NPO Aoyama Design Forum presents the recommended exhibitions of art galleries and museums in May 2024. In addition to the schedule of events, we will provide you with detailed information such as the works on display. Please check the website of each museum for current opening hours before visiting.

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"Distant Present: Universal / Remote" at The National Art Center, Tokyo 

The exhibition title "Universal / Remote" references prevailing conditions in the 21st century as capital and data flow freely on a global scale. Conveying comical aspects of the excesses of surveillance and high-tech networks, as well as the profound isolation of human beings, works in this exhibition seem to grapple head-on with the current era and with the post-COVID world. The exhibition presents the works of 8 artists and a group of 3 artists that address the state of society in the 21st century as shaped by the conditions described above, focusing on two concepts, “Constant Growth at a Pan-Global Scale” and “The Remote Individual.”

  • Dates: March 6  - June 3, 2024
  • Venue: Special Exhibition Room 1E, National Art Center, Tokyo
  • Closed: Every Tuesday *Except for Tuesday, April 30
  • Hours: 10:00-18:00
    * Until 20:00 every Friday and Saturday
    * Last admission 30 minutes before closing
  • URL: https://tinyurl.com/d35tp43m

"Matisse: Free Forms" at The National Art Center, Tokyo 

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"Matisse: Free Forms" exhibition reveals for the first time to the Japanese public the extraordinary collection of the Matisse Museum in Nice through the exceptional loan of more than 150 works and objects from its collections. Known to be one of the most important sets of works by the artist anywhere in the world, this collection was made up of successive donations by the artist and his heirs to the City of Nice. The collection covers all periods of the master’s creation, from his first paintings to his final projects. Coming from the artist’s studio, this collection also offers a unique insight into the intimacy of the creation of one of the greatest masters of colour from the 20th century.

  • Dates: February 14 - May 27, 2024
  • Venue: National Art Center, Tokyo Special Exhibition Room 2E
  • Closed: Every Tuesday  *Except April 30th.
  • Hours: 10:00-18:00
    *Open until 20:00 every Friday and Saturday
    *Admission until 30 minutes before closing
  • Organized by: Musée National des Beaux-Arts, Musée Matisse, Nice, Yomiuri Shimbun, Nippon Television Broadcasting Network
  • URL: https://tinyurl.com/2k624sew

“Fragments of the Future: Laboratory of Science and Design” at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

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「構造触感」谷川聡志、山中俊治＋新野俊樹（上）、
「CanguRo」山中俊治＋千葉工業大学 fuRo（Photo by Yusuke Nishibe）（下）

“Fragments of the Future: Laboratory of Science and Design” has been currently opened at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Gallery 1 & 2 until Monday, August 12, 2024. The exhibition director is Shunji Yamanaka, a design engineer who designs a wide range of industrial products and researches prototypes that embody cutting-edge technology. This exhibition introduces prototypes and robots that Yamanaka has created in collaboration with various people in his university laboratory, as well as Yamanaka's sketches that are the origin of these prototypes and robots. It will also display a variety of works created by collaborations between eight groups of designers and creators with different specialties and scientists and engineers. Fragments of the future that have emerged from the encounter between pioneering eyes in cutting-edge technology and research and design is also been shown. In a venue where diverse perspectives intersect and imaginations are spun, it will be an opportunity to experience the countless possibilities that science and design can create, and the joy of designing for an unseen future world. 

"The Dawn of Taiwanese Video Art in the 1980s-1990s" at Mori Art Museum

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チェン・ジエレン（陳界仁） 《閃光》 1983-1984年頃 ビデオ、白黒、サイレント 3分30秒（ループ）

This exhibition focuses on the activities of Taiwanese pioneers who created works of art using the latest video technology in the 1980s and 1990s. MAM Screen 019: The Dawn of Taiwanese Video Art in the 1980s-1990s (Screening) and MAM Research 010: The Dawn of Taiwanese Video Art in the 1980s-1990s (Exhibition) bring together the essence of Rewind: Video Art in Taiwan 1983-1999, a large scale exhibition that featured Taiwanese video art pioneers and was held at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei in 2015.

