12 – 14 September 2025
PACIFICO Yokohama

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2024 Highlights

The second edition of Tokyo Gendai was held from 5 – 7 July, 2024 (VIP Preview and Vernissage on 4 July) at PACIFICO Yokohama. The fair welcomed domestic and international visitors, collectors, and institutions from 40 countries and territories, and solid sales were reported across all sectors of the fair.

We are deeply thankful to everyone who attended, as well as participating galleries, sponsors, partners, and staff that made our second edition a success.

Exhibiting Galleries

Galleries

Hana

Eda

Public Programs

Tokyo Gendai’s Public Programs provides a way to explore contemporary art from many perspectives.

Art Talks
IntoArt
Sato 'Meadow'​
Tsubomi 'Flower Bud'
Ne 'Root'

Art Talks

Art Talks brought together artists, curators, and collectors, as well as leading professionals from a variety of fields. Through exposure to multiple perspectives, participants deepened their understanding of the global art world and explored important themes of contemporary society.

Art Talks

Art Talks provided a rare chance to hear from key figures in the art world and beyond. Eight sessions were held, spotlighting key topics in art and culture.

Sou Fujimoto (Architect)

Takeo Obayashi (Chairman of the Board of Obayashi Corporation)

Yuko Hasegawa (Director of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Program Director for the Art and Design Division at the International House of Japan)

Lu Yang (Artist)

Marc Glimcher (CEO of Pace Gallery)

Alexander S.C. Rower (President of the Calder Foundation)

Mami Kataoka (Director of Mori Art Museum)

Soojung Yi (Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)

Sareena Sattapon (Artist)

Maya Nago (Editor in Chief, ARTnews JAPAN)

Yusuke Asai (Artist)

Mika Kuraya (Director of Yokohama Museum of Art, Executive Director of Organizing Committee of Yokohama Triennale)

Carsten Nicolai (artist and musician as ALVA NOTO)

Daito Manabe (Artist, programmer, and DJ)

Maholo Uchida (Curator, Director of project for the Center for Cultural Innovations at TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, of East Japan Railway Company)

Miwa Taguchi (Co-founder of Taguchi Art Collection)

Eriko Kimura (Director of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art)

Pedro Erber (Professor, Waseda University)

Ritsue Mishima (Artist)

Jun Ishida (GQ JAPAN Head of Editorial Content)

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IntoArt -Dive into Your Creative Journey-​

IntoArt -Dive into Your Creative Journey- offered a free space that brought art closer to young audiences. Children participated in workshops led by artists who exhibited at Tokyo Gendai, and freely created in an open-ended play area filled with art supplies, or enjoyed art books and videos at their own pace.

The workshops were led by the following creators: 
Bruno Botella, Artist
Robert Platt, Artist/Professor at Kyushu Sangyo University 
Yoshiyuki Okuyama, Photographer/Filmmaker 
Rikako Kawauchi, Artist 
Kohei Yamada, Artist 

Organised by Gotoschool Inc., the company regularly hosts similar art workshops called “IntoArt – Find your own EDGE Program – by LUMO.” IntoArt is overseen by artist Kohei Nawa and independent curator Kensho Tambara.

 

Sato 'Meadow'

Sato ‘Meadow’ featured five large-scale, tailored installations around the fair, spotlighting new themes in contemporary art.

System of Surroundings – Kishio Suga

Kishio Suga (1944-) is a central member of the Mono-ha art movement that took place from the late 1960s to the 1970s. For over 50 years since, he has remained active at the forefront, opening up unique horizons in contemporary art through the essential world of his work expressed by means of the diverse existence of things. Suga has already established an international reputation as one of the leading artists of Postwar Japanese art, and has participated in more than 400 exhibitions in Japan and abroad. His works are also housed in over forty museums throughout the world including the Centre Pompidou, the Tate Modern, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, M+, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. In producing his work, Suga collects and selects “things” such as wood, stone, metal, and rope, and by approaching the relationships between “things” and “things,” “things” and space, “things” and people in various subtle ways, draws out and reveals the very depths of the diverse existence of “things.”I believed the world existed as an unbroken continuity wherein the distinction between individual ‘mono’ revealed themselves. I could not, therefore, tolerate conceptualization that gave priority to thinking and removed individuality and reality.” (Kishio Suga, “Latent Infinity” KISHIO SUGA, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015) Since the beginning of his artistic practice, Suga has always been aware of the fact that the existence of “things” which are individually dispersed throughout the world, indeed connect with to one another to create a cohesive whole. Observing stones and trees in their natural habitats of forests, groves, and rivers since his childhood, led him to realize that nature, things, and people are all equal and connected. Suga states,“Everything is indivisible. All things have their own place by existing.” This sensitivity is reflected in his work.

Installation view from “20th Anniversary of the Iwate Museum of Art: Kishio Suga: The Existence of ‘Things’ and the Eternity of ‘Site’” at Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka, Japan, 2022

Kishio Suga, System of Surroundings, 1998, wood, steel pipes, steel rods, 212 x 410 x 600 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery

Every game begins with “LOVE” – Udomsak Krisanamis

Udomsak Krisanamis created a checker board play house for a public to come in and play. The installation consists of original fabric chairs, silk screened checker board with bin caps, rack of records and a record player.

