Press

July 11, 2022

Press Release no.3

Kyoto Prefecture (Governor: Takatoshi Nishiwaki) and the ACK Executive Committee are pleased to host Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) November 18–20, 2022. ACK was held for the first time in 2021, and it gained high appraisal for exceeding the bounds of typical art fairs that focus mainly on buying and selling artworks, with its theme of “contemporary art and collaboration” as Japan’s largest world-class art fair.

For the art fair’s second edition, new Program Director Yukako Yamashita is on board, Japanese galleries will once again welcome guests from overseas galleries and share exhibition booths, and a new conference functionality will be added to discuss and share international perspectives on the global art scene and other issues, aiming to build community and work towards the creation of a better society together.

A total of 64 galleries from Japan and around the world will gather in the Kyoto International Conference Center Event Hall, with talk events rich in international flavor, and a range of programs held throughout Kyoto prefecture. It will be a unique opportunity to enjoy autumn leaves in Kyoto, explore contemporary art, and discover your new favorite works of art.

Exhibitors

There will be two sections at ACK: Gallery Collaborations and Kyoto Meetings.

Gallery Collaborations

In this section, Japanese galleries act as hosts, welcoming galleries based overseas as their guests, and sharing booths with them. This year, there are 29 Japanese galleries participating and 29 guest galleries from overseas (12 from North America, 9 from Europe, and 8 from Asia), forming a total of 58 galleries that introduce world-class contemporary art domestically and internationally.

Hosts (29)—Guests (29)

Anomaly (Tokyo) — ROH (Jakarta)
Artcourt Gallery (Osaka) — Ulterior (New York)
Blum & Poe (Tokyo) — Each Modern (Taipei)
Fergus McCaffrey (Tokyo) — Casey Kaplan (New York)
Hagiwara Projects (Tokyo) — Devening Projects (Chicago)
Imura Art Gallery (Kyoto) — Mizuma Gallery (Singapore)
Kayokoyuki (Tokyo) — Crèvecœur (Paris)
Koki Arts (Tokyo) — Denny Dimin Gallery (New York)
Kotaro Nukaga (Tokyo) — Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago)
Maki Fine Arts (Tokyo) — Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery (New York)
Maki Gallery (Tokyo) — Galerie Frank Elbaz (Paris)
Misako & Rosen (Tokyo) — Herald St (London)
Mori Yu Gallery (Kyoto) — Richard Taittinger Gallery (New York)
Nanzuka (Tokyo) — The Hole (New York)
Gallery Out of Place (Nara) — Galerie Camera Obscura (Paris)
Satoko Oe Contemporary (Tokyo) — Rossi & Rossi (Hong Kong)
SCAI The Bathhouse (Tokyo) — TKG+ (Taipei)
Shibunkaku (Kyoto) — Nonaka-Hill (Los Angeles)
Standing Pine (Aichi) — Primo Marella Gallery (Milan)
Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo) — Sadie Coles HQ (London)
Taro Nasu (Tokyo) — Sprüth Magers (Berlin)
Tezukayama Gallery (Osaka) — Der-Horng Art Gallery (Tainan)
Tomio Koyama Gallery (Tokyo) — Canada (New York)
Gallery Tomo (Kyoto) — Galleria MAG (Como)
Gallery Yamaki Fine Art (Hyogo) — Galerie Jean Fournier (Paris)
Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery (Osaka) — DC Moore Gallery (New York)
Yutaka Kikutake Gallery (Tokyo) — The Reference (Seoul)
Gallery 38 (Tokyo) — Galerie Quynh (Ho Chi Minh City)
4649 (Tokyo) — King’s Leap (New York)

Kyoto Meetings

Artists with connections to Kyoto are presented in this section. 6 Japanese galleries will bring Kyoto’s contemporary art to the world.

Cohju Contemporary Art (Kyoto)
Finch Arts (Kyoto)
NCA | Nichido Contemporary Art (Tokyo)
Gallery Nomart (Osaka)
Takuro Someya Contemporary Art (Tokyo)
Tokyo Gallery+BTAP (Tokyo)

Message from ACK Program Director Yukako Yamashita

I am delighted to be appointed as the Program Director of ACK and look forward to working with everyone involved to create an art fair that connects Kyoto to the world.

To survive in contemporary society, where all manner of information and events come and go, our individual identities, along with the aesthetic faculties and insights based on them, have become increasingly important. While the world is rapidly shifting towards the mainstream and majority, Kyoto has invested time in comprehending the wider world, continually evolving with its own identity as its central axis.

