Art Fair Tokyo is the largest art fair in Japan and the oldest in Asia, bringing together a wide range of artists and exhibitors. Now in it’s 17th iteration, the excitement is taking place this weekend (March 11 – 13) at Tokyo International Forum. Although Japan is beginning to relax their border controls, the country still remains closed to most tourists so we’re bringing you just a small selection of highlights from the city’s premier art showcase.
all images courtesy the artists
Shohei Takasaki
Previously based in Portland and now Australia, the wild and colorful paintings of Shohei Takasaki are as hard to pin down as the artist himself, who walks a fine line between abstraction and figuration.
Keita Morimoto
In the paintings by artist Keita Morimoto, light illuminates his nondescript street scenes of Tokyo, except his sources of light are vending machines, fast food restaurants, electric signs in parking lots and other symbols of consumerist society. You can read more about him here.
Maho Takahashi
Combining her signature gold-leaf and her “inner-child” character Anoko, Maho Takahashi presented her version of the Fujin and Raijin: the fearsome gods of lightning and wind.
Meguru Yamaguchi
Known for his two-dimensional action-based brushstroke paintings, which are then transformed into three-dimensional sculptures, Brooklyn-based Meguru Yamaguchi’s works are always exciting to see. It’s been 8 years since we visited his studio.
Kanemaki Yoshitoshi
Sculptor Yoshitoshi Kanemaki wants you to know that the world is more complicated than we can ever comprehend. And his breathtaking wooden sculptures guide us towards an understanding that there are competing goods in this world; two sides that can never fully be reconciled. You can read more about him here.
Yuta Okuda
Yuta Okuda uses blotches of acrylic paint, which he then combines with miniscule, delicate pen drawings, to create petals and blossoms within each other. You can read more about his work here.
Tanabe Chiku’unsai
Tanabe Chiku’unsai is a bamboo artist and craftsman that has been carrying on a family legacy that spans 4 generations. And where the 4th generation artist excels is in going places where his ancestors haven’t: creating large-scale, site specific installations that engulf and encompass the spaces they’re constructed in. He presented two large-scale sculptures at Art Fair Tokyo. You can read more about him here.
Kotao Tomozawa
Using her masterful grasp of texture, translucency and softness, Kotao Tomozawa creates large, unique portraits that feature highly viscous slime-like substances covering the faces of her models. They are simultaneously disturbing yet gentle. You can read more about her here.
