18 best art exhibitions in Tokyo right now

This year marks a century since the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris gave birth to the Art Deco movement. The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum celebrates with a dazzling display highlighting the work of jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels, which won a Grand Prize at the landmark event 100 years ago with creations such as the ‘Entwined Flowers, Red and White Roses’ bracelet.

That gemstone-adorned stunner and around 250 other creations from the Art Deco giant, including jewellery, timepieces and accessory cases from the Maison’s patrimonial and private collections, will be exhibited alongside 60 archival documents.

The museum’s Main Building, once the residence of Prince Yasuhiko Asaka and itself an architectural masterpiece shaped by the Art Deco spirit, will display rare pieces crafted between the 1910s and 1930s. The annex, meanwhile, will highlight the Maison’s signature savoir-faire, transformable designs and exquisite gemstone artistry.

Seeking to facilitate dialogue between history, craftsmanship and design, the exhibition invites visitors to rediscover the artistic vitality of Art Deco while celebrating the enduring artistry and innovation of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Note that tickets must be purchased for a specified date and time slot. The museum will extend its opening hours to 8pm on November 21, 22, 28 & 29 and December 5 & 6.

In the news for his role as the designer of the Expo 2025 site, Sou Fujimoto is an architect whose work explores the relationship between nature and architecture. Born in Hokkaido, he is inspired by the natural landscapes of his childhood and seeks to integrate organic forms into the built environment through an approach he calls ‘primitive future’.

This philosophy translates into an exploration of the limits between indoors and outdoors and the natural and the artificial, creating spaces that invite a new experience of inhabiting it. Fujimoto’s residential projects in Japan, such as House N, House O and House T, as well as international projects such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, illustrate this desire to blur spatial boundaries. His work is characterised by the use of simple materials, often only one per project, implemented in innovative ways to create complex and intriguing shapes. The balance between a defined program and the freedom of appropriation by the occupants is at the heart of his approach.

Fujimoto’s first major Tokyo retrospective takes over the Mori Art Museum from July 2 to November 9. The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the architect’s journey over the past quarter century, showcasing his achievements. Models, plans and documentary photographs sit alongside life-size models and installations, providing an immersive visual and spatial experience of the essence of his work. The exhibition highlights projects such as the Musashino Art University Museum & Library, the Arbre Blanc in Montpellier, France, the House of Music in Budapest, and – yes – the Expo site on Osaka’s Yumeshima.