Best Exhibitions Starting in February 2023

Tokyo Art Beat presents a selection of the best exhibitions opening in February 2023. If you bookmark the exhibitions on the Tokyo Art Beat app, you will never miss the openings and closings! 

Wolfgang Tillmans “Moments of life”

Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo presents an exhibition by German artist Wolfgang Tillmans. Since the late 1980s, Tillmans has continuously created works that extend the creative boundaries of photography and imagery. As a part of the “Hors-les-mur” program, the exhibition will feature approximately 30 selected works from the Fondation’s collection.

Venue: Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo
Schedule: February 2 - June 11

Exhibition Details

Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 Technology?

Since its first edition in 2009, the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions has been exploring the question, “What is the imagery?”. Approaching the technology that has become a part of our lives, the festival will focus on three concepts: era, the expansion of the body and perspective, and the stories of cities and nature. Among the festival’s highlights is the new “Commission Project,” in which Yu Araki, Rei Hayama, Insook Kim, and Hiroyuki Oki were selected and commissioned to create a new work for the exhibition. 

The themed exhibition on the relationship between art and technology will feature works by Yang Lu, Houxo Que, Mayumi Hosokura, Noriko Koshida, Jikken Kobo (Experimental Workshop), Shozo Kitadai, and Fiona Tan. The screening program features works by Jonas Mekas, Peggy Ahwesh, Takahiko Iimura, and Nami Iguchi, as well as a program from the Tokyo International Deaf Film Festival. For more information on the participating artists and their works, see the news.

Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, etc.
Schedule: February 3 - February 19
Exhibition Details

The New Face of Leprosy Literature - The Poets and “Buds of Life”

The National Hansen’s Disease Museum presents a special exhibition featuring poems created at the Hansen’s disease sanatoriums after World War II. The title of the exhibition, “Inochi no Me” (Buds of Life), refers to the first joint collection of poems by 73 people from eight sanatoriums across Japan. The postwar respect for fundamental human rights under the Constitution of Japan and the advent of Promin, the first chemotherapy treatment, brought significant changes to the residents, both mentally and physically. Instead of viewing their situation as “fate,” people began to see it as a future in which change was possible. Therefore, a new style of literature was born. This exhibition will feature various materials related to “leprosy literature,” including autographs of contributors to “Inochi no Me.”

Venue: The National Hansen’s Disease Museum
Schedule: February 4 - May 7
Exhibition Details

Marie Laurencin et la Mode

Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. She contributed to the Cubist movement and was an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde scene. The Bunkamura Museum of Art exhibition will feature approximately 100 pieces from domestic and international collections, including the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée Marie Laurencin. Take this opportunity to explore the history of the Parisian art world through the works of Laurencin and her relationship with contemporaries such as Coco Chanel, Paul Poiret, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, and Madeleine Vionnet.

Venue: Bunkamura Museum of Art
Schedule: February 14 - April 9
Exhibition Details

Easteast_Tokyo 2023

“Easteast_Tokyo 2023” is an art event featuring a mix of art galleries and projects. Science Museum will host art exhibitions, sales, and the introduction of art projects by the exhibiting galleries, video, sound, and live performances, discussions, viewing tours, and offer food and beverages. Off-site programs will include video exhibits on the streets of Shibuya and Shinjuku, music programs in clubs and live houses, and other experiences that introduce Tokyo’s cultural scene and artist community.

Venue: Science Museum
Schedule: February 17 - February 19
Exhibition Details

Dumb Type, 2022: remap

Artizon Museum presents a recomposed version of Dumb Type’s “2022,” originally shown at the Japan Pavilion at the 59th International Venice Biennale. This will be the first opportunity to see the new work “2022” in Japan, created with the newest member Ryuichi Sakamoto, who has been attracting public attention with the release of his new album.

