POP-UP “ARTIST RUNNING” is an ongoing series of exhibitions curated by Kanehira Hikotaro at void+eaves, launched in 2020 to introduce artist-run spaces and projects in Japan and abroad. For its eighth installment, the three-day pop-up presented Goya Curtain, featuring a selection of works by Joel Kirkham, co-founder and director of Tokyo’s Goya Curtain Art & Project Space.

Founded in 2016 by New Zealand-born artists Joel Kirkham and Bjorn Houtman, Goya Curtain began as a non-profit art space in a room of an apartment in Nakameguro, Tokyo. The space was later relocated to Ikebukuro and is now based in Shimotakaido, Setagaya Ward.

Goya Curtain operates from a six-tatami-mat Japanese-style room in a distinctly Japanese apartment. Despite its modest scale, the space functions as a kind of miniature cosmos, offering artists from Japan and abroad an opportunity to play with the architecture and spatial conditions of the room. The apartment itself frequently becomes an integral part of the exhibition, contributing to the concept of the installation.

The exhibition at void+eaves featured new works by Kirkham, including drawings made on paper materials encountered in everyday life, such as receipts and paper napkins. It also included a selection of assemblage works that had not previously been exhibited in Japan.