Aichi Triennale 2025: 10 artworks you must not miss at this contemporary art festival in Japan

Japanese artist Saijo Akane’s ceramic and glass pieces resemble human organs. As they are moved around, they leave traces on the carpet to suggest Seto people’s labour that gives the prefecture life.

Read more: Like Marco Polo, Hong Kong artist Leo Wong brings ceramic art to Europe with an exhibition hosted by the Michelangelo Foundation in Venice

Iraqi artist Bassim Al Shaker captured the explosions and rubble flying overhead—scenes he witnessed during the Iraq War in 2003—in three paintings that envelop the viewers.

Keyan artist Wangechi Mutu’s snake with a bulging body, which is either pregnant or has just devoured a large meal, hints at overconsumption, birth and the objectification of the black female body.

Also by Mutu, these two sculptures of the snake and sea turtle in the Swahili culture symbolise power and wisdom respectively.

Two large bronze kikapú baskets, which mimick the small artisanal baskets sold in Kenya, house these animals.

Her work combines elements from her Kenyan homeland with western cultural traditions to reimagine a liberated future of self-empowerment for the black community.

Argentine-Peruvian artist Adrián Villar Rojas turned an abandoned school into a site-specific art space where he imagines an alternative version of the evolution of humanity.

This sculpture of a woman by New York-based artist Simone Leigh wears a skirt made of cowrie shells, which are the world’s oldest forms of currency. It points to the history of transatlantic slavery.

Abu Dhabi-based artist Afra Al Dhaheri, a former hair stylist, uses inorganic materials like ropes and organic matters such as human hair to express the contrasting concepts of strength and fragility, public and private and inside and outside.

Indonesian artist Mulyana created this crochet piece with recycled yarn to reconstruct his vision of the sea, calling for environmental restoration in Indonesia.

Don’t miss: This marine conservationist is working to restore reefs and increase nature access for everyone

Artist Robert Andrew, a Yawuru descendant in Western Australia, uses modern technology to tell stories passed down from his ancestors about the history of the land and its water while contemplating his personal roots, language and memories. His work gradually reveals the intrinsic nature and character hidden beneath the overlapping clay strata, which parallels the artist’s exploration of his Indigenous identity suppressed by Western education.

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