Art Fair Tokyo is pleased to present YUGEN, a special project exhibition that marks AFT's contribution to the development of contemporary art discourse.

Curated by London based, independent curator Tara Londi, the exhibition features works by artists Jose Parla, Romana Londi, Neil Hamamoto, Dominque Lacloche, David Noonan, Shiori Eda, Tai Shani, and Jesse Jones and explores the power of art to move beyond language barriers and to convey a feeling of the mysterious.

“The first man was an artist...
Man's first expression, like his first dream,
was an aesthetic one
The purpose of man's first speech was
an address to the unknowable..“
Barnet Newman

The exhibition draws inspiration from the Japanese concept of Yugen, signifying an awareness of the universe too deep for words.

Echoing artist Barnet Newman’s theory that the first man was an artist, addressing the unknowable, the artists explore humanity's enigmatic connection to a wider web of life.

They offer pragmatic attempts to make sense of and intervene in the beyond, creating belief systems that impact nature. In the context of the Anthropocene and advancements in artificial intelligence, contemporary art's resurgence in focusing on Yugen is a deliberate exploration of the incomprehensible forces at play, transcending visible and invisible realms.

YUGEN thus revives art's original purpose as a technology to convey profound significance beyond current human cognitive limits.