Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) demonstrated its collaborative spirit during its sixth edition, held November 7-9, bringing together galleries from Japan and around the world while connecting contemporary art with the city’s rich cultural heritage.
Held at the Kyoto International Conference Center, the fair featured 63 galleries in a distinctive format in which each exhibition space paired a Japanese gallery with an international counterpart.
Miho Doi, director of Experiences at ACK and one of seven directors overseeing the fair as part of this year’s Leadership Committee, said these collaborations have been central to its identity since its founding in 2021.
ACK featured 63 galleries in a distinctive format in which each exhibition space paired a Japanese gallery with an international counterpart
“Galleries collaborating with one another is nothing new but making it a pillar that defines a section of the fair is unique to ACK,” Doi said. “It makes possible presentations that a single gallery could not realize alone, and for visitors it is an opportunity to discover new relationships between artists and works, and to meet galleries and artists they would not normally come across. I believe this is one of the things people value about ACK.”
Art Collaboration Kyoto Gallery Collaborations
The gallery partnerships produced some unique and unusual presentations. Mizuma Art Gallery of Tokyo and STPI of Singapore, for example, presented works by several artists in different mediums. One was Astral Shadow 100, part of a sculptural series by Mori Junichi. The large disk, made of naturally patterned onyx, features swirling colors reminiscent of tie-dyed fabric.
The same booth included two abstract acrylic paintings on canvas, Things That Remain Unwritten 172 and Things That Remain Unwritten 173, from Heman Chong’s ongoing series of colorful works exploring imaginary futures.
Astral Shadow 100 by Mori Junichi presented by Mizuma Art Gallery of Tokyo and STPI of Singapore
The booth shared by Hauser & Wirth of Zurich and Taro Nasu Gallery of Tokyo focused on artists who incorporate language into their work. An especially prominent piece, displayed on the booth’s exterior wall, was Lawrence Weiner’s COVERED BY CLOUDS, rendered in the typographical style for which the artist is known. A caret, the proofreading symbol used to indicate an insertion, places the word “BY” within the phrase. The work suggests optimism and the possibility of blue skies beyond the clouds.
Mai 36 Galerie of Zurich, which shared a booth with Osaka-based Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, presented several works by Chinese-born, U.S.-based artist Leon Xu. One, titled Paradise…how far?, depicts a curtained window through which sunlight enters, casting a faded appearance over the view outside.
Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, and Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo, presented Lawrence Weiner’s COVERED BY CLOUDS
Tokyo’s Shibunkaku and Berlin’s neugerriemschneider presented a video work by Ho Tzu Nyen featuring a tiger in full gallop. The animal suddenly swallows its own tail before returning to its original form and continuing to run. The Singaporean artist has previously described the tiger as a unifying symbol for Southeast Asia, a region of diverse religions and cultures whose common ground, beyond geography, is difficult to define.
ACK Intersections Brings Art Beyond the Exhibition Space
One of the more interesting programs introduced at the fair was ACK Intersections, presented under the theme “Out of Bounds.” It featured several artists whose works were installed throughout the boundary of the conference center, including outdoors.
Leonhard Bartolomeus, curator at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), organized the exhibition. He said the theme encouraged artists to challenge conventional methods of presentation and occupy the venue in unexpected ways. The broader idea was to restore spontaneous human connections that modern divisions tend to push apart and explore how art can challenge unspoken rules that flatten nuance and reinforce polarization.
Shota Suzuki’s outdoor artwork of lifelike red leaves made of copper among the stones
“The idea is finding artists whose intention is to break away from usual activities. In this program, I put the elements you can find from each artist: playful, dynamic, intervention and atmospheric,” Bartolomeus said.
Many of the participating artists are young, and several incorporated recycled materials into their work. At the entrance to the conference center was Out of Business Sale by Piotrek Kowalski of Warsaw, Poland. The installation brought together objects collected from flea markets and business sales, arranged into 10 separate compositions on a PVC tarp. The result resembles a large puzzle, incorporating such everyday items as keys, name badges, coins, pens, a mobile phone, thermometers, concrete and plastic.
