Although its contemporary art market is considered small in relation to the country's overall economy, Japan has no shortage of commercial art fairs.
Events held in the past year including Art@Agnes (since discontinued), Art Fair Tokyo, 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, Tokyo Photo and Ultra: Emerging Directors Art Fair have all sought to tap into a limited collector base, all to varying degrees of success. Some fairs focus exclusively on local art galleries and others attempt to attract international participants while Art Fair Tokyo, notably, presents contemporary art alongside antiquities and other genres.
The latest fair to join the crowded art calendar is G-tokyo, which launched on Jan. 29 with a VIP preview and concluded Jan. 31. Organized by a committee of five leading galleries and fair director Toshiko Ferrier, G-tokyo was designed with the limitations of the domestic market in mind. It featured only 15 participants, with boxlike booths arranged along a single connecting corridor in the Mori Arts Center Gallery on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower overlooking Roppongi.