Sorry

M+ no longer supports this web browser.

M+ 不再支持此網頁瀏覽器。

M+ 不再支持此网页浏览器。

Colour photograph of a man holding a camera attached to a wooden milk box by cord. Milk box secured to roadside tree.

Assistant Curator Ariadne Long examines how Japanese artist Ozawa Tsuyoshi’s Nasubi Gallery transforms the traditional gallery space in response to changing times.

In 1993, a wooden delivery milk box was mounted on a tree in front of Nabis Gallery, a long-established rental gallery located in Tokyo’s Ginza district, with an eggplant pierced with sticks placed inside. This was an artwork created by the Japanese artist Ozawa Tsuyoshi for a guerrilla street art event known as ‘Ginburart’ that year, which critiqued the ‘pay-to-show’ system in Japan at the time. Artists, especially those who were emerging, could organise exhibitions in rental galleries for a fee that normally covered a seven-day display period. Appropriating the name from Nabis Gallery, commonly pronounced as ‘Nabisu’ in Japanese, Ozawa titled the work Nasubi Gallery, ‘Nasubi’ meaning ‘eggplant’ in Japanese, to satirise Nabis Gallery’s commercial authority.

Monochrome photograph of a wooden milk box attached to a roadside tree. Two pedestrians walking past.

Nasubi Gallery by Ozawa Tsuyoshi (1993) at the guerrilla street art event ‘The Ginburart’ in Tokyo. Photo by Anzai Shigeo. Courtesy of Tsuyoshi Ozawa

Born in 1965, Ozawa Tsuyoshi bases his practice on interactions and communications. Always full of humour and witty observations, his work focuses on the sociopolitics of everyday life, and Nasubi Gallery is one of his most iconic works. It comprises two embedded layers. First, displaying a common vegetable within a miniature gallery reframes it as an art market item. Second, as a whole, Nasubi Gallery could also be regarded as an artwork in its own right, establishing Ozawa as both an artist and a gallerist. As an alternative gallery for emerging and lesser-known artists who might not have the financial support to get in the mainstream, Nasubi Gallery was a distinctive counterpoint to the rental gallery model in Japan and the power dynamics within the art market. While Nasubi Gallery adopted a fifty-fifty payment model, with proceeds from a show split between Ozawa and an exhibiting artist, the project operated in the spirit of collective art-making that evolved through the years.

A rough pencil sketch depicts a roadside scene with a milk box attached to an electricity pole. In the top left-hand third of the image, there are detailed drawings of a milk box with its lid open, showcasing a box-like shape inside. In the lower left-hand corner, there is a drawing of an eggplant.

Sketches of Nasubi Gallery. Ⓒ Tsuyoshi Ozawa. Courtesy of MISA SHIN GALLERY

Perhaps the smallest art gallery in the world, Nasubi Gallery has the concept of mobility and circulation built into its existence. For the following two years, it hosted solo exhibitions for then-emerging artists like Takashi Murakami, Masato Nakamura, Fukuda Miran, and Ujino Muneteru, whose New Club Venus (1993) turned the milk box into a mini nightclub filled with bottles of alcohol, glasses, and electroluminescent lighting. On its opening day, Ujino’s ‘club’ became a busy attraction among crowds of youths and homeless people on the streets of Ginza.

Colour photograph of a night scene with wooden milk box by roadside. Flap open, revealing liquor bottles. In the background, passing car lights are depicted as continuous light streaks due to slow shutter speed.

Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus' on the street. Ⓒ Tsuyoshi Ozawa. Courtesy of MISA SHIN GALLERY

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. Open flap reveals small bottles of liquor and drinking glasses.

Interior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. White label on box with red Japanese text writing ‘Nasubi Gallery’.

Exterior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Colour photograph of a night scene with wooden milk box by roadside. Flap open, revealing liquor bottles. In the background, passing car lights are depicted as continuous light streaks due to slow shutter speed.

Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus' on the street. Ⓒ Tsuyoshi Ozawa. Courtesy of MISA SHIN GALLERY

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. Open flap reveals small bottles of liquor and drinking glasses.

Interior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. White label on box with red Japanese text writing ‘Nasubi Gallery’.

Exterior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Colour photograph of a night scene with wooden milk box by roadside. Flap open, revealing liquor bottles. In the background, passing car lights are depicted as continuous light streaks due to slow shutter speed.

Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus' on the street. Ⓒ Tsuyoshi Ozawa. Courtesy of MISA SHIN GALLERY

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. Open flap reveals small bottles of liquor and drinking glasses.

Interior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. White label on box with red Japanese text writing ‘Nasubi Gallery’.

Exterior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Colour photograph of a night scene with wooden milk box by roadside. Flap open, revealing liquor bottles. In the background, passing car lights are depicted as continuous light streaks due to slow shutter speed.

Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus' on the street. Ⓒ Tsuyoshi Ozawa. Courtesy of MISA SHIN GALLERY

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. Open flap reveals small bottles of liquor and drinking glasses.

Interior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

Blue wooden milk box on white gallery wall. White label on box with red Japanese text writing ‘Nasubi Gallery’.

Exterior of Nasubi Gallery by Ujino Muneteru – 'New Club Venus', 1993/2004

In October 1993, Nasubi Gallery departed from its original base in Ginza and began to travel across Tokyo, with milk boxes appearing in locations ranging from a shelf in a bookstore to a movie theatre, as well as in other cities in Japan like Fukuoka and Nagoya. In December 1995, Ozawa closed Nasubi Gallery to rethink its direction, then he relaunched it under the name New Nasubi Gallery in 1997, the same year the inaugural Cities on the Move exhibition opened in Vienna, where Ozawa also presented his new gallery. Taking a similar approach to engage artists in collective art-making while expanding its presentations internationally, New Nasubi Gallery was an ideal addition to an exhibition that responded to the context of the 1990s. At the time, capital flowed into Asian cities amid a surge in urbanisation, leading to the rapid construction of skyscrapers and commercial landmarks, which threatened the ability of alternative art spaces to survive financially unless they moved to less desirable locations like industrial zones. Under these conditions, Ozawa’s portable exhibition model provided a platform for artistic ideas and artworks as a ‘gallery on the move’.

Wooden box on white wall. Open lid with nails and bolts protruding at awkward angles. Aged wood gives the box a rustic appearance.

New Nasubi Gallery by Pedro Reyes, 1997

Fittingly, Ozawa invited Mexican artist Pedro Reyes to show with New Nasubi Gallery as part of Cities on the Move. Known for large sculptures, performances, and participatory projects that address sociopolitical issues, Reyes framed and scaffolded the exterior of the box with a crude wooden structure and painted the gallery’s refined white walls a cement grey. Thus, while Ozawa originally transformed the milk box into a miniature white cube, Reyes reversed the site into an industrial-looking space, and its roughness seemed to offer a humorous commentary on what constituted a gallery at the time.

Wooden milk box on white wall. Its front lid is open. Inside, a sculpture of a human figure with a balaclava-covered head. Two additional heads stacked on top, resembling Kokeshi dolls. Open lid has a clothing patch of a masked figure. Another patch with the text: ‘T IMB UVAN LEMAK DALAM DEKAPAN JAGOAN WAKIL RAKYAT’.

New Nasubi Gallery by Eko Nugroho, 2006. Photograph: Natasha Harth. Photo Courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals black and white photograph of artist Lin Yilin wearing polka dot pajamas. Call to action over the image says: 'CALL NOW! If you want this Chinese artist to be in the show you curate’. Rest of the call to action is scribbled out with pen. Handwritten date: ‘2010.9.1’ with artist's initials ‘LY’ following.

New Nasubi Gallery by Lin Yilin – ‘Call Now’, 2003/2010

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals a colour photograph of a gallery-like space with wooden milk boxes on the wall. A person visible in the image. Hands holding smartphone in bottom right corner. Photograph positioned behind black bars, creating the appearance of scenes taking place behind bars.

