Inside Tokyo Gendai 2025: Photos of Japan’s Leading Art Fair

Tokyo Gendai returned to PACIFICO Yokohama in September, opening a new chapter for the fair that is fast becoming Japan’s leading international contemporary art fair. The new dates aligned the fair with Tennoz Art Week and the Aichi Triennale, as well as geijutsu no aki—‘autumn is for the arts’, a phrase referring to Japan’s traditional cultural season—enriching the cultural scene for Japanese and international audiences alike.

‘This has been a landmark year for cultural activations in Japan, and there has been a real international engagement with the Japanese art scene,’ said Eri Takane, director of Tokyo Gendai. 

Now in its third year, Tokyo Gendai brought 66 exhibitors from Japan and abroad to Yokohama, among them Japanese galleries CON_, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Kotaro Nukaga, MAKI Gallery, MISAKO & ROSEN, NANZUKA, PARCEL, ShugoArts, Taka Ishii Gallery, TARO NASU, and Tomio Koyama Gallery, as well as international blue-chip galleries such as Almine Rech, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Pace Gallery, and Perrotin. Galleries with spaces in cities such as Auckland, Beijing, Istanbul, New York, Jakarta, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Vancouver, and Vienna, also participated.

This year’s edition featured a joint curatorial initiative with Art Busan, titled ‘Connect’. As part of the project, 11 galleries from Korea and China participated in the fair across the four sections (Galleries, Eda Branch, Hana Flowers, Sata), along with 6 galleries presenting in a satellite exhibition at Tennoz Contemporary. In addition to deepening the dialogue between Korea and Japan, Art Busan Director Seokho Jang said that the Connect project aims to ‘model how regional fairs can act as platforms for cultural sustainability—not just visibility.’

Main image: Gana Art. Connect in Tennoz Contemporary, Terrada Art Complex (10–15 September 2025). © Art Busan and Tokyo Gendai. Photo: Yuma Nishimura.