Tokyo’s art scene is extensive and vibrant, and there’s always so much to see. Whether you want to see some traditional Japanese art or a modern exhibit, here’s a list of exhibitions happening in Tokyo that are worth checking out.
Tokyo Art Events
Overland_Spillover#1 Exhibition
Based on the phenomenon of “spillover,” this exhibition will continue as an ongoing program. The first iteration, “Overland_Spillover#1” will feature one solo artist, one collaborative unit, and one platform: Shuhei Hayashi, MES (Takeru Arai and Kanae Tanikawa), and FAQ? (a platform by Tanikawa and Marina Lisa Komiya). “Overland” is to be interpreted as the title of the first episode of this project.
Exhibition teaser trailer.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Jun 16, 2024・11:00-19:00・Closed on Tuesdays | Open until 20:00 Wednesdays |
| Price | Free |
| Location | Bug |
Robin F. Williams, Thirst, 2023. Oil on canvas, 127 x 152.4 cm | 50 x 60 inch. Photo by JSP Art Photography. Courtesy of the Artist, P.P.O.W. and Perrotin
“Undying” Exhibition by Robin F. Williams
In her first exhibition with Perrotin, Robin F. Williams explores the psychological variations of intimacy in film and media. Her paintings, based on film stills, are vibrant and absorbing, and their lush texturing rewards the attentive viewer. Williams engages in a discourse of gendered pleasure and female agency as seen in popular film, tantalizing the viewer with what we hope will be a happy ending.
There will be an opening reception on May 9, from 5–7 p.m.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Jun 22, 2024・11:00-19:00 |
| Price | Free |
| Location | Perrotin Tokyo |
‘On Double-Dealings, Demos & Discontent’ Exhibition
The exhibition “On double-dealings, demos & discontent” at Watowa Gallery features works about the notion of protest by the Japanese artist Sacco Fujishima and the Brazilian designer and social activist Pedro Inoue. The exhibition includes works on paper, paintings, sculpture, video installations and a live demonstration on the metaverse, fueled by social media and audience interaction with AI avatars.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Jul 15, 2024・12:00-19:00・Last admission 30 minutes before closing |
| Price | Free |
| Location | Watowa Gallery / The Box Tokyo |
Black Beast, 1940. Sheet metal, bolts, and paint. 103″ x 163″ x 78 1/2″. Photograph by Ken Adlard © Calder Foundation, New York.
Calder: Un Effet du Japonais Exhibition
“Calder: Un Effet du Japonais” explores the enduring resonance of the American modernist’s art with Japanese traditions and aesthetics.
Curated by Alexander S. C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation, New York, and organized in collaboration with Pace Gallery, the exhibition will comprise approximately 100 works from the collection of the Calder Foundation that span the 1930s to the 1970s, ranging from the artist’s signature mobiles, stabiles and standing mobiles to his oil paintings and works on paper.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Sep 6, 2024・10:00-18:00・Fri, Sat: 19:00 |
| Price | ¥1,500 |
Fragments of the Future: Laboratory of Science and Design Exhibition
Design dreams of possible futures in this exhibition directed by engineer Shunji Yamanaka. Based around the theme of a more beautiful, surprising and engaging world, visitors can see prototypes, robots, and materials made by Yamanaka and others collaboratively. Showing what can emerge from combining design and scientific thinking, it asks, what could the materials of the future look like?
| Date & Time | UNTIL Aug 12, 2024・11:00-19:00・Closed on Tuesdays |
| Price | ¥1,400 |
Ⓒ 2024 Peanuts Worldwide LLC
Traveling Peanuts Exhibition
Held at the newly refurbished Snoopy Museum Tokyo, the “Traveling Peanuts” exhibition is showcasing original drawings by Charles M. Schulz that depict Snoopy and the Peanuts gang during their travels. There are more than 40 original comic strips borrowed from the Schulz Museum. “Traveling Peanuts” begins on February 1, when the Snoopy Museum Tokyo reopens after being closed for three weeks.
The museum now includes a new Snoopy Wonder Room, featuring various Snoopy goods, and a new light and video presentation in the popular Snoopy Room area, which is known for its approximately 8-meter-long giant statue of Schulz’s most famous character. The museum’s shop, Brown’s Store, meanwhile, has added various items that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.
Adjacent to the museum is the Peanuts Cafe, which now includes terrace seating and a new grand menu.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Sep 1, 2024・10:00-18:00・Open until 20:00 between February 1 and 4, 19:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. Closed on February 20. |
| Price | Advance Ticket ¥1,800 | On the Day ¥2,000 |
| Location | Snoopy Museum Tokyo |
Amazing Edo Tokyo: Treasures of Tokyo for Tomorrow
Held at Seiko House in Ginza, this exhibition is part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Edo Tokyo Kirari Project. It will display and sell the works of selected businesses who are refining Japanese traditional handicraft skills and ideas from new perspectives so that they can be passed on to the future.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to view and purchase traditional craft products which have refined traditional techniques with a modern twist.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Jun 16, 2024・11:00-19:00・Closes at 17:00 on the last day |
| Price | Free |
| Location | Seiko House |
Sense of Structure: From Horyuji Temple To The Universe Exhibition
Architects design buildings, but structural engineers make a building possible.
