Johnnie Walker's A.R.T. gallery (Art Residency Tokyo), which opened last October, extends his philanthropic mission to promote cultural exchange between foreign and Japanese artists. Offering a window into Tokyo for many young hopefuls as well as a meeting point for the more established, the gallery is housed on the ground and basement floors of a building designed by leading young architect Yukiharu Takamatsu (who also designed Mariko Mori's Dream Temple).
The design features distinctive Shinto-inspired honeycomb windows on the upper levels in a deceptively modest-looking duplex situated opposite the Defense Agency office in Ebisu. The gallery is currently holding its fifth exhibition, "Inside," a series of more than 200 drawings by Scottish artist Jack Mclean, accompanied by the short stories of Italian-English writer Lorenzo Fantini. Both are based in Tokyo.
Jack Mclean started creating the works while traveling on the capital's bustling Yamanote Line, and they are part of an ongoing collaboration that began when Fantini, impressed by the narrative qualities of Mclean's miniature notebook drawings, decided to write some short stories in transit to accompany them.