TOKONOMA
I am the co-founder of TOKONOMA, an art and culture project. The name comes from the Japanese alcove where curated art and seasonal arrangements are specifically chosen for guests. Here is a selection of my favorite exhibitions I curated from 2025 to 2026.
FRANKENSTEIN
Illegitimate By Design
An Exhibition of Stapled, Sewn, Nailed, Bound, Screwed, Electrocuted, Animated, Enlightened Things
Saturday September 12th, 2026 for 3 weeks
Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein offers the exhibition's title and framework. In the story, the creature was assembled from cadaver parts by Dr Victor Frankenstein, a maker compelled to create life where none existed. The result? An amalgamation wonderfully complex both in body and soul.
The works presented in this exhibition share that common condition: each was made outside formal systems, with repurposed materials, by unapologetic leftfield makers. Makers who repair to create new forms out of the discarded, and who refuse the convenient packaged solution promoted by corporations.
In a world that demands conformity through algorithms, proliferated with AI slop and disposable products, FRANKENSTEIN as an exhibition is both an ecological statement as well as an assertion of individual agency.
Opening on Sunday, 19 April 2026, (National Cat Lady Day)
An exhibition featuring cat-themed works by more than 15 local and international artists, investigating the historical and cultural obsession with felines.
The title is borrowed from the parasitic condition associated with cats, known for subtly reshaping the behavior and emotional responses of its hosts. Within the exhibition, this serves as a metaphor for the pervasive way cats have captivated the human imagination across eras and cultures.
TOXOPLASMOSIS
December 2025
‘The End (Fuck ‘em all)’ is an exhibition of failed utopia and other fuck-ups.
Marking the end of the year with this exhibit, we explore how excessive pride has led mankind to ecological collapse, societal burnout, and personal despair with a presentation of nine thought-provoking objects.
Early utopias imagined social harmony through progress. Capitalism turned that utopian pursuit into endless consumption. The perfect society became the perfect market. Technological expansion and political control have produced inequality and a global ecological crisis. And the irony? Utopia is in fact, really dystopia.
The End (Fuck ‘Em All)
The Art of War
June 2025
The Art of War looked at what war leaves behind in design: the patterns, furniture, keepsakes and patterns that were made for conflict and then carried on into ordinary life.
An Afghan war rug. A Navy chair built for a warship. Vietnam war camo fatigues that once hid soldiers in the jungle now sought after by collectors. Every object came from a private collection, picked for how rare it is and for the story it carries.
DNA (Design Nor Art)
January 2025
DNA serves as a metaphor for our philosophy, igniting the first of many projects at TOKONOMA. It symbolizes our unwavering commitment to curiosity, dialogue, and ideas.
Ever since Duchamp's 1914 Bottle Rack and the subsequent upending of the zeitgeist, certain creative makers have expanded Duchamp’s punk attitudes through their contributions.
This inaugural exhibition, DNA (Design Nor Art), pays fealty to these avant-garde pioneers, celebrating imperfection, diversity, and that inscrutable, anarchic spirit.
Showcasing eight objects that defiantly defy categorization, DNA embodies unapologetic rebellion, individuality, and the fusion of utility with imagination.
Selected for their historical significance and distinctive character, the objects in the exhibition are paired, like strands entwined in a double helix, to reveal shared aesthetics while suggesting new contextual perspectives.