Posted:Mar 27, 2014

10 Things in Tokyo: March Round-up

A short list of exhibitions and events happening across Tokyo during March.

To start, March is the time for Tokyo’s largest gathering of collectors and dealers, with Art Fair Tokyo happening over the weekend of Friday March 7th until Sunday the 9th. Local galleries will be represented next to some international counterparts, alongside the fair’s side-event talks and special exhibits. Over the same weekend, “3331 Art Fair -Various Collectors’ Prizes” will be held at 3331 Arts Chiyoda. The event is a aimed at being a casual, approachable format for first-time buyers and those interested in knowing more about the art market.

Outside of these big attractions, the city offers plenty of exhibitions great and small. On a large scale, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MoT) has two major exhibitions showing as well as its impressive permanent collection. “MoT Annual 2014 – Fragments- Incomplete Beginnings” is the newest in the museum’s series of themed survey exhibitions, with this year’s spotlight on new, young Japanese artists. In the same building, “The Marvelous Real- Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Art from The MUSAC Collection” is a rare chance to see contemporary art from the Spanish-speaking world in Tokyo.

If you have the time, Art Tower Mito over in Ibaraki Prefecture is showing “Expanding Fashion“, a large exhibition about the changing face of fashion as it mixes with other disciplines. To quote the organizers, it showcases “a new discourse around the currency of fashion.” It runs until May 18. Fans of design may also be interested in checking out some vintage photographs by Yukio Futagawa, a man who captured the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright over 20 years. The photographs are on display at Taka Ishii Gallery Photography/Film, Roppongi, until March 15.

Yuichi Higashionna is an artist who sometimes sits between design and art. His new exhibition at Yumiko Chiba Associates will showcase his impressive ‘Chandelier’ series of sculptures, usually created from blacked-out, domestic fluorescent tube

Yuichi Higashionna, 'Untitled (LT.100-01)' (2014)
Yuichi Higashionna, 'Untitled (LT.100-01)' (2014)
Courtesy Yumiko Chiba Associates.
lights, as well as other materialized meditations on the nature of light and shadow in postwar Japanese culture. The show will run from March 6th until April 5.

Shiseido Art Gallery continues its support of young, especially women, artists with the newest “Shiseido Art Egg” solo exhibition by Madoka Furuhashi. Furuhashi utilizes found objects, anything from fish bowls to agricultural implements, and exploits the stories surrounding the objects in order to turn them from mere objects but into artworks. On display from March 7th until the 30th.

Meanwhile, at Photographers’ Gallery, Hiromi Tsuchida will exhibit two moving image works filmed in Fukushima. The gallery only has short exhibition periods, and this one closes on the 9th of March. To continue on a political theme, Tokyo Wonder Site in Shibuya will be the venue for an intriguing exhibition from the Asia Anarchy Alliance, described by the organizers as an effort to elevate Asia’s status: “The contemporary art world also focuses mainly on Western Art, and the age of Asia being relegated to imitator or secondary status continues. Asia Anarchy Alliance strives to disrupt this paradigm, coming together to confront head-on the various issues facing Asia, placing and expressing them within the context of art.” It runs from March 8th until April 20.

Emily Wakeling

Emily Wakeling

Emily Wakeling is a writer and curator who used to be based in Tokyo. Hailing from Brisbane, Australia, Emily wrote a Masters thesis on images of girls in contemporary Japanese art. She also curated some local sound art events. Her research interests cover Asian and Australian contemporary art, young women artists, globalisation and art, and new media.