Best Exhibitions Starting in April 2023
Alex Da Corte The Open Window 2018 Alex Da Corte Studio
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Tokyo Art Beat presents a selection of the best exhibitions opening in April 2023. If you bookmark the exhibitions on the Tokyo Art Beat app, you will never miss the openings and closings!
- Cats in Ukiyo-e (Ota Memorial Museum of Art)
- Accidentally Wes Anderson (Warehouse Terrada G1 Building)
- Journey to the World of Edward Gorey (The Shoto Museum of Art)
- Shuntaro Tanikawa Exhibition (Play!)
- Shunsuke Imai: Skirt and Scene (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
- World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects (Mori Art Museum)
- Henri Matisse: The Path to Color (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
- The Spirit of “Avant-garde” Photography: The Transformation of Nothing - Shuzo Takiguchi, Nobuya Abe, Kiyoji Otsuji, and Shigeo Gocho (Chiba City Museum of Art)
- Kyotographie International Photography Festival 2023 (Multiple venues in Kyoto)
- Alex Da Corte Fresh Hell (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)
Cats in Ukiyo-e (Ota Memorial Museum of Art)
Ota Memorial Museum of Art is holding a special exhibition dedicated to cats, the most frequently portrayed pets in Ukiyo-e. The exhibition features various paintings of cats, including masterpieces by Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Hiroshige Utagawa, and Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, as well as “toy paintings” made for children. Enjoy the cute, humorous, and sometimes mysterious world of Ukiyo-e cats.
Venue: Ota Memorial Museum of Art
Schedule: April 1 - May 28
Accidentally Wes Anderson (Warehouse Terrada G1 Building)
Wes Anderson’s movies are known for their eccentricity, unique narrative style, and unforgettable color pallets and proportions. However, this is not an exhibition of stills from his films but photographs collected by the Accidentally Wes Anderson (AWA) community. Over 300 photographs are on display, allowing visitors to experience a journey to secret places around the world virtually. For more details, check out the news.
Venue: Warehouse Terrada G1 Building
Schedule: April 5 - May 26
Journey to the World of Edward Gorey (The Shoto Museum of Art)
Edward Gorey is known for his mysterious worldview and monotonous, detailed drawings. His picture books such as “The Doubtful Guest” and “The Hapless Child” have also been published in Japan. In addition to writing, Gorey demonstrated his many talents in illustration, stage and costume design, and theatre and ballet posters. This exhibition reconstructs a collection of approximately 250 works from the exhibitions held at the Edward Gorey House, based on themes such as “Children,” “Mysterious Creatures,” and “Performing Arts.”
Venue: The Shoto Museum of Art
Schedule: April 8 - June 11
Shuntaro Tanikawa Exhibition (Play!)
Play! presents an exhibition of picture books by the poet Shuntaro Tanikawa. From the 1960s to the present, Tanikawa has collaborated with various painters and photographers to produce many picture books. The exhibition includes approximately 20 books and original drawings, videos, readings and sounds, large scrolls, and newly created installations.
Venue: Play!
Schedule: April 12 - July 9
Shunsuke Imai: Skirt and Scene (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
Shunsuke Imai, best known for his series of paintings featuring stripes of vibrant color, has explored a wide range of artistic expression, deftly crossing the boundaries between figurative and abstract, two- and three-dimensional, and art and design. The Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery exhibition will provide an overview of the diverse world of Imai’s work.
Venue: Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
Schedule: April 15 - June 18
World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects (Mori Art Museum)
This exhibition at the Mori Art Museum explores the activities of contemporary artists who seek to go beyond our preconceptions creatively. It is an attempt to free contemporary art from school subjects such as “fine arts” and to define it as a field commonly used in all subjects of learning about the “world.” Participating artists include Ai Weiwei, Satoru Aoyama, Joseph Beuys, Hikaru Fujii, Naoya Hatakeyama, Susan Hiller, Yoshitomo Nara, Yang Haegue, and many others.
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Schedule: April 19 - September 24
Henri Matisse: The Path to Color (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
French artist Henri Matisse is one of the great masters of the 20th century and a key figure in Fauvism. This exhibition is the first large-scale Matisse retrospective in Japan in twenty years. It is being organized with the full cooperation of the Centre Pompidou, which houses one of the world’s largest Matisse collections. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, cut-outs, and materials related to his last masterpiece, the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, are on display.
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Schedule: April 27 - August 20
The Spirit of “Avant-garde” Photography: The Transformation of Nothing - Shuzo Takiguchi, Nobuya Abe, Kiyoji Otsuji, and Shigeo Gocho (Chiba City Museum of Art)
The Chiba City Museum of Art presents an exhibition exploring photography in Japan during the Showa period (1926-1989), focusing on four artists. Shuzo Takiguchi pioneered surrealism in photography; Nobuya Abe founded the Avant-garde Photographic Society with Takiguchi; Seiji Otsuji was fascinated by Takiguchi and created the Nandemo Nai Shashin series; and Shigeo Ushiutsu was a favorite student of Otsuji.
Venue: Chiba City Museum of Art
Schedule: April 8 - May 21
Kyotographie International Photography Festival 2023 (Multiple venues in Kyoto)
Kyotographie is one of Japan's major international art events, showcasing photography and works by internationally renowned artists. Under the theme “Border,” this year’s exhibition will explore what separates borders or how they relate to human progress. Participating artists include Mabel Poblet, Yuriko Takagi, Boris Mikhailov, César Dezfuli, Joana Choumali, Yu Yamauchi, Yuhki Touyama, Miyako Ishiuchi, and others. This is an excellent opportunity to explore the world of photography in the unique venues of Kyoto, a city rich in history. Check #Kyotographie2023 tag on the event page for information on exhibitions at each venue.
Venue: Hachiku-an (Former Kawasaki Residence)
Schedule: April 15 - May 14
Alex Da Corte Fresh Hell (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, presents the first solo exhibition of American artist Alex Da Corte in Japan. Da Corte explores “how images are made and perceived” and, by extension, how memories are made. This exhibition focuses on his video works, full of a mysterious charm that coexists between playful pop and virtual images, populated by familiar characters and icons and the gloom and desolation of reality.
Venue: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Schedule: April 29 - September 18
For more regional exhibitions, see the Japanese article.
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