Best Exhibitions to See in Tokyo in Summer 2023
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Tokyo Art Beat brings you a selection of exhibitions in Tokyo and the Kanto region to enjoy during the summer vacation. If you bookmark the exhibitions on the TAB website or TAB app, you will never miss the openings and closings.
Some museums extend opening hours and offer special prices during summer break. See the news for more information:
- Henri Matisse: The Path to Color (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
- Tamana Araki “From the Depths of Ueno, a Story Begins” (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
- Light: Works from the Tate Collection (The National Art Center, Tokyo)
- Cai Guo-Qiang: Ramble in the Cosmos - From Primeval Fireball Onward (The National Art Center, Tokyo)
- David Hockney Exhibition (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
- How I Feel is Not Your Problem, Period. (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
- Exhibition of My Father’s Dragon (Play!)
- Gaudí and the Sagrada Família (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
- Ancient Mexico - Maya, Aztec, and Teotihuacan (Tokyo National Museum)
- Minoru Nomata “Continuum” (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
- Abstraction: The Genesis and Evolution of Abstract Painting Cézanne, Fauvism, Cubism and on to Today (Artizon Museum)
- World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects (Mori Art Museum)
- The Infinite World of Japanese Dolls: From Religious Icons to Works of Art (The Shoto Museum of Art)
- Motohashi Seiichi & Robert Doisneau —Chemins croisés (Narrative Passages) (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
- Saul Leiter: Origins in Color (Shibuya Hikarie Hall)
- Finnish Glass Art - Sparkle and Color in Modern Design (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum)
- Material, or (21_21 Design Sight)
- Enamel and Body / Ceramics (Ginza Maison Hermès)
- Imaged and Imagined: Spain Seen through Prints from Japanese Collections (National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo)
- Tadaoto Kainosho: Crossing Boundaries in Nihonga, Theater, and Film (Tokyo Station Gallery)
- Josef Albers Pedagogical Experiments (Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art)
- Atsuhiko Misawa “Animals / Multi-dimensions” (Chiba City Museum of Art)
- The Secret of the Lake - The River Became a Lake (Ichihara Lakeside Museum)
- Shin Japanese Painting: Revolutionary Nihonga (Pola Museum of Art)
- Provocative Relationship ＝ Moriyama Daido × Nakahira Takuma (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
- Hiroshi Yoshimura “Ambience of Sound, Sound of Ambience” (Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex)
- Yokoo Tatsuhiko: Beyond the Realm of Meditation (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama)
- Publicness of the Art Center 2023 Playing & Locality (Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito)
- Motohiro Tomii “Sculptures” (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts)
- Dean Bowen Australia: Land, Sky, Birds and Creatures (Museum of Modern Art, Gunma)
Henri Matisse: The Path to Color (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
French artist Henri Matisse is one of the great masters of the 20th century and a key figure in Fauvism. This exhibition is the first large-scale Matisse retrospective in Japan in twenty years. It is being organized with the full cooperation of the Centre Pompidou, which houses one of the world’s largest Matisse collections. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, cut-outs, and materials related to his last masterpiece, the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, are on display.
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Schedule: April 27 - August 20
Tamana Araki “From the Depths of Ueno, a Story Begins” (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
Tamana Araki is known for her work that combines wonky cuteness with spine-chilling sensations. For this exhibition, in addition to the prints full of poetic sentiment and her previous interactive installations, Araki created a large-scale installation inspired by the memories stored on the venue’s grounds in Ueno. Through viewing experiences prompted by richly narrative artworks, the exhibition explores the value of everyday life.
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Schedule: July 22 - October 9
Light: Works from the Tate Collection (The National Art Center, Tokyo)
Carefully selected from the collection of Tate Modern in the UK, this exhibition features works related to “light” from the end of the 18th century to the present. On display are approximately 120 works, including pieces by “painter of light” Joseph Mallord William Turner, landscape painter John Constable, Claude Monet, experimental works by László Moholy-Nagy, and Bauhaus photographers, and visual experiences by contemporary artists such as Bridget Riley, James Turrell, and Olafur Eliasson. See the news article for more details.
