Author: Feed Fetcher

The artifacts were stolen in January.

In a quiet residential pocket of Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, about an hour southwest of Tokyo, Japanese painter Ulala Imai lives surrounded by architecture that evokes her past. She shares a newly built, tiered, and spacious home—elegant, minimalist, airy, and flooded with soft white light—with her husband and children. But just across the street stands the three-story home where she grew up, originally a U.S. military house purchased and redesigned by her father, Shingo Imai, a Western-style painter. Diagonally across is another single-story house where she and her family lived until last November—her home and studio for nine years. Much of her recent work was painted in its living room, often with her children playing beside her.

Next door to her current home is another building woven into her personal history: a tiny weathered house which her father rented as a young man, where Imai also spent part of her childhood. Today, that building serves as Imai’s studio. The space hums quietly with large canvases in various stages, and is adorned with painting equipment and everyday objects from her life, which she often portrays in her art. One of the most acclaimed figurative painters in Japan today, Imai’s international visibility is now growing—with works recently shown at Karma in New York and Art Basel Hong Kong, and others held in major collections including those at SFMOMA and the Dallas Museum of Art. At the same time, her inner world remains tightly rooted in home. The upcoming exhibition “CLOSE” at Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, on view May 15th through July 12th, continues that trajectory, weaving in references to Shinto spirituality and childhood objects, family, care, and presence.

Imai’s rise, however, has been slow-burning. A graduate of the prestigious Tama Art University, she exhibited for years in Japan before gaining international momentum, which started at Paris Internationale in 2017, where she showed small paintings of buttered toast and fruit at Union Pacific’s booth. Her 2021 international solo debut exhibition, “AMAZING,” at Nonaka-Hill in Los Angeles coincided with the pandemic—a time she describes as creatively formative. Confined to the home that also served as her studio, she began to make work with what was immediately at hand. That inward-looking period, she said, helped shape her style and gave her the courage to pursue opportunities abroad.

In her Kanagawa studio, there’s a life-sized toy dog with only one ear—highly symbolic, given Imai’s hearing impairment—which is the subject of one of her new paintings. On one wall hangs a painting by her father. Imai is a third-generation artist, raised in a richly visual household, now married to contemporary painter Yu Nishimura (recently added to the roster of David Zwirner). For this creative couple, art is both heritage and living practice.

In this geographically tight, emotionally expansive stomping ground, Imai has carved out a singularly intimate practice. “Most of the motifs in my paintings come from my daily life within a small, one-and-a-half-kilometer radius. These are familiar scenes and objects,” she said. It’s a sensation she evokes in her current exhibition title “CLOSE”: “While it could bring to mind the image of a store closing, it holds a sense of warmth and intimacy for me.”

Build up, 2025
Ulala Imai

Xavier Hufkens

In her paintings, toys, food, household objects, and everyday rituals become the central actors in paintings that float between the real and the uncanny. To perceive Imai’s work is indeed to experience a kind of visual hush, rooted in how she perceives the world. “I was born with hearing loss,” she explained. “Because of that, I have no real sense of what sound is like for those with full hearing. Hearing aids are essential for me, but the digitally converted world they offer often feels fake. I’ve found it hard to trust—so I’ve come to rely even more on the visual world.”

Imai’s hearing impairment shapes her relationship to visual rhythm. “Even in silence, when I encounter a moment that moves me deeply, it resonates like a melody within me,” she says. “I don’t know the textbook definition of melody, but if my work can evoke a forgotten tune in someone’s heart, that makes me very happy.”

This reliance on vision isn’t just practical; it’s poetic. Her paintings often evoke the stillness of a room just after someone has left. They’re composed through a meticulous process of real-world arrangement—arranging scenes both inside and outside her home before translating them into paint on canvas. The results are both luminous and elusive: domestic scenes rendered with the psychological resonance of myth. “I want to paint something like a flickering candle,” she says, “which has no sound, but still moves and comforts the heart.”

That duality—stillness with an emotional undercurrent—runs throughout “CLOSE.” One painting, LOVERS (2025), is a large-scale work featuring Charlie Brown and Lucy (from the comic strip “Peanuts”) figurines perched in a tree just beyond her window. Later, I spotted the actual toys resting on a shelf in her spacious, open-plan living room. “The figures are stretched so large that they feel very close to the viewer,” Imai said. “But there is a clear boundary. They are in a world of their own, wrapped in the shade of the tree.” The figures’ gaze is soft and shared, angled upward in the same direction.

“We live in an era filled with contradictions and overwhelming information, where uncertainty is constant,” she continued. “In such times, I want to continue painting in a way that communicates my feelings as honestly and clearly as possible—to express something simple and heartfelt, something that resonates directly with the viewer.”

