6 must-see art exhibitions in Tokyo this summer

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Japan is not a short flight from art world hubs like New York, London and Paris. But visitors to Japan this year will not be disappointed by the art offerings, which range from modern to contemporary. This week, during the Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, the city’s exhibitions are dominated by large-scale sculptures.

The itinerary is first: Artison MuseumExhibition Constantin BrancusiThis is the first official survey of the Romanian-born sculptor’s work in Japan.

Brancusi’s The Kiss It has it all: it’s cute, romantic, and Instagrammable. It was created in the early 20th century, which also happens to mark the beginning of modern sculpture: The KissThe rest of the work is a sprint, from Picasso to Moore to Giacometti, all the way to Eva Hesse and Rachel Whiteread. So it’s no surprise that The Kiss takes center stage in the Artizon exhibition.

The exhibition deftly documents Brancusi’s flight from Rodin’s influence: the climax of the exhibition is a section devoted to bird forms, featuring the famous Birds in spacean elegant bronze sculpture. There are also photographs, and a section dedicated to the reconstruction of Branco Simon Parnas’ studio. Purists will complain about the large number of posthumous works, but for the general audience, the exhibition is a good beauty and a wonderful introduction to a giant of modern sculpture.

If Brancusi had imagined this bird, Alexander Calder Teach it to fly. Azabudai Hills Gallery A compact survey completed in collaboration with Mobile Masters Pace Gallery whose vast new space is upstairs—organized by the artist’s indefatigable grandson, Sandy Rower, head of the Calder Foundation. The title? “Calder: The Influence of Japan.” Why not. We’ve paired Calder with artists like Giacometti, Miró, Fischli, and Weiss. As Rower has shown us over the past two decades, Calder is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

There are some real gems in this exhibition, including a series of unexpected paintings of animals in motion: there is no word other than perfection to describe these paintings, especially those of the cats, whose movements are captured in just a few strokes of ink. The star of the show, though, is Japanese architect Stephanie Goto, who designed the exhibition. The black moving installations contrasting with the black ceiling? Unexpectedly brilliant. Other works are set against a wall covered with large sheets of black paper, an effect that shouldn’t have worked but did.

You might think of Brancusi again when you visit “moon”Exhibition of British Artists in Los Angeles Thomas Houseago exist bloom the gallery formerly known as Blum & Poe. Houseago is best known as a sculptor, and several works on display evoke the Romanian master, including an abstract egg-shaped sculpture set on a rough wooden base and another, an owl, using his signature plaster painting technique.

The owl, in my opinion, is the best work in the exhibition, silhouetted against a large window. Like Ann Craven’s bird paintings, this work seems to capture the essence of the animal. Houseago has recently begun to dabble in paintings, which are colorful and dramatic but not as successful as the 3D works. For example, a large painting of an owl was completed, but it only seems to highlight the “less is more” glory of the sculpture.

After seeing the works of these three male sculptors, you have to wear a different hat to experience Naito ReiThink of Henry James’s quote, “Try to be a man who has nothing to lose.” Because if you haven’t noticed, Naito’s work is huge. Tokyo National Museumyou will lose a lot.

Born in Hiroshima in 1961, Naito represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1997. Her work is in the tradition of minimalism, but not in the style of Donald Judd. There is nothing heavy about her work. Instead, objects ranging from small to extremely small—pompoms, balloons, pebble-like blown-glass bubbles, animal figurines, bones, small mirrors, a pitcher of water—are arranged in a way that requires the viewer to contemplate. In a long, narrow room in the museum, these objects are arranged against off-white walls and dim lighting: the effect is like being inside the artist’s imagination. On one wall are white fabrics in glass display cases that look like snowdrifts. What’s amazing about Saito’s work is that it comes very close to affectation but never crosses that line.

In the 1980s, Naito said of one of her works that she was trying to “create a spiritual world of my own.” The same could be said of another Japanese artist of Naito’s generation who worked in a very different way. Mariko Mori She became famous in the nineties for posing for photographs in Japanese urban settings, dressed as various archetypal Japanese female figures, but over the past two decades she has been working in a spiritual way, even blending her art with her living environment.

Current projects on display SCAI Bathroom The content is complex, involving crystals and a spiritual painting, and is related to Mori’s work Peace Crystal (2016-2024), which is currently on display outside a palazzo during the Venice Biennale. At SCAI, Mori appears in augmented reality (you need to make an appointment) as a priestess, whose costumes draw both from Japanese history and from the futuristic effects of video games. Like Saito, Mori has created an entire immersive world, one you can only enter in person.

for Theaster GatesThe wall text at the Chicago artist’s first solo exhibition in Japan explains as much. Mori Art Museum Gates, who worked with Tokoname potters in preparation for Mori’s exhibition, first visited Tokoname in 2004 and came up with the concept of “African Mingei,” a term for Japanese folk art that was eclipsed by the introduction of Western art to Japan in the 19th century.[W]”For me, the key is how mingei respects local makers and resists externally imposed cultural identities,” Gates explains in the exhibition’s wall text.)

The results are on display in the final section of the survey of Gates’ work, and it’s by far the highlight. After a detailed timeline tracing Gates’s connection to Japan, there’s a huge display case filled with ceramics by Tokoname ceramicist Yoshihiro Koide (who died in 2022), and a huge wooden bar (stools and all), in front of which is a set of shelves holding kantoku (sake bottles) made in collaboration with Japanese ceramicist Tani Q. There’s also a great soundtrack (Busta Rhymes was performing when I visited) and a spinning disco ball in the shape of an iceberg.