition of his popular artworks. The artist, who specializes in miniature scenes created from everyday items, is hosting a new exhibition in Nihonbashi. The exhibition will be split into seven zones: Home, Form, Color, Scale, Motion, Life and World, allowing viewers to experience the artworks in a new light.

Tatsuya Tanaka: Miniature Life, Mitate Mind Location

Calder: Un Effet du Japonais Exhibition

"Calder: Un Effet du Japonais" explores the enduring resonance of the American modernist’s art with Japanese traditions and aesthetics. Curated by Alexander S. C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation, New York, and organized in collaboration with Pace Gallery, the exhibition will comprise approximately 100 works from the collection of the Calder Foundation that span the 1930s to the 1970s, ranging from the artist’s signature mobiles, stabiles and standing mobiles to his oil paintings and works on paper.

Traveling Peanuts Exhibition

Held at the newly refurbished Snoopy Museum Tokyo, the "Traveling Peanuts" exhibition is showcasing original drawings by Charles M. Schulz that depict Snoopy and the Peanuts gang during their travels. There are more than 40 original comic strips borrowed from the Schulz Museum. "Traveling Peanuts" begins on February 1, when the Snoopy Museum Tokyo reopens after being closed for three weeks.  The museum now includes a new Snoopy Wonder Room, featuring various Snoopy goods, and a new light and video presentation in the popular Snoopy Room area, which is known for its approximately 8-meter-long giant statue of  Schulz's most famous character.  The museum's shop, Brown's Store, meanwhile, has added various items that can't be found anywhere else in the world. Adjacent to the museum is the Peanuts Cafe, which now includes terrace seating and a new grand menu. 

Afro Mingei: Theaster Gates Solo Exhibition

While Black histories remain relatively little known among the Japanese public, this exhibition demonstrates its growing attention to Black art through the multidimensional practice of Theaster Gates. "Afro-Mingei" will convey the importance of contemporary art that honors craft, ask us to consider questions of race and politics, and celebrate the hybrid possibilities of culture.

Toulouse-Lautrec, Elegance of the Master of the Belle Époque Exhibition

This exhibition introduces about 240 graphic works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the famous artist of French fin-de-siècle, from the Firos Collection, one of the finest private collections of Lautrec in the world. The most unique quality of the Firos Collection is its focus on drawings. This exhibition introduces works that help visitors understand the artist and his art, such as lithographs, posters, and illustrations. It also includes magazines and books where Lautrec was involved in creating designs, as well as letters from Lautrec and photos of the artist taken by his peers.

Rei Naito: come and live - go and live

This exhibition was first conceived when Rei Naito encountered the Tokyo National Museum’s collection and architecture. She discovered a human soul that resonated with her own creativity in the clay objects of the Jōmon period. This feeling was born out of prehistoric people’s awe towards nature, in which Naito found “compassion permeating inside and outside of life.” The exhibition spaces, illuminated by natural light, evoke the realms of life and death, as well as the intimate harmony that endured between humans and nature as well as humans and other living beings. Through this exhibition, you're invited to experience the spirituality and creative power that connect us with the people of ancient times.

Takada Kenzo: Chasing Dreams

Takada Kenzo was one of the first Japanese fashion designers to become established in Paris, where his highly original ideas resulted in the successive creation of countless looks that redefined fashion. Takada’s designs effortlessly transcended national boundaries, culture and gender to suggest a new style of clothing that was not dictated by the existing Eurocentric cultural tradition. Even today, his designs are still loved all over the world. This exhibition is the first large-scale solo exhibition since Takada Kenzo’s tragic death in 2020 and will showcase his garments to reveal how Takada’s designs changed over the years. Also included in the exhibition are his paintings which he first began creating as a young child, the reference materials which inspired his ideas, as well as his fashion design sketches. Kenzo's career will be presented from a number of different perspectives to enable visitors to reflect on the lifelong creative career of Takada Kenzo, the pioneering Japanese designer who made the world his stage.

Takada Kenzo Event Details and Location

Frontiers of Impressionism: Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum

To commemorate the 150th year since The First Impressionist Exhibition was held in Paris, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is holding “Frontiers of Impressionism: Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum.” Organized by the Worcester Art Museum, this exhibition follows the birth of impressionism as a groundbreaking force upending the established conventions of Western art and further, its influence and impact across Europe and the US, with a focus more specifically on the artists and the art world of America. The vast majority of the works on display have never been shown in Japan before and are drawn almost exclusively from the Worcester Art Museum collection. It includes pieces by such French titans as Monet and Renoir, impressionists of Germany and Scandinavia, together with American expatriate painter John Singer Sargent and the iconic Childe Hassam.

