Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka

Sarah Morris is one of the most incisive observers of the contemporary metropolis. Born in the UK in 1967 and based in New York, she has since the 1990s developed a distinctive visual language that moves fluidly between painting, film and large-scale architectural interventions.  Known for her glossy geometric abstractions structured by diagrammatic grids, Morris translates systems of power (corporate, political and urban) into vivid compositions that oscillate between order and instability. Her parallel film practice extends this inquiry into moving images, probing the psychological and political undercurrents of cities in constant flux. For about two months, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka presents ‘Sarah Morris: Transactional Authority’, the artist’s first retrospective exhibition in Japan and one of the most comprehensive surveys of her work in Asia. Featuring nearly 100 works spanning more than three decades, the exhibition brings together around 40 paintings, all 17 of Morris’s films, drawings and a newly commissioned large-scale wall painting created specifically for the museum. Organised chronologically, the exhibition traces Morris’s evolving engagement with global cities, from early ‘Sign Paintings’ that reflect social anxiety and control, through the iconic ‘Midtown’ series inspired by Manhattan’s financial architecture, to later works such as the ‘Sound Graph’ and ‘Spiderweb’ series, which explore networks through both technological and organic forms. A...

Yajuro Takashima (1890–1975) stands as one of modern Japan’s most enigmatic artistic figures. Born in Fukuoka prefecture, the self-taught oil painter forged a career entirely outside the established art world. As a result, his work remained virtually unknown during his lifetime, only gaining recognition in 1986, more than a decade after his death, when his photorealistic technique and contemplative subject matter finally captured public attention. Known for his meticulous, almost obsessive approach, Takashima developed a unique style that brought an uncanny realism to his subjects. His most celebrated works – flickering candles casting warm light in darkness and luminous moons suspended in night skies – reveal an artist deeply concerned with illumination, both literal and spiritual. These iconic motifs, rendered with painstaking attention to light and shadow, earned him recognition as a painter of rare technical mastery and meditative depth. From spring through early summer, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art presents the most comprehensive retrospective of Takashima’s art ever held in Osaka. Marking the 50th anniversary of his passing, the exhibition brings together over 160 works, including numerous pieces shown publicly for the first time. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine the full breadth of Takashima’s seven-decade career, from his early self-portraits and still lifes to the transcendent candle and moonlight paintings that would come to define his legacy....