The best art exhibitions in Tokyo this February

February is the month of love, so why not go to a gallery or museum with your loved one? This month, the Tokyo art scene is hosting a series of unique retrospectives featuring iconic works both globally and locally. These artists defined generations and movements: the rebellious energy of 1990s London, postwar Japan’s encounter with spontaneous lyrical abstraction, the golden age of Swedish art, and more. Read on to learn about our seven recommended art exhibitions to visit this February.

Wolfgang Tillmans, Chef (Kiss) (2002). Tate Collection. © Wolfgang Tillmans, courtesy Maureen Paley, London; Buchholz Gallery; David Zwirner, New York.

“YBA and beyond: British art from the 1990s at the Tate Collection”

As one of the most anticipated Tokyo exhibitions of the year, “YBA & Beyond” is a must-see this February. The transition from the late 1980s to the 1990s was a tumultuous time for Britain, and the art world reflected this friction. After the Thatcher years, a loose group of artists – now synonymous with Young British Artists (YBA) – emerged to challenge artistic norms through bold, experimental practices and an openness to new materials and processes. Working across a variety of media including film, photography and installation, they capture the ever-changing landscape of popular culture and personal identity.

The exhibition, organized by the Tate Gallery, features around 100 works by a star-studded cast including Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Lubaina Himid and Steve McQueen. The collection intertwines the music, subcultures and fashion of the period, highlighting a golden age of British culture.

Where: Tokyo National Arts Center (Place)
when: February 11 to May 11 (closed every Tuesday, except May 5)
price: 900 yen～2,300 yen

Niels Kruger, Nightfall (1904). Oil painting on canvas. Photo: National Museum

“Swedish Masters of Painting at the National Museum in Stockholm”

It’s a rare window into the Golden Age of Swedish art (1880-1915), a transformative era in which a younger generation of painters transcended French naturalism and forged a unique national identity. After studying abroad, these artists returned to Sweden to capture the hidden light of their home country, blending realism with lyrical, emotional depth. The collection focuses on nature, light and the intimacy of everyday life, highlighting the cultural roots of Nordic well-being and the unique Nordic aesthetic sensibility.

The exhibition, in collaboration with the Stockholm National Museum, marks the first major exhibition of its kind in Japan and features 80 works by iconic figures such as Carl Larsson and August Strindberg. Visitors can expect an immersive journey through the evolution of Swedish painting, from its realistic foundations in the 1880s to the atmospheric, soulful landscapes that have recently won international acclaim.

Where: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Place)
when: January 27 to April 12 (closed every Monday, except February 23)
price: 1,300 yen～2,300 yen

Sam Falls, “Everything you see is not a flower, and everything you think is not the moon (plantain).” Glazed ceramics, brass framed glass, flowers, water. 83.2 x diameter. 6.8 cm ©︎ Sam Falls

Sam Falls: Solo Exhibition

Sam Falls brings the outdoors into Tomio Koyama’s latest show—quite literally. Fowles spent years perfecting a “symbiotic” approach to art-making. Instead of using a camera to take photos of the forest, he used canvas arrive forest; he laid it on the ground, sprinkled the surface with local plants and sprinkled it with dry paint. Then, nature takes over: whether it’s Los Angeles’ morning fog or torrential rain, the weather acts as a paintbrush, melting the colors around the plants to create “original source” images that feel like ghosts of the landscape itself.

The exhibition feels particularly connected to Japan and includes a new “ikebana” collection inspired by his time in Tokyo studying traditional flower arrangement. The ceramic pieces feature vase-like elements that are used to mount fresh, local flowers that change with the seasons—you can smell the scent as soon as you enter the gallery space.

Where: Tomio Oyama Gallery Roppongi (Place)
when: January 24 to February 28 (closed on Sunday and Monday)
price: free

“Robert Doisneau”

Robert Doisneau once said a famous saying: “Paris is a theater, and the ticket is a waste of time.” This French photographer, known as the “image fisherman”, has been waiting patiently for the small stories in daily life to unfold in front of his lens. Created with the full cooperation of his family’s studio, this exhibition brings together approximately 40 carefully selected prints illustrating the “Theater of Doisneau”. From his iconic, romantic snapshots of Paris to the suburbs where he began painting, Doisneau’s work is blended with a gentle sense of humor and a love of humanity.

