The upcoming exhibitions include the Tagboat Art Fair 2023 at Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba from April 14-16, 2023, and a group exhibition at a new gallery in Sintra, Portugal from May 6th.
In order to send my artworks to Portugal early, I have already packed the artworks I had on hand. However, I do not have enough artwork for the April exhibition, so I am currently concentrating heavily and making new pieces. While I want to continue creating new pieces with intense focus, human concentration cannot be controlled at will, and there are days when I cannot concentrate at all. Even so, I am forcing myself to create works on those days. Although various methods for increasing concentration are available on the internet, sometimes it’s just impossible no matter what I do. That’s just being human.
For the April exhibition, the exhibition space will be divided into a dark corner and a bright corner, with colorful and chic pieces displayed separately. An installation-style display will be used for the dark corner.
I think many people in japan have little image of Portugal, where I will exhibit in May. Even I had no image of Portugal until I went there for a group exhibition planned by a friend who lived in Lisbon in 2018. If I hadn’t been there, I might have hesitated to participate in this exhibition.
Lisbon, Portugal is quite international, with people of all races living there. Many people can speak English, and there are many kind people, and the public safety is good. The buildings are more colorful than expected, with occasional exotic atmosphere mixed with European style. Lisbon is a beautiful city along the Tejo River, with many historic buildings well-preserved. There are many steep slopes and stone-built huge buildings on the slopes, and I also got the impression of something futuristic and cyberpunk-like. It’s a city of moderate size where walking is enjoyable, but carrying a suitcase on the cobblestone streets with many hills can be a tough task.
Contemporary art is also flourishing, with many cool galleries. I heard that as it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain visas for Germany, more and more artists are moving to Portugal. Although Portugal may have had an image of being economically unstable, its various economic recovery policies implemented by the government have led to an improvement in the economy.
Portugal has also been traditionally famous for its craftsmanship, and textile/fiber contemporary art seems to be popular, making it one of the exciting countries to watch for future developments.