The art space now known as Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo was originally part of the luxury brand's store, designed by Jun Aoki and opened in 2002 in the fashionable Tokyo shopping district of Omotesando. It was reimagined in 2011 as a space for the company to showcase contemporary art, and is now holding its sixth exhibition, "Urban Narratives."
Eyeing the Kolkata area of West Bengal, India, the glass-walled rooms of the gallery are filled with 11 works, eight of them newly commissioned for the exhibition, by four artists from the region. Curated by art historian and critic Nanak Ganguly, "Urban Narratives" is designed to present contemporary India as it is seen and experienced by Indians today.
Sekhar Roy confronts concerns of alienation amid encroaching modernization through images of city sprawl in his painting "Urban Landscape." Providing an abstract, evocative contrast to this work is the same artist's "Skyline," an installation consisting of acrylic sheets, aluminum and painted panels. At over 6 meters wide and 4 meters high at its peak, it is one of the most immediately arresting pieces in the exhibition.