Exhibitions

Current

There are no Exhibitions currently on view.

Upcoming

Modern Urban Life and Takehisa Yumeji: Works from the Kawanishi Hide Collection

2026.03.28 sat. - 06.21 sun.

The year 2024 marked the 140th anniversary of the artist Takehisa Yumeji’s birth and the 90th anniversary of his death. In light of Yumeji’s unwavering reputation as a master of modern Japanese art, retrospectives of the artist’s work are being held throughout Japan. However, Yumeji was better known as an illustrator and designer than a master artist to Taisho- and Showa-era children, art lovers, and young artists. This is evident from the multitude of diverse products, including picture postcards, envelopes, chiyogami (decorative paper), and furoshiki, that bore Yumeji’s works during his lifetime. The sosaku-hanga [original or self-produced prints] artist Kawanishi Hide was also captivated by Yumeji’s pictures and poems. Over one third of Kawanishi’s huge print collection is made up of Yumeji’s prints, books, and other items. Along with works by Yumeji, widely recognized as a star of modern popular culture in the Taisho era (1912–1926), this exhibition presents scenes of urban life, modern landscapes, avant-garde expressions, and playful worlds created by Showa-era (1926–1989) painters and print artists such as Kawanishi and Onchi Koshiro, both of whom admired Yumeji.

Antonio Fontanesi: Transcending Landscape
―A European Artist at the Opening of Japan

2026.07.18 sat. - 10.04 sun.

In the late 19th century, the Italian painter Antonio Fontanesi (1818–1912) educated burgeoning artists such as Asai Chu, Koyama Shotaro, and Matsuoka Hisashi as a teacher at the Kobu Bijutsu Gakko (Technical Art School). In terms of European art history, Fontanesi was influenced by the Barbizon artists and J.M.W. Turner before emerging as a painter of unique poetic landscapes.
This exhibition, organized in cooperation with the Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAM) and the Turin Museums Foundation, provides a comprehensive overview of Fontanesi’s entire career while highlighting his originality. In addition, works by Japanese students and later generations of Italian artists shed light on the artist’s influence and legacy. By painting a complete picture of Antonio Fontanesi, the exhibition shows that he was much more than a “foreign expert” employed by the Japanese government.
* Main Image: Antonio FONTANESI, April, 1873, Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAM), Courtesy of Turin Museums Foundation

Creating Japanese Jewellery: Personal Expression and Memory (Working title)

2026.10.24 sat. - 01.17 sun.

　Contemporary jewelry is “a self-reflexive studio craft practice that is oriented to the body”. From the 1950s onward, through relationships between the work, the wearer and the viewer, contemporary jewelry has questioned the existing values attached to jewelry (such as valuableness or representation of wealth), while also evolving by taking in various genres of expression.
　In Japan, when the Japan Jewellery Designers Association (JJDA) was founded in 1964, jewelry was not yet familiar to the general public at the time. During the thirty years after its founding, due to the economic growth of the country, jewelry became increasingly widespread. However, jewelry as an art form is still little-known.
　The first The International Jewellery Art Exhibition which was held in 1970 at the Seibu Department Store in Shibuya, was one of the earliest examples of an international exhibition on jewelry. HISHIDA Yasuhiko (1927-1981), the first president of JJDA, as well as HIRAMATSU Yasuki (1926-2012) and others played a key role in introducing the new movements of Europe and North America through direct exchanges between the artists. From the latter half of the 1980s, educational institutions such as Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry (founded by MIZUNO Takahiko) has held residencies and workshops by artists from outside of Japan, thus creating a continuing exploration of artistic expressions within the realm of jewelry.
　At the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, an exhibition titled Contemporary Jewellery: The Americas, Australia, Europe and Japan was held in 1984, which exhibited works by artists such as Otto Künzli (b. 1948) and Caroline Broadhead (b.1950). Today, many Japanese artists who studied with such trailblazers are now playing active roles in their own right.
　Jewelry comes alive when it is worn and used. It is also something that reminds us of “the richness of everyday life”. Hiramatsu started making simple rings during the mid 1950s, when the War was not yet far from people’s memories. The rings were made not for exhibitions, stating that “the issue is whether or not a thing has meaning and value in people’s livelihoods”. Mizuno, who drastically changed the curriculum of his school in the 1980s and has been actively taking part in education that goes beyond the practical, views jewelry as “something good for daily life” that is “necessary for the emotional wellbeing of humans”, and “a thing that expresses who a person is”. Because much of jewelry products have been made for women, many works carry questions on gender. The reevaluation of the “richness of everyday life” through jewelry has also been questioned from a critical standpoint.
　Contemporary jewelry has mainly been examined from the perspective of Europe and North America. In this exhibition, we will weave another story, “our story”, by reexamining contemporary jewelry from the perspective of post-war Japan.

Past Exhibitions