Motherhood also reshaped her approach to art-making. “After my first child was born, I was trying to figure out how to keep creating while caring for a baby,” she recalled. “During naps, I would gather whatever objects I had around me—baby dolls, scallions from the fridge, a glass of grape juice—and start setting up still lifes on the dining table. Sometimes I’d even stick an Ultraman figure into a potato,” she said, referring to the Japanese science fiction character. Her husband, being a painter himself, would return from work and quietly join in. “Even if the setup looked surreal, he helped me tweak the composition until it felt just right,” she added. “That became the foundation of my current practice.”

CONEY ISLAND, 2025
Ulala Imai

Xavier Hufkens

What might read on the surface as domestic simplicity—teddy bears or cherries in a bowl—reveals deeper psychological registers under Imai’s brush. These objects are neither strictly symbolic nor entirely literal. They hum with something else: an aura of care, of memory, of minor griefs and small joys.

Another new painting, CONEY ISLAND (2025), was inspired by a visit to New York. It shows two teddy bears in bathrobes seated quietly on a deserted winter beach, a shuttered amusement park in the distance. The image evokes a melancholic stillness—a sense of narrative suspended. Amusement parks, after all, only come alive when animated by play—their emptiness here implies something more uneasy, a tension between peace and disquiet. The bears themselves appear inwardly animated, caught in silent dialogue or reverie.

This ambiguity is part of what gives Imai’s work such staying power: specific but not didactic, saturated with feeling but not too sentimental. “Living with my family, each of whom has different personalities and preferences, naturally brings about lifestyle changes as my children grow,” she said. “These shifts become a steady source of creative nourishment.”

Cherries, 2025
Ulala Imai

Xavier Hufkens

“My last show at Xavier Hufkens was titled ‘LOST,’ which depicted a charred wilderness just beginning to regenerate after a wildfire. To me, ‘LOST’ wasn’t about endings—it was about renewal and hope.” For Imai, this is particularly important, given her experience with hearing impairment: “As someone who often struggles with communication, I now chose ‘CLOSE’ partly to express my own wish not to shut people out. Painting is how I stay connected to the world.”

The interdisciplinary collective challenges our perception of society and physical space.

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Frieze New York 2025 closed on May 11th, capping off a week at The Shed that drew more than 25,000 visitors. The fair unfolded alongside more than 10 other art fairs across the city, turning New York into a pressure cooker of art world activity, with collectors, artists, reporters, curators, and more sprinting between TEFAF, NADA, Independent, and a thicket of satellite fairs, shows, and pop-ups.

On the fair’s VIP day last Wednesday, May 7th, dealers reported strong attendance from the opening moments. The main floor quickly became packed, and early worries about lack of enthusiasm gave way to confidence as crowds moved steadily through The Shed.

While sales moved at a more deliberate pace, positive energy was consistent. Many dealers felt optimistic, including Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot, who described the crowd as “upbeat.” “Perhaps most significantly, the energy at the fair was amazingly optimistic: we’re seeing an even more robust commitment now on the part of collectors, curators, and institutions to the story of art in this moment,” he added.

Reported sales from the fair spanned from emerging voices to blue-chip names, led by one of Jeff Koons’s “Hulk Elvis” sculptures, which sources told Artsy sold for upwards of $3 million at Gagosian. A topic of conversation at the fair—and across all of New York City—the booth was chosen as one of Artsy’s best booths at the fair.

“Frieze New York 2025 defied expectations, amplifying the momentum of our strong start to the year in Los Angeles,” said Christine Messineo, director of Americas at Frieze. “We are proud to have created a fair that feels responsive to the moment, while maintaining the high standards that galleries, collectors, and institutions expect from Frieze. The energy throughout the week—on the floor, in the programming, and across the city—was extraordinary.”

This year’s edition of the fair featured 67 galleries, one fewer than last year. The Focus section, dedicated to solo presentations from emerging galleries, featured some of the fair’s buzziest booths, including those from London’s Public Gallery and Seoul’s G Gallery. Curated by Lumi Tan and supported by Stone Island, the Focus section included presentations ranging from politically charged installations to digital and sound-based works, with reported prices between $2,000 and $100,000. On Friday, Brazil’s Mitre Galeria received the 2025 Focus Stand Prize for its solo booth of work by Luana Vitra.

The fair also took place as Frieze itself embarks on a major shift: just days earlier, the company announced it would be acquired by an Ari Emmanuel–led consortium in a deal that includes all of its branded fairs as well as The Armory Show, EXPO Chicago, and Frieze magazine, valuing the brand at $200 million. Though the acquisition isn’t expected to close until later this year, the news rippled through opening-day conversations, raising questions—and cautious optimism—about what lies ahead for the fair’s New York edition.

