In numbers of eyeballs on artworks Tokyo is the unchallenged World capital of art, so, following the New Year reset, there's always plenty to see (and some of free!). In our art picks for this month: Shinjuku modernism, neo-surrealism, anime, Andy Warhol, contemporary art, and more!
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Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980) 10 silkscreen prints on
Kawakami Sumio "Marquis Okuma Memorial Hall of Waseda University" from
"A Hundred Views of New Tokyo" (1930) Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
"A Hundred Views of New Tokyo" (1930) Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
SHINJUKU: THE CITY OF MODERN ART
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the SOMPO MUSEUM OF ART is holding an exhibition of art focusing on Shinjuku, which has been a centre of avant-garde art since the late Meiji period. Many of these works, like Shunsuke Matsumoto's "Standing Figure," have already been burned into our collective memory by Japanese school textbooks. Also featured are Tsune Nakamura, Ryusei Kishida, Yuzo Saeki, and Aiko Miyawaki. Expect strangely dated but oddly charming attempts at subsuming Western modernism into a fast-changing society.
10th January - 15th February.
PRICE: ¥1500
More info
Yuasa Ebosi, The Boy, 2024
YUASA EBOSI | SEA OF MUD / CLOD OF MUD
GALLERY KOYANAGI, up a back alley just off the main Ginza thoroughfare, is always well worth a visit, especially as its free. Right now they have an intriguing exhibition by an ex-finance company employee who turned to art after the company he worked for collapsed. Naturally this experience predisposed him to take a direction influenced by surrealism as shown in the main work, which based a clay doll from the wartime period that he owns.
Now until 7th March
Now until 7th March
FREE
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Illustration Artwork for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin © SOTSU・SUNRISE
YOSHIKAZU YASUHIKO: DIVINE ANIMATOR and DRAFTSMAN
A retrospective of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (born 1947), a key manga artist with an iconic eye, who was the character designer and anime director of classics like MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM and others (NEO-HEROIC FANTASIA ARION, THE VENUS WARS, NAMUJI, TROTSKY RAINBOW COLOR, ODOU NO INU, etc). The exhibition at the SHOTO MUSEUM OF ART in Shibuya introduces works spanning 50 years, including previously unexhibited anime production materials. A great chance to geek out!
Now - 1st February
PRICE: ¥1,o00.
vellum paper framed separately, courtesy of the Foundation Louis Vuitton. Paris
ANDY WARHOL - SERIAL PORTRAITS
It was David Bowie who famously sang, "Andy Warhol, hang him on your wall..." Well, that is exactly what ESPACE LOUIS VUITTON TOKYO have gone and done with their "Andy Warhol – Serial Portraits" show, upstairs from their ritzy luggage shop in Omotesando. As the title hints, the exhibition takes a more personal turn, with drawings, photos, and prints of various people, some of them world famous and others anonymous members of Warhol's inner circle. It's completely free, so remember to show your gratitude by buying a handbag on the way out.
Now - 15th February, 2026.
PRICE: Free
A.A.Murakami, New Spring, 2017, Aluminum, robotics, bubble, fog, and scent
Installation view: Studio Swine x COS, New Spring, Salone del Mobile 2017, Milan
ROPPONGI CROSSING
Every three years the MORI ART MUSUEM calls in the heavy-weight curators from around the world and puts on its "big serious group show," pitching it as a "snapshot" of the contemporary Japanese art scene. The subtitle of this year's exhibition -- "What Passes Is Time. We Are Eternal" -- points to concerns with the temporal and the spiritual, and includes works from around 20 artists based in Japan or Japanese artists working overseas. Painting, sculpture, and video vie with embroidery, ceramics and other media.
Now – 12th March, 2025
PRICE: ¥2,000.
Nude Woman and White Cloth, 1929, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
NARASHIGE KOIDE
This exhibition at the FUCHU ART MUSEUM in Tokyo's Western suburbs looks pretty much like the one I saw at the Yokohama Sogo Museum back in 2001! It certainly features a lot of the same works. But that said, it's well worth a visit, as there is something haunting and memorable about Koide's placid and lugubrious oils. Not to mention his life story, that of a young, sickly Japanese artist whose fascination with Western style painting led him to Paris and and back, and to the creation of peculiarly Japanese version of Western art.
Now - 1st March, 2026.
PRICE: ¥800.
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