Twenty-Six Exhibitions to See in Japan in 2024
Tamiji Kitagawa “Family portrait” 1943 Collection of The Miyagi Museum of Art
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Tokyo Art Beat brings you a selection of the best exhibitions across Japan in 2024. Bookmark the exhibitions on the TAB website or TAB app and never miss the openings and closings.
Click here to see the most anticipated exhibitions in Tokyo.
- Eishi Chobunsai: The Samurai Turned Ukiyo-e Artist (Chiba City Museum of Art)
- Contemporary Ainu Art and Crafts 2024 (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art)
- Artists of Shunyo-kai - Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts)
- Wunderkammer to Come: From the Uncompleted, a Beginning (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art)
- Moments to Fly Up: Ikeda Masuo and the Demokrato Artists (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art)
- Osamu Ochi Exhibition (Fukuoka Art Museum)
- Enku Exhibition (Abeno Harukas Art Museum)
- Takashi Murakami “Mononoke Kyoto” (Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art)
- Akutagawa Ryunosuke and His Aesthetics, Two Forerunners - Natsume Soseki and Suga Torao (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
- Claude Monet: Journey to Series Paintings (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
- Alfons Mucha: Multitalented Artist (Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto)
- The Work of Shiro Kuramata: A Microcosmos of Memory (Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design)
- Absolute Chairs (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama)
- Takehito Koganezawa + Shigejiro Sano “Drawing / Cinema” (Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex)
- Botanical Arts and the Development of Delicious Food (Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki)
- Carl Andre “Between Sculpture and Poetry” (Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art)
- Pierre Soulages and Shiryu Morita Exhibition (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art)
- The Cubist Revolution: An Exhibition from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris (Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art)
- The Legend of Sesshu: Birth of a Master Painter (Kyoto National Museum)
- Kazuyo Kinoshita Exhibition (TBC) (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
- Yoichi Umetsu “Crystal Palace” (The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
- Philippe Parreno Exhibition (Pola Museum of Art)
- 130th Anniversary of Tamiji Kitagawa’s Birth: From Mexico to Japan (TBC) (Nagoya City Art Museum)
- Tomoko Konoike Exhibition (TBC) (Aomori Museum of Art)
- Chiharu Shiota Exhibition (TBC) (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
- Kuniyoshi Utagawa Exhibition (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
Eishi Chobunsai: The Samurai Turned Ukiyo-e Artist (Chiba City Museum of Art)
Eishi Chobunsai (1756–1829) had an unusual background as a Hatamoto (direct retainer of the shogun) and gained popularity as an ukiyo-e artist. Despite being one of the leading artists, much of Chobunsai’s work was exported during the Meiji era, making it difficult to grasp the full extent of his work in contemporary Japan. This first solo exhibition will feature masterpieces collected from museums worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the British Museum.
Venue: Chiba City Museum of Art
Schedule: January 6 - March 3
*Discount with MuPon
Contemporary Ainu Art and Crafts 2024 (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art)
A special exhibition introducing the power of Ainu art, notable for its diversity and design sensibility, based on the characteristic spiral shape “moreu.” In addition to recent and new works by Kaizawa Toru, Nishida Kayoko, Fujito Kohei, the exhibition will showcase outstanding woodblock prints and textiles made by the artists’ predecessors.
Venue: Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art
Schedule: January 13 - March 10
Artists of Shunyo-kai - Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts)
Founded in 1922, Shunyo-kai actively sought the forefront of Western art trends while welcoming artists who expressed local and indigenous elements and Japanese and Eastern themes in their work. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of its founding, this exhibition looks back at its development from its beginnings to the 1950s. Approximately 200 of Shunyo-kai’s finest masterpieces are on display.
Venue: Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
Schedule: January 13 - March 3
Wunderkammer to Come: From the Uncompleted, a Beginning (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art)
The Wunderkammer (“room of wonders”) is considered to be the prototype for the modern-day museum. Ahead of the opening of a new natural history museum adjacent to the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, this exhibition introduces a contemporary Wunderkammer to explore the origins and new potential of art and natural history museums. Featured artists are Liu Chuang, Taus Makhacheva, Gabriel Rico, Yuichiro Tamura, and Danh Vo.
Venue: Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Schedule: January 20 - May 6
*Discount with MuPon
Moments to Fly Up: Ikeda Masuo and the Demokrato Artists (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art)
This exhibition focuses on Masuo Ikeda (1934-1997) and the artists of The Democrato (Artists’ Association). Born in former Manchuria, Ikeda moved to Nagano after the war and later to Tokyo. He interacted with Ay-O, Ei-Kyu, and Sadajiro Kubo and won the International Grand Prize for printmaking at the Venice Biennale in 1966, gaining international recognition. In addition to works by Ikeda from the 1950s to 1966 from the museum’s collection, prints and oil paintings by his contemporary artists will also be on display.
