The National Art Center in Kyoto presents 'YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection,' the first exhibition in Japan dedicated exclusively to British art of the 1990s. Featuring around 90 works by some 50 artists, the show includes pieces by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Lubaina Himid, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Julian Opie, drawn from the Tate Collection. Highlights include Hirst's 'The Acquired Inability to Escape' (1991), Tillmans' 'The Cock (Kiss)' (2002), and Jeremy Deller's 'The History of the World' (1997–2004). The exhibition runs from June 16 to June 21, 2026, at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art.
This exhibition matters because it offers a comprehensive look at the Young British Artists (YBAs) and their contemporaries, a generation that redefined contemporary art through shock, irreverence, and entrepreneurial spirit. By situating the art within the context of 1990s British culture—where politics, music, fashion, and subculture intersected—the show provides a vivid portrait of a transformative era. It also marks a significant cultural exchange, bringing a pivotal moment in British art history to Japanese audiences for the first time.