GEISAI Museum 2
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Snday, May 11, 2008
GEISAI Museum 2, a spin off of the flagship GEISAI art fair produced by Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki studios, took place May 11 in Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center.
Awards Prizes to Top Rated Artists
Drawing Diverse Crowds and Highlighting New Talent
Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2008 – GEISAI Museum 2, a spin off of the flagship GEISAI
art fair produced by Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki studios, took place May 11 in
Tokyo's Big Sight exhibition center. Artists from countries as far away as New
Zealand, the United States, Finland, Canada and Taiwan joined the throng of
Japanese artists selling and presenting paintings, sculpture, products,
performances with no restriction on medium. Nearly 9,000 visitors saw a total of
607 young exhibitors – ranging from consummate professionals to dressed-down
artists, some in elaborate costumes, and others in wild Tokyo street fashion
presenting their works directly to the public while being rated by a panel of
museum professionals.
The panel, consisting of premier professionals from international art institutions
featured Fram Kitigawa of the Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima; Yoshiko Mori,
Administrative Director of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Yutaka Mino, Director of
the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Victor Pinchuk,
philanthropist and founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Kiev; and Taku
Satoh, principal of Taku Satoh Design. Together, they toured through the massive
East Hall 4 of Tokyo Big Sight and provided numerical ratings to all 607 exhibitors.
The top three rated artists were awarded first, second and third place medals,
with Toshihiko Wakasugi drawing top honors, and Mayu Daigen and Kuniaki Fujii being ranked second and third place respectively.
In addition, the favorite exhibitor selected by each juror received a special
Juror's Personal Award. These recipients were Koga Hayato (Mori), Thocky Kook
(Mino), Keita Sugiura (Pinchuk), Tsubasa Takahashi (Kitagawa), and Go Watabe
(Satoh). As part of his Personal Award, Victor Pinchuk has also generously
arranged for Sugiura to have a special solo installation at the PinchukArtCentre,
Kiev, Ukraine, in the near future.
Notable exhibitors included two artists from the Kaikai Kiki stable: Rei Sato, whose
booth sported a consistent crowd through the fair, and will soon have her debut
New York solo show at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, along with the mystifying Mr.,
who reportedly spent much of the fair asleep on a futon he had installed in his
elaborate booth. Savvy visitors may have also noticed the booth of Takashi
Murakami's nieces, two of the many artists in the Murakami family.
Successes were not only found by the Japanese contingent: American artist
Sidney Pink, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, who moved to Japan four years
ago, delighted as his booth completely sold out. His drawings, which depict
traditional Japanese schoolgirls crossed with themes from retro science fiction,
were purchased by collectors including Sohaku Yamashita of Art Fair Tokyo, and
caught the eye of Giant Robot publisher/merchandiser Eric Nakamura.
According to Pink, who tied to rank at number 21, "Unlike other art fairs and
exhibitions GEISAI offers young artists an opportunity to be seen and receive
constructive criticism from art professionals. GEISAI's competitive format raises
the bar by encouraging young artists to judge themselves on a professional level.
While at GEISAI Museum 2, I had an opportunity to talk with gallery directors,
museum curators, serious art collectors and the press. For me, GEISAI was not just
an opportunity, but a challenge to push myself to the highest level of my abilities
as an artist."
The next edition of GEISAI will be GEISAI #11, which will take place at Tokyo Big
Sight on September 14. This will be the largest GEISAI ever held, with an
anticipated 1000 exhibitors. Artists and designers working in all mediums who are
interested in participating in GEISAI #11 are encouraged to purchase exhibition
space by visiting www.geisai11.us
WHAT DOES GEISAI MEAN?
"GEISAI" was first organized in Japan in the summer of 2001, and since then has been held bi-annually. The name "GEISAI" is derived from the Japanese word for "art festival." Such festivals would typically take place within a university or art school.
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