Although Doisneau insisted throughout his life that he was not an artist, his impact on the history of photography was enormous. He is widely considered a pioneer of humanist photography, elevating the poetry of everyday life into an art form. The series features his favorite subjects: playful children, fellow artists who defined the era, and ordinary people in Paris. Even years after his death in 1994, these photos feel surprisingly fresh.

Where: Baycrew’s Art Cruise Gallery (Place)
when: January 30 to April 12
price: free

15 untitled concrete works, 1980-84. Permanent Collection, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas. Photography: Florian Holzherr, courtesy Chinati Foundation. Donald Judd Art © 2026 Judd Foundation/ARS, New York/JASPAR, Tokyo.

Donald Judd: ‘Judd | Marfa’

This exhibition traces the radical career of Donald Judd (1928-1994), delves into how a painter from Missouri redefined 20th-century art through his monumental three-dimensional “stacks” and boxes. It centers on his great move from the New York art world to the desert of Marfa, Texas, where he turned old buildings into permanent homes for his works. For Judd, art is more than just something to hang on the wall. It’s about the entire space it inhabits – an idea that still shocks the architecture and design world today.

Combining Judd’s paintings from the early 1950s with his famous minimalist structures, the exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at Judd’s obsession with spatial integrity through personal drawings, videos and plans. Visitors can also witness Judd’s long association with Japan through a section documenting Judd’s 1978 exhibition at the Watari-um, organized by museum founder Shizuko Watari.

Where: Vatarim (Place)
when: February 15 to June 7 (closed every Monday, except February 23 and May 4)
price: 1,300 yen～1,500 yen

Title unknown, 1950s © Estate of Shigeru Onishi, courtesy MEM.

“Onishi Shigeru: Photography and Painting”

This is the first large-scale retrospective exhibition of the mathematician Shigeru Ohnishi (1928-1994) who revolutionized Japan’s post-war art world. As a researcher at Hokkaido University, he began applying knowledge of topology (the study of shapes and spaces that remain unchanged despite constant deformation) to photography and ink painting, creating works that transcended the boundaries of traditional art. In an era dominated by realism, his photographs were extremely complex, using multiple exposures, sun exposure, and boiling developers to intuit esoteric concepts of the “super-infinite.”

The exhibition also highlights his turn to abstract ink painting in the 1950s, when informal This movement—“formless” art that favors spontaneous and intuitive abstraction over geometric abstraction—is sweeping Japan. Onishi’s ink paintings were discovered by Michel Tapié, the French critic who coined the term, who was struck by the undulating lines and immense power of the works. Following a major acquisition by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and widespread acclaim around the world, this retrospective brings together more than 1,000 of Onishi’s photographs and paintings, as well as mathematical manuscripts.

Where: Tokyo Station Gallery (Place)
when: January 31 to March 29 (closed every Monday, except February 23, March 23, and February 24)
price: 1,100 yen～1,300 yen

Installation view of REINHARD PODS “Licht Jain” (1991). Oil painting on canvas. Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey, Tokyo.

“Reinhard Pods: Pictures 1979 – 2024”

In his first exhibition in Asia, German artist Reinhard Pods brings the grit and high-voltage energy of the underground scene of the 1970s and 1980s to Fergus McCaffrey Tokyo’s newly expanded Aoyama space. Pods’ story reads like a rock’n’roll journey: After studying in West Berlin, he ended up in a New York loft in 1977, spending nights at legendary clubs like CBGB’s and watching the Ramones and Talking Heads perform. Returning to Berlin, he became integrated into the heart of Kreuzberg’s punk scene. This “urban expressionism” is woven into his canvases – a raw, jarring collision of street art, pop and abstract expressionism.

After working in relative obscurity for decades, Pods’ recent work demonstrates a confidence that can only come from years of flying under the radar. His paintings are deliberately rough and unrefined, abandoning clean conceptualism in favor of a mixture of oils, watercolors and even spray paint. Featuring 15 works from 1979 to 2025, the exhibition offers a rare look at an artist who influenced a generation – alongside names like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Martin Kippenberger – but chose to stay out of the spotlight.

Where: Fergus McCaffrey Tokyo (Place)
when: January 24 to March 7 (closed on Sundays and Mondays)
price: free

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Updated on February 3, 2026