Artists, curators, collectors and art fans were out in force on Saturday at Tokyo Art Fair 2015 in Yurakucho's International Forum. Judging by the many red dots on walls next to paintings and artworks - hand-painted ceramic donuts at $1,000 a pop proved very popular - the contemporary art market is back in vogue.
The overall trend seemed to be kitsch and kawaii, with plenty of cute anime-inspired, Chinese figurative and luxury pop art. One gallery curator offered to customize a piece by swapping the painted logo (Asahi beer) for another brand of my choice - without a hint of irony.
Amongst the sea of Japanese and international brand-name artists, it was the sculptures and figures that proved most intriguing. Takeshi Haguri's massive two-meter-tall wood carved and hand-painted figure stopped people in their tracks. A portly yakuza in a loincloth with a tengu mask, the sculpture dominated the tiny booth. According to the artist, each figure takes about six months to carve and a further two or three months to paint with elaborate full-body tattoos.
Yuuki Fujita's fantastical creatures and steampunk engines in copper also caused a logjam, as adults and children alike stopped to examine the three impressive pieces on show. Incredibly, these antique-looking metalwork pieces are completed in a week, with a bit of acetic acid to bring out the olde-world verdigris patina.
Toshiya Masuda's extremely low-res CG images rendered as life-size objects were a hoot, while Hiromu Miyamoto's industrial cranes and pylons with human legs took the man-machine interface to surreal new levels. Takahiro Iwasaki's wooden temple floated in the air above its own reflection like a mirage.
The Domani booth celebrated artists who had been on the government-sponsored foreign study program. It included metalwork figures by Gozo Tezeni, strange articulated sci-fi dolls with intricately embossed torsos, and colorful mixed media discs and eggs by Koichi Kiyono, which bloomed organically in a corner and up the walls like so many magic mushrooms.