Yuu Takamizawa, Artist and Director of 4649.
Yuu Takamizawa.
For smaller galleries on the cutting edge of Tokyo’s art circuit, collaboration is key. “In Tokyo there have always been so many great artists, and great communities. But they were just not known to anyone before,” explained Yuu Takamizawa, one of three founders of artist-run 4649 Gallery in the city’s Sugamo, Toshima-ku neighborhood. “We had to go outside of Japan to show our work.”
In 2016, Takamizawa founded the space along with art school classmates Yuhei Kobayashi and Shogo Shimizu (they assumed the name 4649 in 2018.) He explained that the space was founded out of a necessity for a space to show work in Tokyo, as most of their fellow artists flew the coop for the United States or Germany, where there was more abundant opportunity for gallery representation. The few working artists who showed work regularly in Tokyo were mid-career, and Takamizawa explained that there wasn’t a clear path for their growth in the city.
Courtesy 4649 Gallery.
“As artists we were taught at art school that only a few of us will be able to show our artwork in Tokyo, in the same galleries as those established artists,” he explained. “So we needed to create a proper place to show our work. We needed to make a whole new community.”
4649 Gallery’s growth since they opened proves the old adage true: if you build it, they will come. It wasn’t easy, but they found enthusiastic support from established art professionals in the neighborhood. “Few collectors bought work from us. I think that maybe 80% of our customers were gallerists and artists,” Takamiza said. “Almost all collectors only buy from older galleries. Sometimes Japanese collectors felt suspicious of us,” he laughed.
Now, the gallery is revered in Tokyo and abroad, and collaborated with New York gallery King’s Leap to participate in the Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) art fair in 2022. Since that time, Takamizawa explained that the conversation around emerging art galleries has changed considerably in Tokyo. “I’ve made many new friends since then, and Tokyo has changed,” he said.
Courtesy 4649 Gallery.
Aside from ACK, Onsen Confidential, a hybrid gallery share and hot spring retreat was launched, which for two years invited foreign galleries to show work in Tokyo, and included galleries from Prague, Vienna, Paris, Tbilisi, Milwaukee, and Shanghai, just to name a few.
Takamizawa said that the last three years in Tokyo have been incisive for creating a more globalized dialogue. He said with pride: “More artists are staying in Tokyo now.”
