WALL_alternative, the Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo art space run by Avex Creator Agency Inc. (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; representative director: Shinsuke Kato), is holding "TOKYO SKA HAS NO BORDER," an exhibition bringing together art and TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA to mark the band's 37th year since its debut, from Tuesday, August 11 to Saturday, August 29, 2026.
The world is full of borders — between nations, cultures, generations, and values. How different things meet and live together has become one of the defining themes of contemporary society.
In such times, TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA, which has continued its "NO BORDER" activities for 37 years since its 1989 debut, offers plenty of insight that goes beyond the framework of a band, suggesting a way for society itself to exist.
Carrying forward ska music's spirit of embracing mixture, enjoyment, and encounters with others, TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA has built its own distinctive "Tokyo Ska" sound while resonating with artists and audiences around the world, crossing national borders and genres in the process.
This exhibition unpacks the "NO BORDER" philosophy the band has embodied from two directions: art and research.
For the art collaboration, which crosses over from music into visual art, three artists — Kenta Cobayashi, Shu Ohno, and vug — each reinterpret TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA's 37 years from a different perspective, turning them into new works.
Kenta Cobayashi, who performed alongside band member GAMO at MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2025 last year, reconstructs TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA's archival photographs and tour records using his own method. Rather than simply preserving the past, the attempt is to build, from a present-day perspective, a landscape that carries the time and energy of the band's journey into the future.
Sculptor Shu Ohno starts from instruments and equipment actually used by TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA, using a bricolage technique to distill the history, memory, and live energy carved into them into new three-dimensional works.
vug, an artist whose roots lie in the street, responds to TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA's street-level character, having performed live on the street since its debut. Through drawings that open up a space of "freedom" within the public realm and depict love and peace with an open hand, vug expresses his own version of "NO BORDER" in this exhibition.
The research strand, approached through the lens of "Skapara as a community," is led by a research collective centered on curator/researcher Keisuke Shimakage, exhibiting video, diagrams, and related materials compiled from interviews and documentary research. It looks at TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA as a community that keeps changing and evolving, and reveals the norms and beliefs that sustain that community.
It is a kind of gathering that sets no single leader, deciding things instead by full consensus — yet the process doesn't smooth things out; if anything, it sharpens them, pushing the group toward whatever excites or interests its members most. It's a way of thinking that could be called "Skapara democracy." By digging into TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA as this kind of community, the exhibition in turn sheds new light on the nature of ska music itself and on the hybrid, distinctive "Tokyo Ska" sound.
The venue will also play a "NO BORDER" playlist, selected for this exhibition by band members Atsushi Yanaka, Tsuyoshi Kawakami, and Hajime Omori, as background music. Drinks and food connected to the members, along with exhibition-exclusive merchandise, will also be available, offering a multi-angle experience of TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA's world alongside the artworks.
"NO BORDER" doesn't only mean crossing national borders or genres. It also stands for the state of "being at peace" that emerges when different personalities and values keep talking, blending, and enjoying being together — a philosophy built up through that accumulation.
Through art, this exhibition presents the "NO BORDER" that TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA has embodied over 37 years once again, as a practice of different things engaging in dialogue, blending together, and continuing to coexist. As a new kind of viewing experience that touches on the philosophy and sense of community a single band has built, it aims to be a place where visitors encounter their own "NO BORDER" and where new perspectives and dialogue emerge.
Artists
Shu Ohno
Born in Fukuoka in 1981, Ohno studied sculpture at Kyushu Sangyo University and completed graduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts.
During his studies, he focused on sculpture research using stone as his primary material, composing academically grounded forms alongside motifs influenced by music to create tense works that unsettle conventional ideas of sculpture. Treating the "impulse" that rises from within as a key element, he is known for three-dimensional works that use artificial materials such as scrap and concrete while retaining a physical weight and presence that never feels superficial. During a two-and-a-half-year stay in New York starting in 2012, he arrived at a bricolage-based production style, repeatedly "destroying and repairing" his materials to explore the formal beauty embedded in the passage of time. In November 2023, he presented the solo exhibition "[VERSE]" as the first show at WALL_alternative, the space opened in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo by ACA (Avex Creator Agency).
