Our focus is on artists, curators, and scholars working across Japanese art, exhibitions, and cultural studies, including diasporic practices, within wider regional and transnational contexts. We connect historical and emerging practices across generations, geographies, and cultural perspectives.
Through research, publishing, and online programmes, we investigate diverse forms of cultural production and artistic engagement, while engaging critically with questions of representation, visibility, cultural politics, and transnational identity. Our work contributes to a more nuanced understanding of Japan’s contemporary cultural landscape and its connections beyond Japan.
Research
Research focuses on modern and contemporary Japanese art—Kindai Bijutsu, Gendai Bijutsu, and Kontenporariato—spanning prewar (1907–45), postwar (1945–70s), and recent (1980s–present) periods. Examines Japanese art in relation to global movements, exploring artistic expression across transnational communities and the cultural, political, and aesthetic contexts shaping it.
Conversations
Our conversations provide a platform for participants to articulate their voices in depth. Each unfolds as a distinctive exchange, offering new perspectives while engaging with cultural contexts, creative processes, and critical positions, particularly in relation to diasporic experience and transnational identity.
Networks
Editorial
Through editorials, essays, and critical writing, we examine contemporary artistic and curatorial practices within their historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Exploring ideas, debates, and conditions that shape artistic production and its reception. By connecting local perspectives with regional and international developments, we aim to foster informed dialogue and contribute to the evolving discourse surrounding contemporary art.
Publishing
Central to our activities, publishing—from artist monographs to digital editions—create a lasting record of our research and activities. They extend critical discourse beyond our immediate context, making ideas, perspectives, and scholarship accessible to wider audiences.
Reading Room
The Reading Room is a dedicated research collection focused on modern and contemporary Japanese art. It includes a wide range of materials—both digital and print—such as publications, archival documents, posters, and other ephemera related to exhibitions, events, and institutions.
The collection supports students and independent researchers, offering a focused resource for the study and exploration of Japan’s modern and contemporary visual culture, with attention to its regional and diasporic contexts.