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo
Schedule: July 12 - October 2
Cai Guo-Qiang: Ramble in the Cosmos - From Primeval Fireball Onward (The National Art Center, Tokyo)
The National Art Center, Tokyo, hosts a solo exhibition of internationally renowned Chinese contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, co-organized by Saint Laurent. Utilizing gunpowder as an artistic medium, Cai’s large-scale paintings, installations, and outdoor explosion projects convey a grand mythological and anthropological worldview. Taking Cai’s Primeval Fireball exhibition as a starting point, this exhibition explores his artistic journey through themes of the cosmos and the unseen world. Before the exhibition, Cai also held a daytime firework event in Fukushima Prefecture, where he used to live 30 years ago.
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo
Schedule: June 29 - August 21
David Hockney Exhibition (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents the largest-ever solo exhibition in Asia devoted to the British artist David Hockney, one of the most innovative artists of the postwar era. This retrospective exhibition features approximately 100 selected works, including early works produced in California in the 1960s, recent large paintings of his native Yorkshire landscape, iPad paintings, and a 90 meters-long new work he drew in Normandy during the lockdown.
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Schedule: July 15 - November 5
How I Feel is Not Your Problem, Period. (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
Opening on the same day as the David Hockney Exhibition, How I Feel is Not Your Problem, Period. aims to address the difficulties of life that teenagers may feel and proposes to reflect on various unanswerable questions through contemporary art. The works of five artists: Shigeo Arikawa, Makiko Yamamoto, Atsushi Watanabe (I’m here project), Riki Takeda, and Kayako Nakashima, explore how we think about and understand people we don’t know.
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Schedule: July 15 - November 5
Exhibition of My Father’s Dragon (Play!)
My Father’s Dragon is a 1948 children’s novel by Ruth Stiles Gannett following the story of Elmer, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon. The exhibition features over 130 rare original drawings and sample books created over 70 years ago. In addition, four interactive exhibits are installed in the exhibit hall, allowing visitors to experience Elmer’s adventures and play in the world of the picture book.
Venue: Play!
Schedule: July 15 - October 1
Gaudí and the Sagrada Família (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, presents an exhibition featuring Spanish architect and designer Antoni Gaudí. The exhibition focuses on the Sagrada Família, often called the “unfinished cathedral,” to reveal the origins of Gaudí’s architectural vision and creativity and the social significance of this monumental cathedral project.
Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Schedule: June 13 - September 10
Ancient Mexico - Maya, Aztec, and Teotihuacan (Tokyo National Museum)
Mexico is home to 35 World Heritage sites, the most popular of which are the ruins of ancient cities. Focusing on the Maya, Aztecs, and Teotihuacan, this exhibition explores the depth and appeal of Mexico’s ancient civilizations. Approximately 140 of Mexico’s most significant ancient treasures, including the Mayan Red Queen, are displayed.
Venue: Tokyo National Museum
Schedule: June 16 - September 3
Minoru Nomata “Continuum” (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
Minoru Nomata’s paintings are characterized by a unique world that cannot be described as an imaginary scene but as an unreal world connected to reality. His solo exhibition at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery features a variety of his work, ranging from his earliest to the most recent works. See the photo report for more details on the exhibition.
Venue: Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
Schedule: July 6 - September 24
Abstraction: The Genesis and Evolution of Abstract Painting Cézanne, Fauvism, Cubism and on to Today (Artizon Museum)
From the late nineteenth century until the beginning of World War I, France enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity known as the Belle Époque. Fauvism, Cubism, and other new art forms flourished in a vibrant, free atmosphere that stimulated artistic creativity, and in time these developments led to the birth of abstract painting. This exhibition focuses on the trends of abstract expression in France from prewar to post-war. It also explores the simultaneous emergence of abstract art in Japan through the works of the Jikken Kobo (Experimental Workshop), Gutai, and other movements.
Venue: Artizon Museum
Schedule: June 3 - August 20
World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects (Mori Art Museum)
World Classroom exhibition at the Mori Art Museum explores the activities of contemporary artists who seek to go beyond our preconceptions creatively. It is an attempt to free contemporary art from school subjects such as “fine arts” and to define it as a field commonly used in all learning subjects about the “world.” Participating artists include Ai Weiwei, Satoru Aoyama, Joseph Beuys, Hikaru Fujii, Naoya Hatakeyama, Susan Hiller, Yoshitomo Nara, Yang Haegue, and many others.