Well-Being for Human and Nature Exhibit

This immersive media art exhibit questions what a coexistence between humans, nature and technology looks like.

In the technological art space of SusHi Tech Square, explore the works of innovative creators and consider how we can better interact with advancing technology and nature.

Earth Angels Group Exhibition

Identity and Femininity through Art

Street Dreams Studios Tokyo is pleased to announce the opening of the group exhibition “Earth Angels,” featuring artists Kalin Lawrence, Riko Shuri Monma, and Aina Yamauchi. The exhibition will commence on Saturday, August 10, 2024.

This group exhibition explores themes of individual identity, femininity and personal connections to the Earth through the works of three emerging artists. The title “Earth Angels” actively expresses strength from a female perspective, with the concept of drawing deep human connections to the viewers and the art world.

The three participating artists powerfully and unapologetically express their identities within the context of female art and community. The exhibition will showcase a range of works from portraits and textiles to abstract gesture painting by these female artists.

Earth Angels Group Exhibition Event Details and Location

Poul Kjærholm: Timeless Minimalism

This exhibition features one of the greatest furniture designers of 20th century Denmark, Poul Kjærholm (1929–1980). Mid-century Scandinavian furniture is often characterized by warm wood tones. The works of Kjærholm, in comparison, stand out due to his preference for combining hard materials such as stone and metal, a choice that was unusual in his time. But the rigid profiles never give off a cold impression; instead, they evoke a subtle tension in the space. Kjærholm’s timeless clean lines and minimalist beauty resonate with Japanese architecture, garnering continued support among Japanese design enthusiasts. The exhibition will showcase a collection primarily curated from the extensive research and chair collection of Professor Noritsugu Oda (an honorary professor at Tokai University). It will be the first of its kind in Japan to exhibit Kjærholm’s most influential works. With the cooperation of Higashikawa Town in Hokkaido, home to the Oda Collection, it will introduce approximately 50 pieces of furniture and related documents. Kjærholm’s design philosophy and refined aesthetics of the furniture will be presented meticulously in an exhibition space designed by spirited architect Tsuyoshi Tane.

Synesthesia Exhibition at What Museum

An Exhibit for All the Senses

The What Museum in Shinagawa will hold the exhibition "Synesthesia - The Five Senses Interacting Through Art" by Akihito Okunaka featuring a giant experimental balloon-shaped sculpture. The exhibit's encompassing theme is synesthesia, the perceptual phenomenon where the brain processes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses such as the feeling of tasting words or seeing music. Artist Okunaka has interpreted synesthesia in his own way and incorporated it into his work for this exhibition: he believes that the senses can be a way to connect nature, society and people. The formless elements of air, water and light are used as a medium to awaken guests' senses. By sensing the presence of something that is supposed to have no form, the concept is that you will feel a more profound connection with others. At the Synesthesia exhibition, you can touch, enter, lie down and interact with the artwork using your five senses. The highlight of the exhibit is the balloon installation with a 12-meter diameter. A large water balloon is placed inside the sculpture, refracting light and filling the room with various colors. The What Museum is a contemporary art collection. Okunaka was influenced by Bruno Latour, a philosopher who was mainly active in sociology and technology. Latour's ideas advocate for reexamination of humanity's existence between nature and society. With similar themes, Okunaka pursues to demonstrate the dynamics between people and things through the properties of air, water and light. Okunaka has held numerous workshops at art venues around Japan and hosted presentations of his large-scale experimental works both domestically and internationally. The exhibition will be in display until March 2025. A special workshop event will also be available for only one day on September 15 with Artist Okunaka himself as a guest lecturer. At the workshop, guests will be able to create a miniature version of the balloon sculpture to take home. By getting a glimpse of the production process of the artwork, guests can get a deeper understanding of the Okunaka's concept. Workshop capacity is 12 people on a first come, first served basis. Tickets are ¥1,000 and online tickets will be on sale on August 6th. Application details will be listed on the official website.

Synesthesia - The Five Senses Interacting Through Art Details and Location

A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection

A Reputed Takahashi Ryutaro Collection

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) presents the exhibition “A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection." Comprising over 3,500 items, the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection is reputed as one of the most important collections of Japanese contemporary art in terms of both quality and quantity. A showcase of outstanding works by artists with a highly critical mindset, this exhibition explores the state of contemporary Japan from the specific viewpoint of a 1946-born art collector.

"A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art" Event Details and Location