Whether you are celebrating from home and brushing up on some much-needed LGBTQ+ history, or out and about trying delicious Australian wine with friends, wave your rainbow-colored flags this weekend in celebration of Tokyo Rainbow Pride Week. Online festivals and social activism are trending so make sure you aren’t left out of the conversation. Fight for equal rights, join the shout for climate change or educate yourself through exploration.
1. Tokyo Rainbow Pride Week 2021
Tokyo Rainbow Pride Week takes things online for 12 days of events celebrating diversity and raising awareness of the LGBTQ+ community. This year’s theme ‘Our Voices, Our Rights’ aims to promote understanding of sexual and biological minorities, uplifting the voices of LGBTQ+ people and uniting the community and beyond. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic once again rains on the physical parade of Tokyo Rainbow Pride, but an online edition offers talk events, online forums and a socially distanced virtual parade centered around the weekend of April 24-25.
When: Apr 24 – May 5
Where: Online
2. Tasting South Australia 2021
Join a wine tasting tour of South Australia’s greatest vineyards on the 12th floor of Shibuya Scramble Square. Taste over 40 types from many of the most famous wine regions including Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra and the Adelaide Hills. There will also be Coopers Brewery beer and Kangaroo Island Spirits craft gin for those who want to try something refreshing.
When: Apr 24
Where: 12F Shibuya Scramble Square, 2-24-12 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku
3. Koinobori Gallery and Walk Through Tunnel
As part of Tokyo Midtown’s ‘Open the Park’ Season, visitors can see an outdoor gallery of colorful koinobori fish streamers blowing in the breeze. Carp streamers are a traditional decoration displayed in late April and early May to celebrate Children’s Day in Japan. 112 artists and designers from Japan and abroad have designed original koinobori based on the theme of ‘wishing for children’s growth’.
When: Apr 23 – May 9
Where: Tokyo Midtown, 9-7-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku
4. Roppongi Tenmon (Astronomy) Club 2021
Roppongi Hills Observatory will reopen on April 23 and with it a year of astronomical events, online and in-person. Roppongi Tenmon Club will once again take its place below the stars on Roppongi Hills Mori Tower’s rooftop observatory ‘Sky Deck’, the highest in the Kanto region. Experts in the field will provide commentary on the 4th Friday of every month, guiding your journey through the starry night. Be dazzled by the glittering lights of Tokyo dancing with the stars above.
When: Apr 23 – Mar 23, 2022
Where: Online and Sky Deck, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6 Chome-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku
5. TeNQ Special Exhibition – Starry Room
TeNQ Space Museum holds a special exhibition in collaboration with planetarium creator Takayuki Ohira. Ohira’s Planetarium MEGASTAR enables realistic reproduction of the vast and spectacular starry sky. Using projection mapping on dioramas and various new technology planetariums you can experience unique and beautiful views of the Tokyo night sky in addition to informative panels about the development and creation of the exhibits.
When: Until May 9
Where: Space Museum TeNQ, 1-3-61 Koraku, Bunkyo-ku
6. Climate Live Japan
The Climate Live Japan Executive Committee has put together a week of festivities that will conclude with the “Climate Live” online concert streaming live on YouTube. The purpose of this event is simple, raising awareness of the changing nature of our planet’s climate and encouraging action. 40 different countries around the world will participate in the stream with online access from almost anywhere. Big artists such as Little Glee Monster, Anly, Ermhoi and Roho will appear as well as environmental activists who are working to promote climate issues.
When: Until Apr 24
Where: Online
Shinsuke Tomita, The Voice of Shellfish. Intaglio print, 2021.
7. The Voice of Shellfish at Hiromart Gallery
Shinsuke Tomita works mainly in oil painting and copperplate printing. His debut solo show in Tokyo features selected copperplate prints and some new works. The scenes in his prints are enigmatic, with the quality of cinema – we are not always quite sure what we are looking at. Tomita begins on the copperplate with a “vague image” and, as he marks the surface and conducts test prints, the composition grows “firmer.” “It’s like a dialogue with myself when starting to draw and the image made on the copperplate,” he says.
When: Until May 30
Where: Hiromart Gallery, 1-30-7 Sekiguchi, Bunkyo-ku
©︎ In the Blue #1 by Takeshi SUMI Inkjet print | Image size W:1020 H:680 mm
8. MYD Gallery: “La Lumière pour L’Avenir”
MYD Gallery’s Spring 2021 exhibition features two artists, Takeshi Sumi and Louise Claire Wagner. In their works, the two artists express their own unique styles of photography which capture the presence of ‘light’ in everyday life, much like in the works of early impressionists. Sumi and Wagner’s photography, which can be called the Neo-impressionism of photography, show us the power of light and how it affects our sense of memory and perception.
