The Gallery Saatchi & Saatchi

The Gallery Saatchi & Saatchi was a contemporary art gallery established in Tokyo, Japan in 2000.

Introduction

For three years, The Gallery Saatchi & Saatchi was said to have caused a stir in the normally sedate and conservative Japanese art world.
Graham Thomas opened The Gallery Saatchi & Saatchi, in the heart of Akasaka, Tokyo in 2000 as a non-profit space with the purpose of supporting young and emerging artists based in Japan.

Artists find Tokyo a difficult environment to work and come across little to encourage promising talent. Unlike London say or New York, studio space is lacking and finding affordable exhibition space is nigh-on impossible. Additionally the public has little interest in radical contemporary art. In its own way, The Gallery made a valiant attempt to break down some of the barriers between artists and public. Artists were offered extended exhibition times with shows running for up to 8 weeks. All work had to be specifically created for the space — it was not four white walls where an existing portfolio could be hung. Neither rental fees or commission was charged. All of these factors allowed artists to experiment unhindered with new techniques, often working on a larger more liberating scale than had been previously possible.

Exhibitions and events

Shiro Masuyama’s installation ‘Media Dominated World,’ commenting on sexual exploitation by the press, was a show he was unable to mount elsewhere and, not surprisingly, proved to be controversial. Pamela Slass’s paintings of vibrant erect penis, another subject normally off-limits, was of an equal impact.Not that it was all about sex. One artist used the Gallery as an open studio, painting heads of dogs "in situ" over a period of two months. (Apparently, he was reluctant to leave.)

On hand to welcome visitors was a breathtakingly beautiful Muse: tasked with breaking down formal barriers by injecting frivolity to the environment. Originally an MTV VJ, she had a knack of arriving every morning with the most outlandish hairstyles: once (in fact more than once) a condom was woven into her hair.

Public seminars were held with panel discussions. At one the Swedish artist Karl Duner — who had a concurrent exhibit at the Yokohama Trienalle — talked about his amazing kinetic sculptures whilst, in the background, his burly music composer played saxophone and the Muse liberally distributed kisses and vodka shots. Young people and students were encouraged to visit the Gallery – more often than not motivated only by the thought of meeting the Muse. Events were held that might attract the young: music (Mercury Music Prize Winner Talvin Singh) and naked butoh dance for example. A show comprising an installation using furniture design and an interactive video was put on by Kei Tominaga. The chairs were like whoopee cushions and Thomas wrote, and starred, in the video (a video that subsequently won an award from Frame magazine). And it enjoyed strong ties with The Tate Residency programme in Tokyo founded by Jonnie Walker — the ‘grand old man’ of contemporary art in Japan: the video artists Smith/Stewart for example showed their work. The Gallery could claim another first: one artist set up a soup kitchen and this went on to become the famous chain of restaurants Soup Stock. Other museums were promoted such as launching in Japan the new Museum Quarter in Vienna. The Gallery was used to shoot programmes such as the UK’s Channel 4 documentary on Japanese movies and its stars. It was a host for Swedish Style, Tokyo, and for the Tokyo Design Week.

Some might comment that this was similar to what the ICA does in London.‘Exactly right,’ says Thomas. ‘We were very much a poor man’s ICA with everything done on a shoestring, begging favours or organisations begging favours from us. Ours was not an original concept but it was new to Tokyo.’

And in 2001, Thomas lectured at the Tate in London on contemporary art in Japan (taking the opportunity to use it to attack what he considered the misguided ideals of the Mori Corporation — who were then promoting their new gallery in Roppongi.)

A review

The last word can be left to Jennifer Purvis writing in the Japan Times:

‘The newly opened Tokyo Saatchi and Saatchi office, a few minutes from Aoyama-Itchome, has a large open gallery with high white walls, one of which is curved, and polished wooden floors. The gallery is intended as a totally free space for emerging Japanese artists who cannot afford to exhibit elsewhere,with all proceeds of any work sold going directly to the artist.Graham Thomas, president and CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi in Japan and the altruistic originator of the concept, points out that this is the only Saatchi office in the world with such a gallery space.Thomas, reclining on a black designer chair in his uniquely minimal office (his desk is a work unit on a pole; a wide glass wall that swings into a door the only division from the gallery), is expansive and happy about supporting Japanese art, and sees the creativity of the artists exhibiting in the gallery as inspirational in the Saatchi and Saatchi work environment.’

References

* Japan Times (2000 edition)
* Tokyo Metro Magazine
* Frame Magazine (2001 edition)