Gallery of Contemporary Art (GOCA) by Garde is pleased to announce its participation in Future Fair 2025
GOCA by Garde will present two Japanese artists, Aya Kawato and Yuta Okuda, who represent a new generation of Japanese artists poised to shape the future of contemporary art through the lens of Neo-Japonisme. Rooted in Japonisme—the19th-century European fascination with Japanese aesthetics—this contemporary evolution speaks to a cyclical cultural exchange: where Japanese art once inspired the West, its echoes returned through postwar American culture, only to be reinterpreted anew within Japan’s evolving cultural landscape. Neo-Japonisme is not a revival, but a dynamic reassembly. Filtered through the hybridized, hypermodern sensibilities of artists who traverse time, tradition, and technology, it becomes a living dialogue. The works on view reflect this next phase: layered expressions where Japanese heritage, Western contemporary practices, and deeply personal vision converge into a new visual and conceptual language.
It's an honor to introduce this emerging cultural movement at Future Fair, New York—an international crossroads where such artistic convergences find their sharpest resonance. Through deconstructing and reconstructing tradition, these artists are charting bold, new pathways for Japanese art on the global stage.The theme of this presentation is "a new impulse." Within the minds of these artists, Japan’s ancestral traditions collide with the complexities of global contemporary life. From this frictione merges a fresh quality—a distinct, embodied aesthetic sensation—pulsing outward into the world.
About the Gallery
GOCA by Garde is a gallery dedicated to showing Japanese and Asian contemporary art, located in a 2,400sqf space in New York’s Chelsea district. The first of its kind in the city, GOCA introduces US and international audiences to emerging and established artists from Japan and a cross Asia featuring works in painting, sculpture, and ceramics.Launched in 2025 to bolster global awareness of some of Japan’s most exciting artists, GOCA fosters artistic development not only through its gallery programming but in offering a hub for cultural exchange and interaction. GOCA is the latest project from GARDE, a creative enterprise based in Japan, encompassing architecture, design, and visual arts, dedicated to enriching the world through creativity.Exhibited artists are chosen through their ability to stimulate cross-continental conversations, while showcasing some of the most exciting work emerging from across Japan, and wider-Asia, today. The gallery’s inaugural show is a solo presentation of Japanese artist Yuta Okuda in January 2025. Upcoming exhibitions include 川人綾(Aya Kawato) in the fall 2025.
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About the Artists
Aya Kawato, informed by traditional Japanese dyeing techniques, Kawato constructs illusionistic grids that navigate the balance between control and chaos. Influenced by her neuroscientist father, her practice merges craft and science, exploring visual perception through a multidisciplinary lens. Her abstract compositions gently disorient and captivate, inviting a meditative viewing experience.
Yuta Okuda, conjures imagined florals through vivid color and intricate line work, evoking themes of gratitude, transience, and interconnection. Educated within London’s avant-garde fashion scene, he seamlessly merges haute couture sensibilities with deeply rooted Japanese philosophy—creating sculptural beauty that speaks to resilience, renewal, and the quiet power of being.