Venue: Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Schedule: January 20 - March 17
Osamu Ochi Exhibition (Fukuoka Art Museum)
The artist Osamu Ochi (1936-2015) was a member of the avant-garde art group “Kyushu-ha,” based in Fukuoka. In the late 1950s, he began to use asphalt and everyday objects as a means of expression, causing a sensation in the art world at the time. Following a stay in the United States in the late 1960s, he started to create unique painted spaces. This exhibition will showcase approximately 180 works and materials spanning from the Kyushu-ha era to Ochi’s later years, tracing his diverse activities.
Venue: Fukuoka Art Museum
Schedule: January 24 - March 24
Enku Exhibition (Abeno Harukas Art Museum)
Devoting his entire life to a journey of asceticism and carving Buddhas with prayers for the people, Enku (1632–1695) is known to have made a vow to carve 120,000 deities over his lifetime. Statues such as the gentle, smiling Kannon and the powerful wrathful deity, exceeding 5,000 in number, are still treasured by the people today. This exhibition traces Enku’s footsteps of creativity through representative works from his early years to late in life.
Venue: Abeno Harukas Art Museum
Schedule: February 2 - April 7
Takashi Murakami “Mononoke Kyoto” (Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art)
Takashi Murakami (1962-) questioned art’s value and essential meaning through the appropriation of and collaborations with popular culture such as manga and anime. This exhibition will be his first major solo exhibition in Japan in approximately eight years and his first outside Tokyo. Numerous new works and special versions of works inspired by Japanese traditional art will be shown to the public for the first time in Kyoto. Click here to read the photo report.
Venue: Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art
Schedule: February 3 - September 1
Akutagawa Ryunosuke and His Aesthetics, Two Forerunners - Natsume Soseki and Suga Torao (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, will hold an exhibition focusing on the interaction between Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Soseki Natsume, and Torao Suga. Soseki was Akutagawa’s mentor, while Suga was Akutagawa’s German teacher at Ichiko High School and the man who introduced Soseki to Zen. The exhibition will explore the aesthetic world of Akutagawa, who often referred to art in his works.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
Schedule: February 10 - April 7
*Discount with MuPon
Claude Monet: Journey to Series Paintings (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
In commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, presents an exhibition that brings together Claude Monet’s representative works carefully selected from more than 30 collections worldwide. The exhibition focuses on Monet’s “series of paintings” and traces a painter’s life in constant dialogue with time and light.
Venue: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: February 10 - May 6
Alfons Mucha: Multitalented Artist (Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto)
Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) is best known for his captivating and confident depictions of women in posters. This exhibition focuses on Mucha’s pioneering role as a multi-artist, with a total of 169 works, approximately 90 of which are on display in Japan for the first time.
Venue: Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto
Schedule: February 10 - April 7
The Work of Shiro Kuramata: A Microcosmos of Memory (Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design)
Shiro Kuramata (1934-1999) is one of the world’s best-known and most influential designers today. His furniture and interior designs, frequently made of acrylic and glass as well as metal construction materials, possess the power to captivate the viewer. This exhibition traces the designer’s career and presents his journals and sketches, providing context for his creations.
Venue: Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design
Schedule: February 17 - April 7
Absolute Chairs (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama)
This exhibition focuses on the representation of chairs in artworks, primarily from the post-war period to the present. It introduces approximately 70 two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and video works from domestic and international artists, unraveling the functions and implications of chairs in art.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Schedule: February 17 - May 12
Takehito Koganezawa + Shigejiro Sano “Drawing / Cinema” (Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex)
Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex, presents an exhibition focusing on Takehito Koganezawa and Shigejiro Sano. Koganezawa (1974-) is well known for his diverse expressions ranging from painting to video and three-dimensional works. On the other hand, Sano (1900-1987) is a Western-style painter known for his work as a bookbinder and illustrator. The exhibition explores the boundary between drawing, cinematic cuts, and illustrations.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex
Schedule: February 23 - May 6
Botanical Arts and the Development of Delicious Food (Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki)
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, located in gardens with historical ties to the British royal family and serving as one of the world’s foremost research institutions for plants and fungi, has been collecting and recording information on plants worldwide for centuries. This exhibition introduces botanical art depicting various edible plants such as vegetables, fruits, tea, coffee, herbs, and spices.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki
Schedule: February 23 - April 14
Carl Andre “Between Sculpture and Poetry” (Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art)
Carl Andre (1935-) is a prominent sculptor and poet associated with the rise of Minimal Art, particularly in the United States during the 1960s. Andre’s sculptures are created by arranging simply shaped metal plates, stones, or wooden pieces directly on the floor or by stacking them through simple actions. This exhibition, the first solo exhibition of Carl Andre in a Japanese museum, aims to provide an opportunity to engage with the richness of Andre’s concise and systematic visual appearance.