Here, we round up the key sales reported by galleries at Frieze New York 2025.

Top sales at Frieze New York 2025

Gagosian sold Jeff Koons’s Hulk (Tubas) (2004–2018) in the early hours of the fair. While the gallery does not disclose sales, sources told Artsy that the work was sold for upwards of $3 million.

White Cube’s reported sales included a Tracey Emin painting for £1.2 million ($1.59 million) and a bronze by the artist for £80,000 ($106,400). The gallery also reported the sales of:

• A work by Etel Adnan for $180,000.
• Two sculptures by Antony Gormley for £325,000 ($432,250) each.
• A painting by Christine Ay Tjoe, placed with an institution for $280,000.
• Two works by Ilana Savdie, one of which is a new painting priced at $100,000.

Soul Drawing “Lava Lamp”, 2025
Rashid Johnson

Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth reported the sale of more than 25 works on the fair’s VIP day, with prices for works ranging from $20,000 to $1.2 million. Highlights included Lorna Simpson’s Vista (2025) and Rashid Johnson’s Soul Painting“The Jungle” (2025), both for undisclosed sums.

Thaddaeus Ropac’s sales were led by Georg Baselitz’s Motto: sexuelle Niete sagt Heidegger sagt Celan (2023), which sold for €1 million ($1.11 million). Other sales reported by the gallery included:

• Liza Lou’s Zeugma (2024) for $225,000.
• Joan Snyder’s Float (2015) for $210,000.
• Yan Pei-Ming’s Elle se regarde (2018) for €160,000 ($177,700).
• David Salle’s Bow Tie (2024) for $130,000.
• Martha Jungwirth’s Ohne Titel (2024) for CHF 65,000 ($77,000).
• Hans Josephsohn’s Untitled (1965–70) for £18,000 ($23,700).
• Two untitled 2024 works by Megan Rooney for £18,000 ($23,700) apiece.

More notable sales at Frieze New York 2025

Pace Gallery sold all six of its paintings by Adam Pendleton, which were priced between $165,000 and $425,000. The gallery also sold multiple sculptures by Lynda Benglis for prices ranging from $275,000 to $300,000.

Karma’s reported sales were led by Gertrude Abercrombie’s Owl for Emil (1958) for $350,000 and Richard Mayhew’s Mountain Mindscape (1969) for $350,000. Other sales included:

• Manoucher Yektai’s Blue Table (1960) for $275,000.
• Reggie Burrows Hodges’s Referees: To The House (2021) for $175,000.
• Alan Saret’s Magnetic Storm (1984) for $150,000.
• Calvin Marcus’s Untitled (2020) for $135,000.
• Maja Ruznic’s David and Bob in the Red Room (2025) for $90,000.
• Xiao Jiang’s Rider in the Mountains (2024) for $50,000.

Nara Roesler sold an oil painting by Tomie Ohtake for $350,000.

Kukje Gallery sold a painting by Park Seo-Bo priced between $250,000 and $300,000, and a piece by Kyungah Ham for between $140,000 and $168,000.

Perrotin—one of Artsy’s best booths—sold out its booth of paintings by Claire Tabouret on VIP Day, with prices ranging from $65,000 to $200,000.

Tina Kim Gallery reported sales of a work by Lee ShinJa for $200,000; a piece by Ghada Amer for $175,000; and a textile by Pacita Abad for $150,000.

Mendes Wood DM—another of Artsy’s best booths—placed Sliced Stones (2018), an installation of eight sculptures by Kishio Suga, with an institution for a price in the range of $200,000 to $300,000.

Goodman Gallery reported selling a work by Carrie Mae Weems to a European institution for $100,000.

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With support from the Mellon Foundation, Open Restitution Africa has supported microgrants to develop case studies.

Euclide’s mixed-media collages investigate nature through the lens of human experience.

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Homeward boundI wish I was homeward boundHome, where my thought’s escapingHome, where my music’s playingHome, where my love lies waiting silently for me—Simon & Garfunkel, Homeward Bound1                                         Here lies an image on which life is based, rather than an image based on life. A world where life and its vicissitudes becomes an image. In

Justin Gaar                                                                                                           … Continued

“NADA,” the solo exhibition conceived by Belgian artist Thierry De Cordier (Ronse, Belgium, 1954) for the three rooms of the Cisterna, features ten paintings from the series of the same name created between 1999 and 2025. De Cordier has dedicated his 40- year career to experimenting with different languages, from sculpture and writing to installations