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shu.ohno/
Kenta Cobayashi
Born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1992, Cobayashi graduated from Tokyo Zokei University's painting program in 2015 and is now based in Tokyo. Since 2015, he has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Japan and abroad in the fields of contemporary photography and contemporary art.
His solo exhibitions include "#copycat" at WAITINGROOM (Tokyo, 2025) and "THE PASTEXISTS" at Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery (Tokyo, 2022), and his group exhibitions include "COMING OF AGE" at Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, 2022) and "Hello World" at Art Tower Mito (Mito, 2018). In 2019, he worked on a collaboration with Dunhill under Mark Weston, and on a Louis Vuitton campaign under Virgil Abloh.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kentacobayashi/
vug
Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1988 and based in Nagoya, vug began drawing on his own from around age four. As a teenager he was influenced by graffiti and worked as a writer. His current practice centers on painting while drawing across a range of techniques — collage, drawing, embroidery, ceramics, and tattoo work — to create freewheeling expressions. In recent years, his work has centered on diary-like pieces that combine scenes from his everyday life with distinctive wordplay lettering.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vvuugg/
Researchers
Keisuke Shimakage
A design activist. His main projects include OTON GLASS, text-reading glasses; FabBiotope, a small ecosystem built by users who are also makers; "The Self-Sufficiency Exhibition of 'Reality,'" which opens up techniques for living to society; and "FAYM2024," which turned Nishi-Azabu inside out.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keisukeshimakage/
Reo Anzai
A producer and artist who, without being confined to the format of music, researches representation and creates work born from the back-and-forth between the club floor and the bedroom. He has performed live sets at MUTEK JP and clubs around Tokyo, and is highly regarded as an up-and-coming electronic musician.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reo_anzai/
Yoichiro Uchiyama
A graphic designer, artist, and publisher who works mainly in fields related to culture and the arts, including exhibition promotional materials, books, and signage design for cultural facilities. He also runs the publishing label ninifuni, producing and publishing art books.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/u_yoichiro/
Kenji Iwanaga
Primarily involved in content production for the education field, Iwanaga also works as a video artist, exploring alternative approaches to archiving through the documentation and reconstruction of exhibitions and events.
Sora Kobayashi
Kobayashi works mainly on exhibition space design for cultural facilities such as museums, science museums, and corporate museums, while also handling venue composition, installation, and management for art projects and artist exhibitions.
Exhibition Overview
- Title: TOKYO SKA HAS NO BORDER
- Dates: August 11 (Tue) – August 29 (Sat), 2026, open every day during the run
- Hours: Saturday and Sunday 4:00 PM – 12:00 AM; Monday to Friday and holidays 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM. A "NO BORDER" playlist plays as background music; from August 17 onward, background music switches to the venue's regular programming after 8:00 PM due to venue circumstances.
- Venue: WALL_alternative (1F, 4-2-4 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
- Admission is split into two time slots:
- A | Open to 9:15 PM | Priority entry (free admission, one-drink minimum): Reservations are prioritized for three slots — 4:00–5:30 PM (Saturday and Sunday only), 6:00–7:30 PM, and 7:45–9:15 PM (each a 1.5-hour rotation). Apply at: https://peatix.com/event/5097515. A drink fee of ¥1,500 plus tax (¥1,000 plus tax for students, ID required) applies at entry; cashless payment only. Each slot is first-come, first-served until capacity is reached; guests may come and go within their slot but should arrive by 30 minutes before the changeover (for the 4:00–5:30 PM slot, by 5:00 PM). Same-day walk-ins are welcome if space remains.
- B | 9:15 PM – 12:00 AM | Open entry (free admission, one-drink minimum): No reservation is needed during this time. The same ¥1,500 plus tax drink fee applies (¥1,000 plus tax for students, ID required); cashless payment only. Entry may be limited during busy periods.
- Organizer: Avex Creator Agency Inc.
- Planning: Avex Creator Agency Inc. / Keisuke Shimakage
- Planning cooperation: Mature Films and Music Ltd.
- Cooperation: Sony Music Artists / cutting edge
- Research: Reo Anzai / Yoichiro Uchiyama / Kenji Iwanaga / Sora Kobayashi
- Graphic design: Ayuko Kuwata
- Venue design: Yusuke Yamagiwa
- Website: https://avex.jp/wall/exhibition/863
