Ueshima Museum: Tokyo’s New Contemporary Art Hub
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Loading... - Tatsuki Kita
- 25 Jul 2024
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Tokyo welcoms the Ueshima Museum, a new center for contemporary art located in Shibuya, an area renowned for its vibrant youth culture. The museum showcases a remarkable collection of contemporary art from both Japanese and international artists, aiming to provide a platform for people to experience art firsthand and to educate the next generation of art curators.
The museum's collection includes significant works from renowned artists such as German contemporary master Gerhard Richter and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, known for his influential superflat movement. Other notable artists featured are Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Ruff, Andreas Gursky, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Chiharu Shiota, and Kohei Nawa, among others. The exhibits reflect an impressive array of high-quality art by some of the most prominent artists active today.
Kankuro Ueshima, the entrepreneur and investor behind the museum, expressed his desire to share his extensive collection with a global audience. "I want to share art with people around the world. I’ve been showing my collection on my website and social media, but from the beginning, I also wanted to create a place for people to see the art for real," Ueshima said. Over the past two years, he has amassed more than 650 works, now selectively displayed under the museum’s theme of "contemporaneity."
The museum is housed in Ueshima Tower, part of the Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen school complex near the Miyashita Park commercial facility. The building includes one basement level and six above-ground floors, totaling approximately 1,400 square meters. The exhibition space, which extends from the basement to the fifth floor, is open to the public.
In addition to showcasing art, the museum plans to rotate some exhibits every six to ten months. Future displays are expected to include works by Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara, currently held in private spaces. The museum also emphasizes educational purposes, hosting interactive art viewing events and providing opportunities for students and young curators to plan exhibitions.
The Ueshima Museum promises to be a significant cultural addition to Tokyo, offering both a rich visual experience for art enthusiasts and a valuable educational resource for aspiring art professionals.