ACK was launched in 2021 under the theme of “contemporary art and collaboration” with the aim of creating a new kind of art fair that transcends the framework of conventional art fairs through collaborations with various fields. Under this theme, ACK will offer a system where visitors can see galleries from both Japan and overseas in a single booth, allowing the Japanese public to experience the international art scene close at hand. Further, in the future we would like to focus on our new role as a conference and on the creation of a community.

Bringing together art professionals from all over the world, we hope ACK will come to function as a focal point for discussion and sharing of current trends and issues in international society, and the connections forged between people at ACK will lead to the creation of a community that eventually grows to become something that has an impact on society and the economy. Furthermore, we hope Kyoto will develop into an international art city through the realization of these new missions of ACK.

Kyoto continues to evolve with the advance of history. Today, the creativity and vitality of younger generations is beginning to circulate in the city. With Kyoto as its stage, and coupled with the power of art, ACK will create a vibrant passage of time connecting to the next generation.

2022 Curatorial Theme: “Flowers of Time”

In her new role as program director of the fair, Yukako set the curatorial theme for its 2022 edition: “Flowers of Time,” ACK team’s overarching theme to develop its public art section as well as off-site programs.
‘I believe that contemporary art has the power to reflect social issues and social conditions of the times. Through art appreciation, we can gain inspiration about those issues and consider ways to achieve a society where a diverse range of people can coexist.’ ACK aims to provide an opportunity for this with the chosen curatorial theme “Flowers of Time”: a concept of time that blooms within all people.

‘As society becomes more efficient, our days grow more hectic and our flowers of time, like the hour-lilies in that story by Michael Ende, are stolen by time thieves, frozen like flowers of glass, and become dead time.
If time continues to be stolen, we will stop being able to feel and think for ourselves. Perhaps time will cease to have anything but a numeric value.
Efficiency is increasingly emphasized in contemporary society and the art world is no exception. The volume of information grows, and art is being produced at a dizzying pace. Art fairs tend to emphasize a capitalist aspect, but I want to make ACK a place where people can experience the joy of sharing time with others. The time in which diverse artists from many places have lived and created artwork. The joy of sharing a time while living during the same era. And the joy of feeling an unknown time through the appreciation of artwork created in the past.
At ACK, I hope we can retrieve the “flowers of time” that may have been unknowingly stolen from us, discover art at our own pace, and experience the reawakening of innate aesthetic sensibilities within each of us.’

Yukako Yamashita
ACK Program Director

Bio

Born in Tokyo in 1988 to a family that runs a tea ceremony utensils business in Kyoto.
After graduating from Keio University, she completed an MA in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. From 2011 to 2017, she interned at Sotheby’s London Chinese Works of Art Department before joining Sotheby’s Japan, where she oversaw the sales of contemporary art. She was primarily involved in the collection and sales of Japanese postwar art at auction in Europe. She founded the gallery THE CLUB in 2017. She has been a visiting professor at Kyoto University of the Arts since 2020.

Spatial Design

Takashi Suo (SUO) has designed the space again this year.
Last year’s layout, which evoked a sense of wandering through city streets while functioning as an art fair venue at the same time, received high praise from exhibitors and visitors alike. This year, the same format will remain with new ideas built into the spaces between booths, retaining the independent environments used to display works while incorporating more elements that enable the whole venue to be experienced as a single site.
A major feature of ACK is how the venue provides a place for collaborations between artworks and visitors.Please look out for future developments.

ACK Overview

Title: Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK)
Fair period: Friday, November 18 to Sunday, November 20, 2022
Preview: Thursday, November 17, 2022　*Press and Invited guests only
Venue: Kyoto International Conference Center Event Hall (Add: Takaragaike, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City) and others
URL：a-c-k.jp

Organizer:
ACK Executive Committee

Co-Directors:

Selection Committee:

Advisors:

Support: The Cabinet Office, Government of Japan in the fiscal 2022, The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan in the fiscal 2022

In cooperation with:
Japan Tourism Agency (application pending), JETRO Kyoto, Kyoto City, The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Japan Association of Corporate Executives, Japan Association of New Economy, Kyoto Association of Corporate Executives, The Kyoto Shimbun, U.S. Consulate General Osaka-Kobe, British Council, Embassy of the Republic of Singapore, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Osaka-Kobe, Ambassade de France / Institut français du Japon

Participating galleries：64 galleries (12 countries/regions, 21 cities)

Ticket：
Tickets will be available online, with advance reservations for date and time, with limited capacity. Details will be announced after the summer.

Please note: Information listed here is current as of July 2022. There may be some changes in exhibiting galleries due to extenuating circumstances. Some fair content may be adjusted depending on the COVID-19 infection situation. For updated information, check the official website or social media channels

The next press release is scheduled for September.

Press Contact

ACK Executive Committee, Overseas Media Relations
Yoshiko Nawa press@2022.a-c-k.jp