Each year, dealers and art lovers from around the world head to Art Fair Tokyo to experience the pulse of Japan’s art scene. As one of the country’s largest and most prestigious art fairs, it draws together many of Japan’s most prominent galleries — including heavyweights like Tomio Koyama Gallery, ShugoArts and Taro Nasu — alongside a vibrant mix of international exhibitors. It’s a rare opportunity to browse antiques and contemporary installations all at once.
This year’s fair — taking place between March 13 to 15 — welcomes 141 participating galleries, with a lineup that feels more diverse than ever. Among the highlights are works that push the boundaries of their respective mediums, from Momoko Fujii’s breathtaking straw creations that combine modern sculpture and heritage craft, to Motohide Takami’s surrealistic dioramas that challenge our perspective on disaster and emotional distance.
Oscar Oiwa
Oscar Oiwa is a Brazilian-born Japanese artist whose expansive practice is defined by his unique perspective as someone living in the “world in between.” He is represented by Lurf Gallery and New York’s Goca by Garde at the fair. Born in São Paulo to Japanese immigrants and currently based in New York, Oiwa draws from his experience moving between cultures to create immersive, large-scale paintings and installations that blur the lines between reality and imagination. Many of his works revolve around a fusion of urban and natural landscapes, enveloped by bursts of light.
These magnetic paintings function as narrative landscapes, where issues such as environmental change and urban density are rendered with a sense of whimsy and swirling energy. Colorful, animated and mythical at once, his visual language is singularly striking. “I treat the landscapes as a living, unstable space, where city, nature and memory intersect,” he states. “[My approach] opens an opportunity to reflect on how we exist in this fragile and ever-changing world.”