When: Until Jun 26
Where: MYD Gallery, 2-8-17 Minamiazabu, Minato-ku
Phyllida Barlow, untitled: canvasracks; 2018-2019, Concrete, cotton-duck canvas, hardboard, paint, plastic, plywood, steel, tape, timber, Dimensions variable. Courtesy: Hauser & Wirth, Installation view: cul-de-sac, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2019. Photo: Damian Griffiths
9. Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World
This exhibition focuses on 16 female artists in their 70s or older, from across the globe, who continue to embark on new challenges. Ranging in ages 71-105 with their careers spanning over 50 years, these artists are originally from 14 different countries, and equally diverse in their current locations. Showcasing their wide array of powerful works from paintings, video, sculptures, to large-scale installations and performances, it contemplates the nature of the special strength, “Another Energy” of these women who have all continued challenging throughout their long-standing careers.
When: Apr 22 – Sep 26
Where: Mori Art Museum, Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-ku
10. Ayashii : Decadent and Grotesque Images of Beauty in Modern Japanese Art
The word ‘ayashii’ directly translates as ‘suspicious’, but in this case indicates the artistic styles that arose during the Meiji Period: decadence, sensuousness, grotesqueness, and eroticism. This kind of artistic style reflected the people’s desire and anxiety during the turbulent and drastic era. The collection exhibits paintings, prints and illustrations in magazines and books published from the mid-19th century to around 1930.
When: Until May 16
Where: National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Kitanomarukoen 3−1, Chiyoda ku
Hiroka Yamashita, Midday Saltpan, 2021, Courtesy of the artist ©THE CLUB
11. Hiroka Yamashita’s “Cosmos Remembered”
The dreamy works of Okayama-based artist Hiroka Yamashita are displayed for the first time since her eagerly anticipated return from New York. These paintings reveal our everyday pastimes through the spiritual lens of the artist. Combining both Western and Japanese methods, she hopes the viewer may, “feel instants where self and the external, past and future, as well as distant spaces all intersect.”
When: Until May 6
Where: THE CLUB, 6F Ginza Six, 6-10-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku
Xavier Veilhan, Richard. Birch plywood, acrylic paint, 2020. © Veilhan / ADAGP, 2021. Courtesy Perrotin
12. Xavier Veilhan – “Chemin Vert” at Perrotin Tokyo
For his first solo gallery in Japan, Xavier Veilhan explores statuary and the presence of bodies in space (which he presents in both two and three dimensions), abstraction, marquetry and drawing. Veilhan is particularly interested in music and sound, which we can see in his delicate mobile statues and even his mathematical representations of the human form.
When: Until May 15
Where: Perrotin Tokyo, Piramide Building, 1F, 6-6-9 Roppongi, Minato-Ku
13. Takeru Amano Exhibition: Primavera The Appearance of Venus
Takeru Amano’s stylistic compositions, bold lines and motifs of impressionist landscapes are not to be missed. He combines the block colors of pop art with the dreamy qualities of the classics. This April, 20 of his fantastic works will be displayed including portraits of the goddess Venus and the unveiling of ‘Impression Primavera’.
When: Until Apr 29
Where: UltraSuperNew Gallery, 1-1-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
14. Stamp de Archaeology at Philatelic Museum
For anyone interested in stamps, the Philatelic Museum in Tokyo’s Toshima-ku is a must. The current exhibition focuses on stamps with an archaeological theme. When viewing stamps, the images displayed are only part of the story. It is the traces of past lives and stories that stamps evoke that give them meaning beyond their function. As well as providing glimpses onto personal histories from the past, they shine a light on the values and beliefs of past societies, through the images chosen to be displayed on the stamps and their popularity with the public.
When: Until Aug 1
Where: Philatelic Museum, 1-4-23 Mejiro, Toshima-ku
©Proto-A/FORMATA 2020
15. 2021 A Space Odyssey Monolith: Memory as Virus – Beyond the New Dark Age
Two decades on from the setting of Stanley Kubrick’s epic science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, this exhibition challenges 9 artists to consider the themes of the movie as they relate to modern-day society. The technological revolutions that have occurred since the release of the movie in 1968 provide a very different framework for viewing the central themes of the film, such as artificial intelligence, space travel, and artificial evolution.
When: Until Apr 25
Where: Gyre, 5-10-1 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
© Elaine de Kooning Trust
16. Steps Ahead: Artizon Museum Recent Acquisitions
As an exhibition of recent acquisitions, there is no unifying theme here, but rather a showcase of the museum’s collecting philosophy and recent progress. The collection itself is diverse, ranging from ancient Chinese paintings to contemporary Japanese art, and is particularly strong on Impressionist and modern Japanese paintings. The recent acquisitions reflect this, but also the museum’s desire to expand its breadth to include more abstract and contemporary works, as well as early modern Japanese art.
When: Until Sep 5
Where: Artizon Museum, 1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku
17. Cherry Blossoms Bloom at TeamLab Planets
TeamLab Planets will reopen and with it an explosion of pink in time for cherry blossom season. Its interactive artworks such as ‘Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers’ will surround you with thousands of blooming cherry blossoms. At the ‘Infinity’ installation, the digital koi around your ankles will scatter and burst into the seasonal flower. What’s more, delicious cherry blossom sweets, such as dorayaki, can be found at the on-site food stand.
When: Until Apr 30
Where: teamLab Planets, 6-1-16 Toyosu, Koto-ku