“Sense of Structure” is a celebration of materials, knowledge, and creation — looking at how we’re able to exist alongside nature, minimise natural disasters, and create masterpieces of architecture using structural design.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Aug 25, 2024・11:00-18:00 |
| Price | ¥1,500 |
| Location | What Museum |
Animals, Animals, Animals! Exhibition
The city of Tokyo expanded into a sprawling metropolis during the Edo period, around 400 years ago. This exhibition asks: “How did these Tokyoites interact with animals?”
A deep dive of all things feathered and furry, 240 works have been selected from the Edo Tokyo Museum collections. The 100 Animal Views From the Edo-Tokyo Museum Collection showcases a diverse representation of animals through picture scrolls, ukiyo-e prints, and folk toys.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Jun 23, 2024・10:00-18:00・Closed on Mondays (except April 29, May 6, June 17) |
| Price | ¥1,300 |
| Location | Tokyo Station Gallery |
| More Info | Exhibits will change between the first exhibition period (April 27 – May 26) and second (May 28 – June 23) |
“Perfect Guide to Japanese Swords” Exhibition Returns
Seikado Bunko Art Museum is bringing back “Perfect Guide to Japanese Swords,” a Japanese swords exhibit in their new premises in Marunouchi. The exhibition was a hit in the days when the museum was located in Okamoto, Setagaya city.
It brings together nine swords from the museum’s collection that have been designated as national treasures and important cultural assets and provides the ideal introduction to the appreciation of Japanese swords, with a focus on the Kamakura Period.
| Date & Time | Jun 22, 2024-Aug 25, 2024・10:00-17:00・Closed on Mondays |
| Price | ¥1,500 |
| Location | Seikado Bunko Art Museum |
Amedeo Modigliani, “Reclining Nude with Hair Taken Down”, 1917, Osaka New Art Museum Construction Preparation Room Collection
Trio: Modern Art Collections from Paris, Tokyo and Osaka
The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka have worked together to foster something truly unique. In a collaborative experiment, the three museums, which have cultivated their own distinct cultures, have selected works that share a commonality to showcase as a trio. With 34 trios from a wide range of mediums and backgrounds, the exhibition explores works from a lens of global interconnectedness and surprising similarities.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Aug 25, 2024・10:00-17:00・Open until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays |
| Price | ¥2,200 |
| Location | The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo |
Photo by Chris Strong
Afro Mingei: Theaster Gates Solo Exhibition
While Black histories remain relatively little known among the Japanese public, this exhibition demonstrates its growing attention to Black art through the multidimensional practice of Theaster Gates. “Afro-Mingei” will convey the importance of contemporary art that honors craft, ask us to consider questions of race and politics, and celebrate the hybrid possibilities of culture.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Sep 1, 2024・10:00-22:00・Closes at 17:00 on Tuesday except Aug 13 (22:00) | Admission 30 mins before closing |
| Price | ¥2000 |
Sashiko stitched tabi socks, c. 1940. Japan Folk Art Museum collection. Photo: Yuki Ogawa
Mingei: The Beauty of Everyday Things
The term “mingei” (folk craft) celebrates the charm to be found in everyday hand-made objects. Coined by designer-philosopher Soetsu Yanagi in 1926, mingei believes that a beautiful life can begin with the objects we use day-to-day. Craft meets philosophy in this visual feast of interior inspiration which brings together over 100 items of clothing, furniture and homewares, including a “future mingei style” room presented by “Mogi” duo Terry Ellis and Keiko Kitamura, owners of Mogi Folk Art in Koenji.
| Date & Time | UNTIL Jun 30, 2024・10:00-18:00・Last admission 30 minutes before closing |
| Price | ¥1,700 |
| Location | Setagaya Art Museum |
Sound of Dawn
From Saturday, June 15 to Sunday, June 30, Sony Park Mini, Sony’s experimental pop-up space, will present “Sound of Dawn,” a sound installation by composer/artist Shinji Wakasa. The installation depicts the transition from the depth of late-night darkness to the first light of dawn, utilizing compositions from Wakasa’s latest album “DAWN.”
“As the night deepens, passing through the cosmos-like darkness, the sky awakens, giving birth to the morning.”
To enhance the immersive experience, Sony’s “Active Slate” technology is installed in the benches, paired with 12 speakers to create a three-dimensional soundscape with vibrations that match the gradations of sound. This unique dawn experience, a collaboration between Sony and the artist, can only be felt here.
| Date & Time | Jun 15, 2024-Jun 30, 2024・11:00-19:00 |
| Price | Free |
| Location | Sony Park Mini |
