Tokyo's Most Exciting Art Fair Returns to the City
Tokyo International Art Fair, Belle Salle Roppongi
08-09 OCTOBER 2021 | 2021年10月8-9日
東京国際アートフェア2021年10月8-9日
28th September 2021: In a little over a week, the doors will open to Tokyo's most exciting art fair. The Tokyo International Art Fair, now in its sixth successful year, will be making a welcome come-back to the city on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th October, bringing hundreds of inspiring artists and thousands of visitors to Tokyo's vibrant art scene.
Set in the stylish Belle Salle exhibition hall in Roppongi, just a stone's throw from the Mori Art Museum in the affluent Roppongi Hills, the free to attend two day art fair sees leading artists not just from Japan but from 25 other countries across the globe, converging on the capital for a celebration of contemporary art.
What is unique about the art fair is that it offers the chance for artists and galleries to show and sell their work directly to art lovers and collectors, with no fees for buying or selling. Art lovers, whether seasoned collectors or those just starting on their journey into art, can pick out a piece to add to or start their collection from thousands of incredible pieces on display.
NEW AT THE FAIR
There will also be a newly integrated Digital and Virtual art section at the sixth edition of the fair, selling artworks from international artists through the new Tokyo Online Art Gallery. This has its own booth complete with innovative technology allowing the visitor to buy art online as well as read more about the international artists. Among the artworks on show will be original paintings, sculptures, photography, illustrations, jewellery and much more, as well as the chance to commission art directly from the artists.
For Curator Gena Sasaki Johns of the award-winning Global Art Agency, this year's Toyko International Art Fair holds particular significance. "We are hugely excited to be back in Tokyo and to open the doors to one of the city's biggest and best art fairs," says Gena. "The quality of artworks is exceptional, with carefully selected artists and galleries from across Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan filling the event with vibrancy and colour.
"We can't wait to experience the buzz of artists and visitors talking, appreciating and of course, buying and selling art. Don't miss it," she says.
Among the incredible work on display will be pieces from the following featured artists:
Menucha Page - a Jerusalem-based Jewish woman artist combining ancient themes of Torah Judaism and values with contemporary artistic techniques in painting, drawing, photography, woodwork, glasswork and metalwork. Her work, a blend of ancient themes and contemporary art, combines a unique blend of eternal principles with cutting-edge contemporary artistic techniques in ways that inspire and imbue her art with deeper meaning. https://www.menuchapagefineart.com
Naun Park - Korean Na Un Park's work reflects the world around her, focussing on the uncertainty of people living in this era, where certainty cannot be guaranteed. Her digital portraits display characteristics of contemporary people changing according to their environment, with strong colours harmonising human figures in a storyline of artworks explaining the contemporary nature of our lives in a time of uncertainty. http://naniparkart.creatorlink.net/INTRO
Vincenzo Coronati & Gentaro Yokoyama, Soranna Avenue Gallery - Vincenzo Coronati is an Italian interdisciplinary conceptual artist working in photography, television and painting. In Tokyo he will present works using his “off-painting” technique, with paintings printed on canvas through algorithms that replicate pictorial gestures with naturalistic subjects. Gentaro Yokoyama is a Japanese neo-pop ceramic artist. An impulsive and playful creativity inspires his colourful and captivating pieces that tell stories of human nature and magical realism.
Agnes Lui - a member of Hong Kong International Young Artists Society, Agnes is passionate about sharing her love of art. The countless wonders of the night sky have always captivated her and her paintings of the starry night sky when observed under telescope remind people that the most beautiful things are always around us and they invite us to explore. If you focus on a the black area of a particular painting, you may only see darkness, but in fact, this dark region is just a small part of the painting which is composed of an overwhelming array of colours.
Alissa Chapman - New York based woman's designer turned artist, Alissa specialised in fashion illustration and turned her passion for artistic expression in fashion into painting, replacing fabric with a brilliant palette and brush as her go-to medium. Her portraits and still lives are inspired by the golden age of America in the 1950's and her sense of style, portraying her sense of fun. Her casual compositions grab attention with vivid colours that convey her interpretations of this era and all its glamour. https://www.sshhaaddooww.com
Marco Riha - originally from Austria, Marco now calls Mexico his creative home base. The majority of the images he creates are born out of an automatic painting technique; automatism refers to creating art without conscious thought, accessing material from the unconscious mind.
After a long fascination with oils on canvas, he now focuses on abstract works in mixed media, with socio-political pieces about liberty, multiculturalism, ecocide, division and unity, raising the age-old question about the artist's role as a moral compass. https://marcoriha.com/
Pia Kintrup - a conceptual photographer from Germany, Pia's interests lie in photography as a media, what it is and what it could become. Her research investigates new media and materials, ranging from photography to sculpture. Transformational processes, value, emptiness and abundance and photographic steps of transition are essential for her artwork. https://www.piakintrup.com/
Mimi Revencu - a mirabilis artist, Mimi’s art is positive and instinctive. Her paintings tell stories inspired by every day experiences and moments expressed through the language of her inner world. Their symbolism comes from a place within her and are influenced by Eastern European mysteries, fairy tales and patterns. In telling her stories, she’s always searching for sincerity and for that raw emotion and joy we are all born with but tend to lose as we become adults. https://www.mimi.ro/
Xana Abreu - Xana's goal as an artist is to contribute to the understanding and acceptance of the other and to promote coexistence in harmony through visceral works in serene and poetic compositions. Her art seeks to collaborate with the movement of increasing tolerance that pulses in society, merging and smoothing those differences, mixing beings, metamorphosing, painting humanised animals and animalised humans, valuing relationships but also addressing fears, greed, envy and all the ingredients that make understanding and acceptance more difficult. https://www.xanaabreu.com/
Johnny Duncan - multidisciplinary artist, Satellite of the Blue Dozen Collective, founder of First Friday NB and owner of streetwear brand Chill Infinity, Johnny creates kaleidoscopic works that are vivid, iconic and deceptively simple. His work encompasses murals, illustration, fashion, photography and fine art, marrying the attention-grabbing audacity of graffiti with nostalgic, classic cartoon imagery, inviting the viewer into his universe of sorbet-coloured grotesqueries and fantastic visuals. https://www.jenkins2d.com/
Nicole Rafiki - artist, curator and editor. As an interdisciplinary artist, she uses textile, text, and photography to re-imagine and challenge the stereotypical depiction of spaces, contexts, identities and the people who are affected by global migration. Her most recent work is an ongoing exploration of the enslavement, dehumanisation, and hypersexualisation of African female bodies through colonial and racial systems, global and forced migration, and identity politics.
Tokyo International Art Fair opens in style on Friday 8th October with a VIP reception and sneak preview of the artworks on display, plus the first chance to purchase directly from the artist. Reception from 18.00pm - 21.00pm. Tickets cost ¥ 2500 JPY ($ 20 USD) and can be booked at https://www.tokyoartfair.com/tickets. The fair continues on Saturday 9th October from 11.00am - 18.00pm and entry is FREE. The Outstanding Artist Awards will take place on Saturday at 17.30pm.
Tokyo International Art Fair takes place at Belle Salle Roppongi, Japan, 〒106-0032 Tokyo, Minato, Roppongi, 7 Chome−18−18, 住友不動産六本木通ビル More information is at https://www.tokyoartfair.com/
ENDS