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Schedule: April 19 - September 24
The Infinite World of Japanese Dolls: From Religious Icons to Works of Art (The Shoto Museum of Art)
What comes to mind when one hears the term “Japanese dolls”? From Iki dolls and wax figures to mannequins and figurines, Japanese doll culture is so diverse that it is almost impossible to grasp. The Shoto Museum of Art exhibition introduces Japanese dolls in all their diversity while questioning the spirit that runs through the very foundation of Japanese three-dimensional art.
Venue: The Shoto Museum of Art
Schedule: July 1 - August 27
Motohashi Seiichi & Robert Doisneau —Chemins croisés (Narrative Passages) (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
Born in Tokyo in 1940, Seiichi Motohashi has documented changes in society and its inhabitants through his photographs and films for over 50 years. On the other hand, Robert Doisneau (1912-94) captured the joys of everyday life in Paris and the Parisian suburbs. Although both photographers were born in different times and places, they coincidentally portrayed the same subjects, such as coal mines, circuses, and markets. See the photo report for more information.
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Schedule: June 16 - September 24
Saul Leiter: Origins in Color (Shibuya Hikarie Hall)
The third exhibition of Saul Leiter in Japan is on view at the Shibuya Hikarie Hall. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Saul Leiter’s birth, the exhibition features over 400 works, including a large-scale color slide projection of newly discovered photographs, previously unseen black-and-white photographs, paintings, and fashion photography. Find more details in the photo report.
Venue: Shibuya Hikarie Hall
Schedule: July 8 - August 23
Finnish Glass Art - Sparkle and Color in Modern Design (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum)
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum presents an exhibition featuring Finnish “art glass.” Art glass refers to the artistically oriented products produced in Finland after the country regained its independence from Russia in 1917 and sought to reestablish its national identity. This exhibition traces the history of Finnish glass art from its emergence in the 1930s to its golden age in the 1950s through approximately 140 pieces by contemporary designers.
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
Schedule: June 24 - September 3
Material, or (21_21 Design Sight)
21_21 Design Sight presents an exhibition focusing on making everyday products. Exhibition director Satoshi Yoshiizumi is known for his innovative designs from a unique perspective developed through self-initiated research projects. The exhibition proposes that the meaning of designed objects should be derived from an open dialogue with the raw materials that form them.
Venue: 21_21 Design Sight
Schedule: July 14 - November 5
Enamel and Body / Ceramics (Ginza Maison Hermès)
In the summer of 2023, the Fondation Hermès will publish the book Savoir & Faire Tsuchi as part of its “Skills Academy,” which seeks to rethink, pass on, and extend artisanal techniques and handcrafts involving natural materials. This exhibition commemorates the publication and features related ceramic works. On view are works by Sylvie Auvray, Jean Girel, Agathe Naito, Yusuké Y. Offhause, Machiko Ogawa, Françoise Pétrovitch, znd Masaomi Yasunaga.
Venue: Ginza Maison Hermès
Schedule: June 17 - September 17
Imaged and Imagined: Spain Seen through Prints from Japanese Collections (National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo)
Many of the images we associate with Spain were created by visitors to the country in the 19th century. The important medium that shaped and distributed these images was prints. Focusing on the historical development of Spanish prints from the 17th century through Goya, Picasso, Miró, and Tàpies, as well as 19th-century prints by British and French artists such as Delacroix and Manet, this exhibition explores how “images” of Spanish culture and art were created and transmitted.
Venue: National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo
Schedule: July 4 - September 3
Tadaoto Kainosho: Crossing Boundaries in Nihonga, Theater, and Film (Tokyo Station Gallery)
Nihonga painter Tadaoto Kainosho was active in Kyoto during the Taisho and early Showa Period. Although highly acclaimed in the prewar art world, he stopped painting around 1940 and moved into the film industry. This exhibition is the first full-scale retrospective of Kainosho’s work at a museum in Tokyo in 26 years since 1997. A full range of Kainosho’s works and materials are displayed, including famous paintings, scrapbooks, photographs, sketchbooks, videos, film costumes, posters, and more.
Venue: Tokyo Station Gallery
Schedule: July 1 - August 27
Josef Albers Pedagogical Experiments (Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art)
As a teacher at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, Joseph Albers trained numerous influential artists, and as an artist, he is known for his abstract paintings with colored surfaces. This exhibition features Albers’ work, works by his students, and photographs and videos of his classes. This is the first retrospective of Albers’ work in Japan, and it explores Albers from both sides, as a creator and a teacher.
