With Increased Buzz, Art Collaboration Kyoto May Not Remain Japan’s ‘Well-Kept Secret’ For Much Longer

Beauty, contemplation, freedom and peace. Those aren’t usually the first words that come to mind when you think of an art fair, yet they are the reasons that Tim Neuger, co-founder of Berlin-based gallery neugerriemschneider, cited when asked why he returned to exhibit at the boutique fair Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), which opened Friday in the historic Japanese city.

“This fair is about content, contemplation and respect,” he told ARTnews. “It’s a deaccelerating time machine.” 

Neugerriemschneider is among 69 exhibitors from 18 countries participating in this year’s fair, which runs November 1 to 3 at the Kyoto International Conference Center (ICC Kyoto). This is the fourth edition of the government-backed event, which has a distinct model in which a Japanese gallery acts as a host, inviting one or two international galleries to share their booth. Going against the grain of most international art fairs, ACK doesn’t feel competitive. Instead, it appears deliberately intimate and slow-paced, prizing thoughtful connections over commercial activity.

Eschewing a cookie-cutter grid format of white-cube booths, ACK is an irregular warren of booths clad in a lattice of raw wood beams. The sustainably-designed fair also uses paper-coated walls, which are recyclable. Booth costs were lower—ranging from around $3,500 to $19,000—due to government funding and sponsorship from the private sector, relieving galleries from bringing more predictable names and allowing them more room to experiment.

For the fair sector “Kyoto Meetings,” which focuses on presentations with a strong link to the city, neugerriemschneider featured Kyoto-inspired abstract paintings by Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson. His work is also on view nearby at Murin-an, a 19th-century villa and garden. A handful of other artists, including as Bosco Sodi, Izamu Kato and He Xiangyu, were also showing works at temples across the city as part of an expanded roster of partner events surrounding the fair.

For many, the biggest draw of ACK is the city’s autumnal charm. “The power of Kyoto and the fair’s collaborative spirit are like a magnet that has attracted top-quality galleries,” Yukako Yamashita, ACK’s programme director, told ARTnews.

This year’s edition of ACK saw a 35 percent increase in fair applications, according to Yamashita, who said that the fair deliberately kept the fair a similar size to previous editions—last year had 64 exhibitors—to keep quality high and preserve its distinct identity. Prominent newcomers in this edition include Annely Juda Fine Art, Matthew Marks Gallery and Perrotin.

“We have a long history of collecting art, and people are continuing to buy,” Yamashita said of the Japanese art market. “There are many new young collectors, and the Kyoto market is quite active.”

Yamashita cited the opening of galleries like Los Angeles-based Nonaka-Hill, which opened a space in Kyoto this week, and Oscaar Mouligne, which inaugurated a gallery in the city late last year, as evidence of Kyoto’s dynamism.

Several gallerists told ARTnews that they felt there was more buzz at this year’s fair compared to the previous edition.

“The energy in [Art Basel] Paris seems to have carried over to Kyoto,” Jeffrey Rosen, co-founder of Tokyo-based gallery Misako & Rosen, told ARTnews. Misako & Rosen, which showed at Art Basel Paris, is sharing a booth at ACK with  Reykjavík-based i8 Gallery. During the preview, the gallery said it had already sold  two small paintings priced at $6,000 each, and a diptych for $11,000 by Japanese artist Yui Yaegashi.

Busan-based Johyun Gallery said it almost sold out their booth, placing a work by Park Seo-Bo from $450,000 to $500,000; six charcoal on canvas works by Korean artist Lee Bae for approximately $60,000 to $65,000 and three bronze sculptures by the artist in the range of $30,000 to $65,000. Kyoto-based Kanegae also had a successful preview, selling 41 affordable ceramic works by up-and-coming Japanese artist Ryuta Fukumura priced between $108 and $6,125, as well as a drawing by Yuichiro Sato for around $16,500 among other works.

