I’m a couple years off to wanting to visit Tokyo (leaning on a Disneyland Tokyo trip) from the USA and I’m starting my research process. However, one of the main goals of a trip is that I would want to do is to support local artists than just buying a lot of merch. I enjoy visiting local galleries and enjoying local art fairs and shows . Naturally I would love to do these in a foreign country too!
Is there a big “local art scene” in Tokyo that I can research into? Preferably, it would be fun to view smaller artists and creatives. Not just big expensive galleries.
Thanks for your help!
4 comments
Yes, huge art scene. Check out Tokyo Art Beat and Art Sticker for events and exhibitions. Most of these events will be more expensive galleries. You can check out Design Festa in Omotesando. It’s a spot where artists rent rooms by the day and exhibit their work.
There are little galleries and pop ups scattered throughout Tokyo. I am an artist and I participated in “Design Festa”, which is an international art show held at Tokyo Big sight twice a year. The group behind that show also has a gallery called “Design Festa Gallery” near Harajuku/Omotesandō that features frequently rotating exhibits and pop up shops from local artists. I would recommend following the tokyoartsandculture instagram page to see what’s going on around the city during the time you’ll be there. If you are into nightlife, I would follow the TokyoLoveHotels instagram account (I swear it has nothing to do with actual love hotels) they host pop up events at different locations a few times a month, featuring independent musical and visual artists, as well as pop ups for indie designers.
I second Design Festa with great fervor. On my second trip to Tokyo I attended Design Festa at Big Sight, and it was so awesome, I now plan my trips around when Design Festa occurs. So much art, crafts, live performances, big boards set up with artists creating art on site. Just amazing. And every kind of art you can think of. I bought a hand-turned utility knife there that I now use every day in my own artwork. Big Sight is a damn impressive structure as well. Walking up to it from the train station is an experience all its own. The second time I attended Design Festa it was somewhere else, but still plenty fun.
Disneyland? Really?