Venue: Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art
Schedule: July 29 - November 5
Atsuhiko Misawa “Animals / Multi-dimensions” (Chiba City Museum of Art)
Leading Japanese sculptor Atsuhiko Misawa is well-known for his Animals series, in which he carves animals out of camphor wood and paints them with oil. The exhibition features over 200 sculptures and paintings, ranging from early, unpublished works from the 1990s to the most recent creations.
Venue: Chiba City Museum of Art
Schedule: June 10 - September 10
The Secret of the Lake - The River Became a Lake (Ichihara Lakeside Museum)
Ichihara Lakeside Museum stands on the banks of Lake Takataki. This exhibition delves into the history, geography, and folk customs of the area surrounding the Yoro River and Lake Takataki. Using the land as a source of inspiration, eight artists present “site-specific” works in spaces inside and outside the museum.
Venue: Ichihara Lakeside Museum
Schedule: July 15 - September 24
Shin Japanese Painting: Revolutionary Nihonga (Pola Museum of Art)
On a visit to Japan, the art historian Ernest Fenollosa referred to all the paintings he encountered as “Japanese paintings.” This term was translated by a Japanese interpreter as Nihonga, leading to the concept of nihonga becoming widespread in Japanese society. This exhibition reexamines leading Nihonga figures from the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa eras and the diverse practices of artists currently exploring the nature of Japanese paintings.
Venue: Pola Museum of Art
Schedule: July 15 - December 3
Provocative Relationship ＝ Moriyama Daido × Nakahira Takuma (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, presents an exhibition of two photographers who have left a significant and unique mark on the history of Japanese photography - Takuma Nakahira and Daido Moriyama. The two met at 26 and worked at the legendary photography magazine “Provoke.” In addition to rare magazines, photo books, and vintage prints from the 1960s to the 1980s taken in Kanagawa Prefecture, the exhibition will also feature prints and videos newly produced for this exhibition.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
Schedule: July 15 - September 24
Hiroshi Yoshimura “Ambience of Sound, Sound of Ambience” (Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex)
Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex, presents a retrospective exhibition of the pioneer of environmental music, Hiroshi Yoshimura. Yoshimura’s diverse activities range from popularizing environmental music in Japan to designing acoustics for public spaces and conducting workshops at art museums. This exhibition explores his activities through his works and related materials, including early concrete poetry, musical scores, photographs, video works, and sound objects.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex
Schedule: April 29 - September 3
Yokoo Tatsuhiko: Beyond the Realm of Meditation (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama)
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1928, painter and sculptor Tatsuhiko Yokoo lived and worked in Japan and Europe. After working as an art teacher in Kitakyushu, Yokoo moved to Switzerland in 1965 and has established a reputation for his fantasy paintings inspired by the Bible and mythology. After establishing a full-fledged base in Germany in 1980, he was influenced by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and Zen Buddhism and adopted meditation in his work, changing his style to abstract paintings connected to calligraphy. This retrospective exhibition features approximately 90 works, many of which have been preserved in his studio in Japan.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Schedule: July 15 - September 24
Publicness of the Art Center 2023 Playing & Locality (Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito)
Art Tower Mito celebrates the opening of the Civic Auditorium with an exhibition that connects the museum to the surrounding community. The exhibition features the museum’s collection, introduces projects carried out in collaboration with local organizations and citizens, and reconsiders the gallery as a “place where art is created,” not only “appreciated.”
Venue: Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito
Schedule: July 22 - October 9
Motohiro Tomii “Sculptures” (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts)
Motohiro Tomii creates unexpectedly shaped pieces by combining everyday items, such as super balls, sticky notes, colored pencils, paper clips, thumbtacks, origami paper, and other supplies. Focusing on the new works by Motohiro Tomii, which convinces anyone of the possibility of becoming a sculptor, this exhibition showcases 2800 “sculptures.”
Venue: Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
Schedule: July 8 - September 3
Dean Bowen Australia: Land, Sky, Birds and Creatures (Museum of Modern Art, Gunma)
Melbourne-based artist Dean Bowen used various media and his rich imagination and humor to depict the Australian landscape, nature, and the universe, the big and small things that live there. This exhibition presents 150 works, including 80 prints and 70 oil paintings, watercolors, bronze sculptures, assemblages, and artist books.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Gunma
Schedule: July 8 - August 27
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