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Hello,
This week, I’m in Tokyo to launch our summer issue, with its cover feature on four emerging galleries to watch here. On my first trip to the country two years ago, Japan had only just lifted COVID-19 restrictions and foreign visitors were still few. Now, as international crowds flock to the PACIFICO Yokohama convention centre for the city’s latest art fair, Tokyo Gendai, it feels like an especially important moment for Japan’s vibrant contemporary art scene. Not only are young artists and dealers challenging the norms and expectations for what art can do here, but established galleries are mounting exhibitions that draw on a range of the artists, both from Japan and elsewhere, who have been deeply inspired by this country.
One of the highlights for me is a fantastic Alexander Calder exhibition at Azabudai Hills Gallery, organized in collaboration with Pace Gallery, which recently opened an outpost here. Though Calder never travelled to Japan, the show brings together 100 extraordinary works that reveal the country’s crucial yet understudied influence on his practice. Casting new light on the poise and delicacy of Calder’s sculpture, paintings and works on paper, the show reminds us that even the most established artist’s work can be reimagined with a slight shift in context. In this case, the shift is a spiritual homecoming of sorts: Calder may never have visited Japan, but it feels as if he might always have lived here. Nearby, Take Ninagawa has mounted a mini retrospective of Kazuko Miyamoto, a groundbreaking minimalist who, in 1972, helped to cofound A.I.R. Gallery in New York, where she has lived since the early 1960s. Underrecognized for many years, Miyamoto only received her first institutional survey in 2022, at Japan Society. This, too, felt like something of a homecoming.
Whether you’re in Tokyo this week, plan to travel here soon or are just curious about what’s on view around town, I encourage you to read Taro Nettleton’s guide to the city’s best shows for frieze.com. And don’t forget to check out our summer dossier on four up-and-coming spaces, each of which meets the unique challenges and opportunities this city poses. One gallery has no fixed address; another is part café: they are a reminder of Tokyo’s radical potential, its constant demand for reinvention.
Best,
Andrew Durbin
Editor-in-Chief, frieze
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