Udomsak Krisanamis, Every game begins with “LOVE”, 2023, Silk screened checker tables, chairs with original fabric, bin caps, beer crates, works on canvas, works on paper, found materials, record player, records, sound system, dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and GALLERY SIDE 2

The Cowboy on the Grass – Yuichiro Tamura

Like issues of many social divisions, disparity, and environmental problems, there are piles of work that must be solved today. Contemporary artists who work hard on these issues every day and night are like the cowboys that ride the wild bulls and rope the raging horses. And if we were to describe them as so, artists, therefore cowboys, need a rest. Sitting on the green carpet, cowboys are resting as they like. Around their neck there is a tied bandana. And paisley, a familiar design for bandanas, is crawling on the bandanna. Paisley, which is said to give comfort to our human heart, is likened to protozoans such as a euglena or paramecium, a seed or spore of a plant, or an embryo, and is often associated with life and the spirit. However, paisley also crawls on bandanas worn by thieves and gangsters. Whilst involved in such violence, the life of paisley remains a mystery. To entrust oneself to such a paisley could provide not only the artist but also those of us living today with a fundamental rest and violent mystery on a global scale. “The Cowboy on the Grass” is a performative work in which three bandana-wearing cowboys sit on a huge green bandana-patterned carpet and rest in their own way. At the heart of the work is the encounter and mixture of the mysterious being of paisley and human beings, and the restoration of life and soul through it. The composition is based on “The Luncheon on the Grass” by Edouard Manet.

Yuichiro E Tamura, The Cowboy on the Grass, 2024, Carpet, cowboys, 500 x 500 cm
Courtesy of the artist and KOTARO NUKAGA

LINES – Kengo Kito

MtK Contemporary Art presents “LINES,” an installation by Kengo Kito (1977-), complemented by a series of video works streaming on the expansive display backdrop. These videos are a collaborative effort between CG creator Keita Morie and sound artist Akiyoshi Yasuda. On the screen, primitive life forms appear, rotating and gradually transforming into organic forms, and finally a man and a woman are shown in a drama of metamorphosis of life. The author of the video is the video creator Keita Morie. He says that he created it based on the spiral shape and colorful palette of Kengo Kito’s hula hoops. Accompanying the video is Akiyoshi Yasuda’s electronic sound. He says likewise that he attempted to create music based on the works of Kengo Kito. The origin of music is said to be the voice of the mother heard by the fetus through the amniotic fluid. Akiyoshi’s sound, synchronized with Morie’s images, will lead our imagination to the world of the origin of sound. And then there is Kito’s “LINES,” which are regularly lined up as if towering from the earth. Standing in front of this work, the colors of the multiple lines blend together on our retinas, evoking the image of primordial vision in which we simply perceive the colors. And by walking around the work, the dynamic shifts in color gradations contribute to a holistic sensory experience. Our eyes, being compound, perceive the object three-dimensionally and recognize it as part of the living world. “LINES” can be said to be a work that allows us to experience the dimension of living colors.

Kengo Kito, LINES, 2024, movie, color coated aluminum pipe, 330.9 x 650 x 800 cm
Courtesy of the artist and MtK Contemporary Art

Puff Marshie (Hirosaki Version, Shanghai Version) – Yoshitomo Nara

Puff Marshie (Hirosaki and Shanghai Version) (2006), a seminal work by Yoshitomo Nara, portrays the head of a pensive girl in the form of a cream puff. Originally exhibited in 2006 as part of Yoshitomo Nara + graf: A to Z at the Yoshii Brick Brew House, Hirosaki, Japan, the soft lines and minimal form emphasize the character’s sweet-yet-mischievous expression—an attitude that has become synonymous with Nara’s childlike universe. Made at the end of an intensely collaborative period for the artist, Puff Marshie marks a return to a more solitary practice and a new approach to creating three-dimensional forms.

Puff Marshie (Hirosaki Version, Shanghai Version), 2006, Urethane on FRP, 300 x 150 cm, Edition of 3, 1AP
© Yoshitomo Nara; Courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation and BLUM, Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York

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Tsubomi 'Flower Bud'​

Titled ALL THINGS ARE DELICATELY INTERCONNECTED, Tsubomi ‘Flower Bud’ showcased the works of women artists of different nationalities, generations and cultural identities. Taking inspiration from the truism phrase created by Jenny Holzer during the global pandemic, the exhibit presented works that reflect on our relationship to civilization and the natural environment. The exhibit showed the works of a range of artists, from recent works of the upcoming and underrepresented, to the once-underrepresented works of established artists. By transcending the gallery space, the exhibit recontextualized these works, drawing new parallels and synergies between them.

Exhibiting artists:
Jenny Holzer, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (Tokyo)
Miya Ando, Sundaram Tagore (New York, Singapore, London)
Mika Tajima, TARO NASU (Tokyo)
Sareena Sattapon, SAC Gallery (Bangkok)

Curated by
Marina Amada, contemporary art curator and co-founder of SPECTRUM
Soojung Yi, curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
Powered by the Spectrum Collective

Ne 'Root'​​​

Ne ‘Root’ presented five leading foundations, featuring special showcases of their work.

Odawara Art Foundation, founded by contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto,  delivered a presentation on the concept of the Enoura Observatory, as well as Kankitsuzan Art Museum, scheduled to begin construction later this year. In addition, the foundation presented the relocation project of Keika House originally designed by Seiichi Shirai, one of Japan’s leading architects.

Fukutake Foundation introduce dnew activities at Benesse Art Site Naoshima, including the new art museum scheduled to open in spring 2025.

Foundation Yoshii introduced Kiyoharu Art Colony, an art and culture complex in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, operated by the foundation as its base.

The Obayashi Foundation displayed an overview of its support towards artists, thinkers and researchers with a focus on urban development and the building of healthy cities.

CADAN: Contemporary Art Dealers Association Nippon presented My Pick, an exhibition in which art collectors introduce their favourite artists and tell how they enjoy collecting art, as well as the activities of the gallery space CADAN Yurakucho, which reopened in May 2024.

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2025.9.12 – 14

PACIFICO Yokohama

© Tokyo Gendai 2024

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