"Remembrance beyond images" at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum

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What kind of "memories" have people strived to capture through photography and video? Asides from snapshots and documentaries whose purpose are to record events and happenings onsite, attempts have also been made to convey unseen memories by stirring the emotions and sensations of viewers, and expanding their imagination beyond realms of both time and space. While employing the characteristic of photography/video as that which serve to connect the memories of others or images engraved in time with the viewer's own memories, artists each approach their work and practice in truly diverse ways.

Taking as its starting point SHINOYAMA Kishin’s propositions raised in Dueling Theories of Photography (1976) and leading up to themes such as aging society and artificial intelligence (AI), this exhibition introduces more than 70 new works by seven groups of eight high-profile artists from Japan, Vietnam, and Finland, including those never exhibited in Japan.

"Remembering Tomioka Tessai: A Century After His Passing" at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto

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"Remembering Tomioka Tessai: A Century After His Passing" will grace the halls of the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, from April 2 to May 26, 2024. Tomioka Tessai (1836-1924) is renowned as the "final literati painter." Born into a merchant family in Kyoto at the twilight of the Edo period, he delved into a diverse array of disciplines, encompassing Confucianism, Yangmingism, Japanese studies, Shintoism, and Buddhism. His focal point lay in Sekimon Shingaku, which advocated the ethical principles of urban merchants in the early modern era. Concurrently, he embarked on a self-taught journey in painting, immersing himself in various schools such as Nanshu and Yamato, thereby forging a prolific painting career rooted in profound scholarly knowledge.

  • Dates: April 2 - May 26, 2024
    1st period: April 2 - April 14 / 2nd period: April 16 - April 29
    3rd period: May 1 - May 12 / 4th period: May 14 - May 26
  • Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
  • Closed: Mondays, April 30 and May 7. Except April 29, May 6.
  • Hours: 10:00 - 18:00. Open until 20:00 on Fridays *Last entry 30 minutes before closing
  • URL: https://www.momak.go.jp/

"30th Anniversary After Death: Kazuyo Kinoshita" at Osaka Nakanoshima Museum of Art

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Kazuyo Kinoshita (1939 – 1994) was a prominent postwar artist in Kobe, Japan, known for her exploration of existential questions. Starting with photography-based works, she gained acclaim both domestically and internationally, notably in Europe. Transitioning to abstract painting in the early 1980s, her artistic journey took a poignant turn when she was diagnosed with cancer in 1990. Despite her illness, Kinoshita remained dedicated to her craft until her passing in 1994. With over 1,200 works spanning three decades, primarily housed in Kansai region museums, her art received renewed attention after a 2015 overseas exhibition. Her first solo exhibition in Japan, at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, showcases his early works, masterpieces, and the evolution of his artistry, reflecting on the fleeting nature of life.

  • Dates: May 25 - August 18, 2024
  • Closed: Mondays *Open on July 15 and August 12
  • Hours: 10:00 - 17:00 (Admission until 16:30)
  • Venue: Osaka Nakanoshima Museum of Art, 5th floor exhibition room
  • Fee: General 1,600 yen (1,400 yen), High school and university students 1,000 yen (800 yen), Junior high school students and under free *All prices include tax * () Prices in parentheses are for groups of 20 or more.
  • URL: https://tinyurl.com/4ud7w5v4

"Trio: Modern Art Collections from Paris, Tokyo and Osaka" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

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The exhibition organized in the collaboration with the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Osaka Nakanoshima Museum of Art. The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris on the banks of the Seine River, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo near the Imperial Palace, and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka in the center of Osaka City, have all built rich collections of modern art as museums in major cities. This exhibition is an unprecedented and unique experiment in which works from the collections of the three museums that have something in common are selected to form a number of trios. The commonalities among the works included in each of the freely conceived trios are various, including subject matters, motifs, colors and shapes, materials, and the context in which the works were created, regardless of the era, school, or Eastern/Western backgrounds. The exhibition consists of 34 trios of more than 150 works, including paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, designs, and videos by 110 artists, presented in seven chapters according to themes and concepts to propose a new way of viewing modern art from the early 20th century to the present day and to highlight its appeal.

  • Dates: May 21 - August 25, 2024
  • Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
  • Hours: 10:00-17:00 *Open until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays *Admission until 30 minutes before closing
  • Closed: Mondays *Open on July 15 and August 12, closed following Tuesday instead.
  • Organized: National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, TV Tokyo, BS TV Tokyo
  • Special cooperation: Paris Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Paris Musée
  • URL: https://tinyurl.com/yf7bbww8