New Nasubi Gallery by Yang Zhenzhong, 2006

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals hand-painted red text on the backside of the lid. The text reads: ‘Child's glove found first day of moving’. Inside the main box, the text continues: ‘into new studio 2012’. A child's glove is placed beneath this text.

New Nasubi Gallery by Ken Lum, 2012/2018

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open door reveals an illustration of a man with a speech bubble saying: ‘This artist is not so bad’.

New Nasubi Gallery by Song Dong, 2003. Photograph: Siigi Sizune. Photo courtesy: Ciba City Museum of Art

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals a smudgy, branded-like rendering of the date: '21 May Thursday'.

New Nasubi Gallery by Jitish Kallat, 2006

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals bevelled text on the box that reads: ‘for making sales’. Open lid of the box shows cut-out text that reads ‘NICE’, but due to the open door, it appears backwards as ‘ECIN’.

New Nasubi Gallery by Chen Shaoxiong, 2010.

Wooden milk box on white wall. Its front lid is open. Inside, a sculpture of a human figure with a balaclava-covered head. Two additional heads stacked on top, resembling Kokeshi dolls. Open lid has a clothing patch of a masked figure. Another patch with the text: ‘T IMB UVAN LEMAK DALAM DEKAPAN JAGOAN WAKIL RAKYAT’.

New Nasubi Gallery by Eko Nugroho, 2006. Photograph: Natasha Harth. Photo Courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals black and white photograph of artist Lin Yilin wearing polka dot pajamas. Call to action over the image says: 'CALL NOW! If you want this Chinese artist to be in the show you curate’. Rest of the call to action is scribbled out with pen. Handwritten date: ‘2010.9.1’ with artist's initials ‘LY’ following.

New Nasubi Gallery by Lin Yilin – ‘Call Now’, 2003/2010

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals a colour photograph of a gallery-like space with wooden milk boxes on the wall. A person visible in the image. Hands holding smartphone in bottom right corner. Photograph positioned behind black bars, creating the appearance of scenes taking place behind bars.

New Nasubi Gallery by Yang Zhenzhong, 2006

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals hand-painted red text on the backside of the lid. The text reads: ‘Child's glove found first day of moving’. Inside the main box, the text continues: ‘into new studio 2012’. A child's glove is placed beneath this text.

New Nasubi Gallery by Ken Lum, 2012/2018

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open door reveals an illustration of a man with a speech bubble saying: ‘This artist is not so bad’.

New Nasubi Gallery by Song Dong, 2003. Photograph: Siigi Sizune. Photo courtesy: Ciba City Museum of Art

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals a smudgy, branded-like rendering of the date: '21 May Thursday'.

New Nasubi Gallery by Jitish Kallat, 2006

Wooden milk box on white wall. Open front lid reveals bevelled text on the box that reads: ‘for making sales’. Open lid of the box shows cut-out text that reads ‘NICE’, but due to the open door, it appears backwards as ‘ECIN’.

New Nasubi Gallery by Chen Shaoxiong, 2010.

The number of artists that collaborated with New Nasubi Gallery continued to increase in the 2000s. When Ozawa was invited to show at the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2006, he extended invitations to participating artists from the triennial, including Jitish Kallat. From then on, Ozawa also invited figures from his network such as Lin Yilin, Yang Zhenzhong, Ken Lum, Song Dong, and Eko Nugroho to create works for his mobile exhibitions. Ozawa’s innovative concept of redefining a gallery and exhibition space allowed artists to expand their conceptual boundaries within a tiny milk box, establishing new communities and practices in the contemporary art scene.

Ariadne Long
Ariadne Long
Ariadne Long

Ariadne Long is Assistant Curator, Visual Art at M+.

Stay in the know!

  • Be up to date on what’s happening at M+ and WestK
  • Discover new videos and articles from the M+ Magazine
  • Choose what content you’d like to receive
  • Opt out at any time
Loading