While other galleries, like Hong Kong-based gallery Rossi & Rossi, reported sluggish sales during the preview, gallery director Charles Fong remained optimistic and said they were still happy to return to the fair, rather doing another bigger one like Frieze Seoul.

“It’s cost-effective, so you can afford to do something out of the box compared to having the pressure of a big art fair where you have to pay 60,000 US dollars for a booth, and you have to bring certain types of work to make that back,” Fong told ARTnews.

The gallery is sharing a booth with Tokyo’s Satoko Oe, and didn’t sell any works at the preview.

Tomio Koyama, founder of the eponymous Tokyo-based gallery and a member of ACK’s selection committee, was similarly placid about the results.

“Sales were not so great for us at the preview, but everyone is satisfied,” said Koyama, adding that the gallery pre-sold three works priced $5,200 to $16,400 by Japanese artist Koji Nakazono to two Japanese collectors and one Chinese collector.  “Serious collectors from many countries visited this year. Kyoto itself doesn’t have that many collectors,” he said.

Many gallerists noted that ACK sales reflected the country’s art market. “We don’t have a big market in Japan, period. It’s growing, but it’s still relatively small,” said Rosen.

Tokutaro Yamauchi, director of  Kyoto-based Shibunkaku, also noted that the market in Japan wasn’t as strong as other Asian countries. “The number of young collectors is growing, but if you compare to other nations, it is still very low,” he told ARTnews.

Yamauchi—who shared a booth with Mexico-city-founded gallery Kurimanzutto—said he prefers ACK over Tokyo Gendai, where he showed in its first edition, but decided not to

Shibunkaku’s presentation was among the strongest at the fair, with a large Edo-period gold folding screen sitting in dialogue with a blue-and-white Mexican Talavera bowl by Danh Vo and two works by Korean contemporary artist Haegue Yang—mesh bags trapped in wood varnish—flanking a similarly textured vinyl adhesive work by Gutai artist Takesada Matsutani from the 1960s.

“ACK has a very unique concept. It’s a smaller size, and more interesting galleries are trying to participate,” Yamauchi said. “Everybody wants to come to Kyoto. When I go to Frieze, TEFAF and Art Basel [Hong Kong], everybody asks me: How can I get into this fair?” Beyond ACK, gallerists are interested in mounting shows in temples or having their artists do residencies in the city Yamauchi added.

Martin Aguilera, partner at Sao Paulo gallery Mendes Wood DM, for instance, visited Japan several times to secure an exhibition for Brazilian artist Lucas Arruda at the famed Daitoku-ji Temple this year. “It is such a precious temple for the people of Kyoto, and it’s very difficult to open that door, but he managed it,” said Yamashita, who noted that this is the first time the temple has allowed a contemporary art exhibition to take place.

Aguilera, who also exhibited at ACK last year, stressed the importance of cultivating relationships with Japanese collectors and institutions over time. “Japan is not the kind of place where you can just come in, show your wares, and people will start buying. People have to see that you respect the local scene so they can take you seriously,” he said.

Last year, Aguilera exhibited works at a higher price point—including a $200,000 work that sold—but this year the gallery deliberately brought lower-priced works between $28,000 and $70,000 after noting that smaller paintings do better among local collectors. At the preview, the gallery sold two bronze sculptures by Brazilian artist Solange Pessoa and a painting by Paula Siebra.

This year, galleries reported a slight increase in international collectors from countries including Hong Kong, China, Korea and Taiwan. A few Southeast Asian collectors also visited the fair such as Indonesian collector Tom Tandio.

“The fair is very intimate and small, so it’s nice to have more conversations,” he said, adding that it was also a great place to make discoveries like a mixed media installation of a drain grate with a glass bottle and pebbles by Japanese artist Ryohei Usui—priced around $2,950—which he acquired from MUJIN-TO Production.

A Los Angeles-based collector attended for the first time shared a similar sentiment. “I like the coziness of this fair. It’s a good environment to discover new artists and do research,” the collector, who asked not to be named, said. “For now, it feels like a well-kept secret.”