Venue: Artizon Museum
Schedule: February 25 - May 14
Exhibition Details

Yoshiiku and Yoshitoshi: Ukiyo-e Masters at the Dawn of Modernization

Yoshiike Ochiai and Yoshitoshi Tsukioka trained their skills under Kuniyoshi Utagawa, one of the leading ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo period. Although the two artists were popular at the same time, each had developed their own style. Ochiai painted newspaper nishiki-e for the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (the predecessor of the Mainichi Shimbun). Tsukioka, on the other hand, explored the warrior pictures and pioneered the ukiyo-e scene with historical themes. This exhibition will explore artists as apprentices and collaborators who fought against the decline of the ukiyo-e style.

Venue: Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo
Schedule: February 25 - April 9
Exhibition Details

Yokoo Tatsuhiko: Beyond the Realm of Meditation

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1928, painter and sculptor Tatsuhiko Yokoo lived and worked in Japan and Europe. After working as an art teacher in Kitakyushu, Yokoo moved to Switzerland in 1965 and since then has established a reputation for his fantasy paintings inspired by the Bible and mythology. After establishing a full-fledged base in Germany in 1980, he was influenced by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and Zen Buddhism and adopted meditation in his work, changing his style to abstract paintings with a connection to calligraphy. This retrospective exhibition will feature approximately 90 works, many of which have been preserved in his studio in Japan.

Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
Schedule: February 4 - April 9, 2010
Exhibition Details

Picasso and His Time: Masterpieces from Museum Berggruen / Nationalgalerie Berlin

The Kunstmuseum Berggruen in Berlin, Germany, opened in 1996 to house and exhibit the collection of German-born art dealer Heinz Berggruen. This is the first exhibition in Japan to present 97 works from the museum’s collection. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the masterpieces of 20th-century European art along with 11 works from the collection of the National Museum of Art. On view are the early works of Picasso and pieces by his most admired contemporaries, including Klee, Matisse, and Giacometti.

Venue: The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: February 4 - May 21,
Exhibition Details

Tadaoto Kainosho: Crossing Boundaries in Nihonga, Theater and Film

The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, presents a major retrospective exhibition of painter Tadaoto Kainosho, who transcended various forms of expression throughout his career. Kainosho started as a Nihonga painter but switched to the film industry in the early 1940s. This exhibition focuses on the previously overlooked aspects of his work in theater and cinema, featuring scrapbooks, sketchbooks, paintings, photographs, videos, film costumes, posters, and other related materials on display. The exhibition is also scheduled to travel to Tokyo Station Gallery in July.

Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Schedule: February 11 - April 9
Exhibition Details

Caring: Motherhood

Care is an essential element of our society. Featuring a diverse range of works, from expressions born out of second-wave feminism to the reading of private childcare diaries, this exhibition will seek the possibilities of empowerment through works of contemporary artists and the placemaking that strengthens the connection between the public and care. Participating artists are Ryoko Aoki, AHA![Archive for Human Activities], Miyako Ishiuchi, Mako Idemitsu, Yui Usui, Ragnar Kjartansson, Kento Nito, Maria Farrar, Young-In Hong, Mei Homma, Martha Rosler, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Yun Suknam.

Venue: Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito
Schedule: February 18 - May 7
Exhibition Details

Hayami Gyoshu: A Retrospective

Gyoshu Hayami was one of the leading Japanese painters active from the late Meiji period to the early Showa period. His painting style changed throughout his 30-year career, from exact, realistic depictions in the Taisho period to a return to classical painting, to works with simplification and flatness. This exhibition will explore Hayami’s path as a painter through approximately 100 paintings and drawings on display.

Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki
Schedule: February 21 - March 26
Exhibition Details

Alberto Giacometti Exhibition

Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka presents an exhibition featuring the works of Alberto Giacometti. On display are seven sculptures from his later years, including representative works from the “Woman of Venice” series.

Venue: Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka
Schedule: February 23 - June 25
Exhibition Details

Shigeo Toya Exhibition

Shigeo Toya is one of Japan’s leading contemporary sculptors. Through his work, Toya has been confronting sculpture dismantled as an institution in postwar art in Japan and abroad and has attempted to reconstruct it from its essence. The exhibition features approximately 30 works displayed without being bound to a particular year of production but according to a concept.

Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Schedule: February 25 - May 14
Exhibition Details