Current Exhibition

NY ART WAVE PROJECT presents

ICHIGOICHIE

Here and Now ~ Where We Meet

August 18–28, 2026

OPENING RECEPTION

Thursday, August 20, 2026 | 6–8 PM

Curated by Sai Morikawa

Featuring New Art Prospects Artists from Japan Series XIII, 2026

Participating Artists

Akari Yoshida / Hinata Kobayashi / K. Junko / Keiko Mori / Ku Watanabe / Mariko Okabayashi / Meiko Sato / Midori Murase / Miki Iwasa / Mizuki Takahashi / Morihiro Okamoto / Nagisa Oono / Nana Morikawa / Noriko Tanaka / Obana / Rika Aoki / Seiko Imai / Shigeru Hasegawa / Shouko Hayakawa Susumu Sakamoto / Tomoyo Kawasuji

New York, one of the world’s foremost centers for art and culture, has long been a place where diverse ideas, languages, and traditions converge. Since its inception in the summer of 2014, the art event series “New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan” has supported artists working in Japan in presenting their work to audiences in New York. In 2026, the series returns for its 13th edition.

This year’s exhibition, “ICHIGO ICHIE: Here and Now—Where We Meet,” reflects on what it means to live, create, and connect in the present moment.

Amid rapid social change, our lives and ways of seeing are undergoing transformations that familiar frameworks can no longer fully contain. Climate change, armed conflict, economic inequality, and the accelerating development of technologies such as generative AI are reshaping the world before our eyes. While these changes continue to expand the possibilities of human experience, they have also intensified divisions in information, emotion, and values. Ideas and systems that once appeared stable have become increasingly uncertain, and the shape of the future is more difficult to envision than ever.

It may be precisely in such an unpredictable time that we need to return our attention to the here and now—and reconsider how a future might be shaped through our encounters and connections with others.

“ICHIGOLCHIE” was conceived as an opportunity to examine the texture of the present through the perspectives of Japanese artists. Grounded in individual experience and sensibility, the works in the exhibition offer distinct responses to the complexities of our time.

New York is a city in which multiple languages, cultures, and values continually intersect. Expressions born from different backgrounds coexist, overlap, and acquire new meaning through their relationships with one another. For Japanese artists, presenting work in this environment offers not only an opportunity to reconsider their own cultural sensibilities, but also a chance to encounter unfamiliar perspectives and discover new forms of connection.

Guided by the spirit of ichi-go ichi-e—the Japanese idea that each encounter is singular and unrepeatable—the participating artists present works that capture the present moment in forms that are both deeply personal and freely imagined.

The relationship that emerges between artwork and viewer, space and time, Japan and the wider world can never be repeated in exactly the same way. In the shared experience of encountering art, across differences of culture and background, a small but meaningful possibility may arise: the possibility of imagining the future together.

“Here and Now” is ultimately an affirmation of the irreplaceable encounters that can occur only at this particular time and in this particular place. Through these encounters, we learn to accept change while continuing to shape hope in our own ways. This quiet conviction lies at the heart of the exhibition.

The exhibition venue, Viridian Artists Gallery, is operated by a team of practicing architects, designers, curators, artists, and other creative professionals. Since its founding in the 1960s, the organization has supported ambitious and emerging artists for more than half a century. Its artist-centered direction, professional expertise, and longstanding record have fostered a relationship of trust with the New York Art Wave Project, making possible not only independently organized art events but also collaborative exhibitions with American artists.

Since the global pandemic of 2020, social life around the world has undergone profound change, and the art world has been no exception. Virtual exhibitions incorporating advanced 3D technology have become an established part of contemporary exhibition practice. Reflecting this evolving landscape, the annual New York Summer Exhibition will present and support the work of Japanese artists through both physical and virtual exhibition formats.

In New York, where cultures meet and ideas cross paths, audiences are invited to encounter the diverse work of Japanese artists—work shaped by distinctive aesthetic sensibilities, individual visions, and experiences that are uniquely their own.

The exhibition contributes to international cultural exchange while supporting the continued development of the Japanese art scene and the professional growth of its participating artists.

View the Virtual Exhibition

For further information, please contact:

Lola Shepard, Acting Gallery Director

(212) 414-4040 | viridianartistsinc@gmail.com

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Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday | 12-6 PM

Instagram: @viridian artists