Venue: Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art
Schedule: March 9 - June 30
*Discount with MuPon
Pierre Soulages and Shiryu Morita Exhibition (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art)
The Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art held a two-person exhibition of painter Pierre Soulages (1919-2022) and calligrapher Shiryu Morita (1912-1998) to commemorate more than 20 years of friendship between Aveyron, France and Hyogo Prefecture. Using their works as a starting point, the exhibition will focus on the encounter between the arts of East and West.
Venue: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
Schedule: March 16 - May 19
The Cubist Revolution: An Exhibition from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris (Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art)
Pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism was a highly influential modern art movement that emerged in the early 20th century. This exhibition will feature approximately 140 works (50 of which will be exhibited in Japan for the first time), including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, videos, and documents from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Venue: Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art
Schedule: March 20 - July 7
The Legend of Sesshu: Birth of a Master Painter (Kyoto National Museum)
Sesshu is celebrated as perhaps the most important painter in the history of Japanese art. The perception of his works is a complex phenomenon that can only be understood through multiple perspectives. This exhibition explores the myriad factors that, over time, elevated Sesshu to the highest echelons of the Japanese art world and established his status as a legendary master painter.
Venue: Kyoto National Museum
Schedule: April 13 - May 26
Kazuyo Kinoshita Exhibition (TBC) (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
Kazuyo Kinoshita (1939-94) was one of the leading artists of the post-war art scene in the Kansai region. While working with the avant-garde art group in Kobe, she produced works that questioned the relationship between the flat surface and space, vision, and perception and continued to confront the question of “what is existence.” This exhibition is Kinoshita’s first solo exhibition in the museum, and we will be taking a closer look at the artist’s entire career.
Venue: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: May 25 - August 18
Yoichi Umetsu “Crystal Palace” (The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, presents a solo exhibition of contemporary artist Yoichi Umetsu. Featuring works created between 2004 and 2012, the exhibition will be Umezu’s most comprehensive solo exhibition to date.
Venue: The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: June 4 - October 6
Philippe Parreno Exhibition (Pola Museum of Art)
Philippe Parreno is a leading figure in French contemporary art and one of the most influential artists working today. The Pola Museum of Art is pleased to present one of Parreno’s largest solo exhibitions in Japan, encompassing his diverse practice, from early works from the 1990s to a never-before-seen installation, and featuring his well-known film Marilyn among the highlights.
Venue: Pola Museum of Art
Schedule: June 8 - December 1
https://www.polamuseum.or.jp/en/exhibition/20240608c01/
130th Anniversary of Tamiji Kitagawa’s Birth: From Mexico to Japan (TBC) (Nagoya City Art Museum)
Tamiji Kitagawa was a Western-style painter who studied in Mexico and was active in the Nika-kai. In addition to Kitagawa’s works, the exhibition features the works of Rufino Tamayo, a Mexican painter of the same period, Tina Modotti, a photographer, and Tsuguharu Foujita, a close friend of Kitagawa.
Venue: Nagoya City Art Museum
Schedule: June 29 - September 8
Tomoko Konoike Exhibition (TBC) (Aomori Museum of Art)
The Aomori Museum of Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Tomoko Konoike (1960-). Picking up where The Birth of Seeing leaves off in 2022, this exhibition will attempt to carefully unravel the enormous system of exhibitions and museums. The exhibition will present new works on the relationship between hunting and human craftsmanship and reflect on biological sleep, graves, and the soil.
Venue: Aomori Museum of Art
Schedule: July 13 - September 29
Chiharu Shiota Exhibition (TBC) (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
The Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka presents a large-scale solo exhibition of Berlin-based contemporary artist Chiharu Shiota. In this exhibition, Shiota will attempt to approach the theme of “connection” with others, which gained increased attention in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Venue: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: September 14 - December 1
Kuniyoshi Utagawa Exhibition (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)
Starting in December, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka will host a large-scale exhibition of ukiyo-e prints by Kuniyoshi Utagawa. The exhibition will feature various ukiyo-e prints, including samurai prints, caricatures, landscapes, bijinga, and rare hand-painted prints. With approximately 300 works on display, this will be the definitive Kuniyoshi exhibition.
Venue: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Schedule: December 21, 2024 - February 24, 2025
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