You had to look carefully to see two artworks by Shota Suzuki. In a rock-strewn area outside the conference center, Suzuki carefully placed lifelike red leaves made of copper among the stones. Their appearance echoed the early autumn foliage beginning to emerge throughout Kyoto.
Inside one of the exhibition spaces at Art Collaboration Kyoto
An even smaller work was easier to overlook: a tiny floral arrangement made of silver, copper, nickel silver and gold powder, tucked into a corner of the conference center’s glass entrance. It almost appeared to have floated into place accidentally, until one notices a yellow triangular piece of tape surrounding it revealed that it was an intentional installation.
In Salvage, Rina Matsudaira used recycled materials to create two multi-panel shoji screens covered in gold foil paper. She painted the surfaces with historical Japanese figures in settings that depicted dramatic, battle-like poses.
Art Exhibitions at Kyoto’s Buddhist Temples
Kyoto is home to more than 1,600 Buddhist temples and an estimated 400 to 500 Shinto shrines. In keeping with its collaborative approach, ACK extended its programming beyond the convention center, presenting several site-specific installations in these historic places of worship.
Among them was Mountain, Walking on Water, a group of paintings by Yuka Kashihara at Komyo-in, a subtemple of Tōfuku-ji. The mostly abstract works reflect the artist’s experiences at the temple, which she has visited regularly for the past 14 years.
A painting by Yuka Kashihara in the Komyo-in subtemple
The pastel-colored canvases evoke the temple’s lush green surroundings, its central arrangement of stones set within three circular formations in white sand, and the moss that covers much of its grounds.
Visiting the temple is a memorable experience in itself, and Kashihara’s paintings reflect the spirituality of its architecture and landscape. Passionate about the site, she said she intended the works to occupy a space between abstraction and realism, although even the more representational paintings could be interpreted as abstract.
“The Nightfishing” by Andrew Cranston on view at the Tōfuku-ji subtemple
At Ryōsoku-in, a 688-year-old subtemple, Scottish artist Andrew Cranston presented a series of paintings under the title Bird, Beasts and Flowers. The works depicting flora and fauna were inspired by a book of poems of the same name by D.H. Lawrence.
Unlike Kashihara’s paintings, Cranston’s works were not created in response to the temple. Nevertheless, their natural subjects feel appropriate to its surroundings. In one painting, a yellow heron is the focal point of a tranquil waterside scene. Next to it, a red-and-black composition depicts turtles gathered around outdoor furniture. Another, in sunny yellow, features a deer staring directly at the viewer. Snakes also figure prominently in Cranston’s work, including one painting of a coiled serpent on what appears to be a stone floor.
Art Collaboration Kyoto Collaborates With The City
The exhibitions and installations spread throughout Kyoto are as important to the fair’s identity as the gallery presentations themselves, Doi said.
Since ACK began in 2021, the number of exhibitions and art events taking place across the city during the fair has grown more than 2.5 times. This year, more than 100 independent exhibitions and events were held.
“Through exhibitions and art events across the city, artists’ studios and opportunities to experience Kyoto’s distinctive culture, we want visitors to enjoy the way contemporary art and Kyoto’s culture intersect,” Doi said. “I feel that, alongside the appeal of the fair itself, how you spend your time in the host city greatly shapes how satisfying the whole visit is. Holding ACK in Kyoto, where history, culture, food and contemporary creative activity coexist, is a tremendous strength.”
The fair is also part of a broader effort to strengthen Kyoto’s position as a center of art and cultural patronage, reflecting its historical importance as Japan’s cultural capital before Tokyo assumed that role. One significant development in that effort was the relocation of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs from Tokyo to Kyoto in 2023. ACK is among several art fairs helping to expand the city’s contemporary art presence.
Doi hopes visitors will recognize that Kyoto is a place where tradition and contemporary creative activity continue to inform one another.
“Kyoto is a city that cherishes tradition, but it is also a city that has embraced and nurtured new forms of expression and new values. Historical culture and contemporary creative activity do not exist separately; they influence each other in everyday life,” she said.
“We hope those who come to Art Collaboration Kyoto will experience Kyoto not just as a city of historic landmarks, but as a living creative place where many people are still making culture and passing it on to the next generation. And we hope the people and works they meet here will lead to a long-lasting connection with Kyoto, and with Japan.”
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
