“Duet: Asian Contemporary” Now On at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; Photography and Video by Six Artists from Japan and China

“Duet: Asian Contemporary” is on view in the 2nd-floor gallery of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Meguro Ward, Tokyo) until Sunday, January 17, 2027. The exhibition introduces contemporary photography and video works from China and Japan and is the second in a series following the 2018 exhibition “On Love: Asian Contemporary.” The six exhibiting artists are Toshiya Murakoshi, Wang Tuo, Taca Sui, Luo Yang, Jiang Pengyi and fumiko imano.

Why now? The second edition in eight years, co-curated with Three Shadows

The exhibition is co-curated by Teng Qingyun, executive director of the Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre, and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (curator in charge: Takahiro Ito). Curatorial cooperation is by RongRong & inri. According to the museum’s press materials (August 21, 2026), in selecting the artists the two curators repeatedly responded to each other’s proposals, making the exhibition itself a “duet.”

The Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is a complex for photography founded in Beijing in 2007 by the internationally active photographer duo RongRong & inri. A new base opened in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in 2015, and it has become a place for promoting Chinese photographic culture.

According to the materials, the works of all four Chinese artists are being shown at a public museum in Japan for the first time. The two Japanese artists are also exhibiting at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum for the first time. The title “duet” originally refers to a musical form performed by two. The museum says it overlays the way different voices and melodies respond to each other onto the dialogue between the artists, exploring the relationships that arise where perspectives, backgrounds, cultures, times and personal experiences intersect.

What can visitors see? The six artists and their works

Toshiya Murakoshi

Born in 1980 in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture. In 2009 he founded the independent gallery “TAP” in Kiyosumi-shirakawa, Tokyo. Since 2006 he has continued to photograph his hometown of Fukushima. In this exhibition, through works such as “The Wind Sings for a Deeper Silence” (2016, gelatin silver print), he looks at Fukushima in two times: before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Wang Tuo

Born in 1984 in Jilin Province. Since 2017 he has been working on “The Northeast Tetralogy,” a four-part video series that starts from Northeast China and adapts and reconstructs historical events, contemporary incidents and folklore. In this exhibition, two works from the series are screened: “Smoke and Fire” (2018, single-channel 4K video) and “Tungus.” He won the Sigg Prize, organized by M+, in 2023. M+ is a museum in West Kowloon, Hong Kong, which marks its fifth anniversary in November 2026.

Taca Sui

Born in 1984 in Shandong Province. His photo series “Odes,” which traveled the Central Plains sung of in the Book of Songs (Shijing), won the Photographer of the Year award at the Lianzhou Foto Festival in 2010 and is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A new edition of the series as a photobook won silver at the 2026 “Best Book Design from all over the World” competition. His works on display include “Heaven Guards” from “Odes.”

Luo Yang

Born in 1984 in Liaoning Province. She is known for “Girls,” a long-term series in which she has photographed women of her generation on film since 2007. In addition to “Girls,” she shows two series in this exhibition: “Youth” (2019–), which photographs young Chinese born since the late 1990s, and “Diaspora Birds” (2024), which documents the identities of Asian migrants living in Europe and elsewhere.

Jiang Pengyi

Born in 1977 in Hunan Province. He has explored the materiality and expressive possibilities of photography as a medium. His exhibited work “Dark Addiction” is made with a cameraless technique that records the trails of fireflies’ bioluminescence directly on film.

fumiko imano

Born in 1974 in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture. She spent her childhood from age 2 to 8 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and moved to the UK in 1997. Starting from self-portraits, she makes collage works featuring a fictional twin sister. Her works on display include “our first dinner spaghetti/paris/2021” (2021, photomontage) from “le fumistol.”

Tickets and prices; free for students on Thursday and Friday evenings in November

Admission is 900 yen for adults, 720 yen for students and 450 yen for high school students and those 65 and over. Groups of 20 or more paying visitors pay 720 yen, 570 yen and 360 yen respectively. Junior high school students and younger, and holders of a disability certificate and their caregivers (up to two), are free. Those 65 and over are free on the third Wednesday, and the exhibition is free to all on Saturday, January 2 and Sunday, January 3, 2027. Timed-entry tickets can also be bought online on an external site.

On Thursdays and Fridays from November 5 to 27, the museum has special evening openings from 17:00 to 20:00. During these hours, students and high school students are free, and adults and those 65 and over pay the group rate; a student ID or proof of age is required.

The catalogue (B5 size, 168 pages) costs 3,500 yen (tax included) and includes essays by Teng Qingyun and curator Takahiro Ito, among other contents.

Related events: gallery talks and a Q&A show with sign language

• Gallery talks by the curator in charge: Friday, November 20 and Friday, December 18, from 14:00 each day. With sign language interpretation; meet at the entrance to the 2nd-floor gallery. A ticket for the exhibition valid that day is required

• Inclusive program “Q&A Show with Sign Language”: Saturday, December 12, 14:00–15:00, 2nd-floor lobby. Capacity 50, free. The questioner is Shinya Ogasawara, a deaf viewing guide

The symposium on Saturday, October 3 and the gallery talk on Friday, October 16 have ended.

Access, opening hours and other exhibitions at the museum

Opening hours are 10:00–18:00 (until 20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays), with last entry 30 minutes before closing. The museum is closed on Mondays (if Monday is a public holiday, it opens and closes the following weekday) and over the New Year holidays, December 28 – January 1. The address is 1-13-3 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo (in Yebisu Garden Place). It is about a 7-minute walk from the East Exit of JR Ebisu Station and about a 10-minute walk from Ebisu Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, and there is no dedicated parking.

In the 3rd-floor gallery, “Reassembling: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol. 23” runs over the same period. In the B1F gallery, the “50th Kimura Ihei Award Commemorative Photography Exhibition” runs from Saturday, October 31 to Monday, November 23 (a public holiday).

Editor’s perspective

The six artists deal with Fukushima before and after the earthquake, the history of Northeast China, the mountains and rivers sung of in a classical book of poems, young people and migrants of today, the light of fireflies and a fictional twin. The museum places these works, different in subject and method, in the same space as a “duet” in which they respond to each other.

The official website and flyer do not say which artists are paired with which. Which works resonate with which is for visitors to discover at the venue.

Overview

Name: Duet: Asian Contemporary
Dates: Wednesday, September 30, 2026 – Sunday, January 17, 2027
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (until 20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays; last entry 30 minutes before closing). Special evening openings 17:00–20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays from November 5 to 27
Closed: Mondays (if a public holiday, open and closed the following weekday), New Year holidays (December 28 – January 1)
Venue: 2F Gallery, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Address: Yebisu Garden Place, 1-13-3 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
Admission: Adults 900 yen, students 720 yen, high school students and 65 and over 450 yen (group rates for 20 or more paying visitors). Free for junior high school students and younger, and holders of a disability certificate and their caregivers (up to two)
Organizer: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Co-curator: Teng Qingyun
Curatorial cooperation: RongRong & inri
Cooperation: Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
Sponsor: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum Supporting Members
Inquiries: 03-3280-0099
Official website: https://topmuseum.jp/exhibition/5421/
*Information as of October 20, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Entrance of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (photo: Morio, CC BY-SA 3.0, from Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on press materials from the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (August 21, 2026) and information on the official website.

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team