gallery αM in Tokyo is presenting the fifth edition of its αM Project 2025–2026 series, titled “Stop, Look Back, Face Forward. vol.5 Takehiro Iikawa: Decorator Crab－No Two Alike,” running from April 11 to June 13, 2026. The exhibition features works by artist Takehiro Iikawa, including pieces such as “Decorator Crab – Arrangement, Adjustment, Circulation” (2026) and “Decorator Crab – New Audience” (2026), with guest curator Aki Otsuki, a curator from the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History.
This exhibition matters because it continues the αM Project’s focus on emerging and mid-career Japanese artists, providing a platform for experimental practices that engage with themes of observation, adaptation, and perception. Iikawa’s work, inspired by the decorator crab’s habit of adorning itself with found materials, offers a metaphor for how contemporary art navigates and recontextualizes its environment, making the show relevant to discussions of artistic process and ecological thinking.