Osaka Galleries You Wouldn't Find on Your Own: A Curator's Walk

A day of looking for galleries in Osaka on your own can end with a closed door or two, and one room showing work you'd have walked past anywhere else. That isn't because you didn't look hard enough. Japanese is my first language, curating is my job, and I still had to build a guide of my own to know which few were open and worth the trip on any given day. We visit three to five galleries in a single outing, usually close to three hours. A converted apartment in Nakazakicho. A room above a shuttered shopfront near Higobashi. Groups are capped at six and always private. If the gallerist or the artist is there, I'll introduce you and translate the conversation as it happens, rather than paraphrase it afterward. We finish with lunch at a spot I choose myself and go back to often. The meal is on you; the recommendation is part of the day. What I can tell you before we set out is which doors are worth knocking on.