\u201cteamLab: Living Digital Space and Future Park\u201d in Silicon Valley<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The solo exhibition started with a run planned from February 6 to July 1, 2016. Day by day word of mouth grew, and by the time I started planning in May, advance tickets were selling out. Ultimately, the show\u2019s run was extended until December 18. Wow \u2014 that\u2019s popularity for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two temporary halls were set up specifically for teamLab. One operated as a \u201cDigital Art Space\u201d showing 13 works including new pieces, and the other was an \u201cInteractive Theme Park\u201d featuring seven works under the title \u201cteamLab Island \u2013 Learn! Future Park \u2013.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. gallery PACE \u2014 which created a special \u201cPace Art + Technology\u201d branch in Silicon Valley \u2014 chose teamLab as its opening act. Incidentally, the second artist they selected was the UK collective Random International (the team behind the \u201cRain Room\u201d that LACMA audiences may know). This alone shows how much teamLab is recognized internationally and trusted by a major gallery like PACE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n teamLab had also previously exhibited at PACE Gallery in New York and was a big hit with New Yorkers \u2014 and that success helped lead to the momentum we saw here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of 2025, PACE participated in the Superblue Miami facility (opened 2021) and featured teamLab as the first artist for \u201cEvery Wall is a Door.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Led by Inoko (the group\u2019s public face), teamLab started as a venture formed by graduates from the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Institute of Technology. They call themselves an \u201cultra-technologists\u201d collective, combining technology and art in their creative work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I imagine that in the 2000s their main income may have come more from commissioned web and solution development rather than original artworks \u2014 back when I worked at a web studio in Japan, we often heard the name \u201cteamLab\u201d as a competitor. It\u2019s incredibly gratifying to see them in such demand from Asia to Europe to the U.S. now. I don\u2019t know what proportion of their current business is digital art, but it must be a complete reversal from the 2000s!<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Inoko\u2019s quotes is, \u201cIf something can be explained in words, it\u2019s meaningless \u2014 it will eventually fade away,\u201d and a big reason teamLab\u2019s work gained recognition abroad before at home is because the art needs no language to be appreciated.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.west-coaster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/TeamLab-SV-2016_02-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPACE Galley \u2661 temaLab<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A design-art collective in demand worldwide \u2014 teamLab<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Getting noticed in the U.S., too<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A defining feature of teamLab\u2019s pieces is that they react to the movement of the people viewing them \u2014 the artworks are completed through participation. This participatory, experience-based digital art became a hot topic in the U.S., and major media covered it, including:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Silicon Valley\u2019s Wealthy Finally Buy Art (When Not for Sale)
The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
The ‘cultural desert’ of Silicon Valley finally gets its first serious art gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n