Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka

Held at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka until March 8, this ambitious exhibition reconsiders surrealism as a far-reaching cultural force that has reshaped both art and everyday life. Defined by André Breton in 1924 as a practice grounded in the ‘omnipotence of dreams’ and the pursuit of a ‘superior reality’, surrealism drew deeply on Freudian psychoanalysis to unlock the subconscious. While its dreamlike imagery and unsettling juxtapositions are widely recognised in painting and photography, the exhibition reveals how surrealist thinking extended far beyond the gallery, infiltrating advertising, fashion and interior design. Organised into six thematic sections, the show traces the movement’s expansion across media, examining how techniques such as automatism, collage and dépaysement (‘disorientation’) transformed both visual culture and lived environments. Masterpieces by leading figures of the genre, including Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Man Ray and Giorgio de Chirico, are shown alongside rare objects, posters, photographs and design works. Highlights include Magritte’s ‘The Museum of the King’, Elsa Schiaparelli’s iconic fashion designs, and striking examples of surrealist advertising and interiors. Drawing on major collections throughout Japan, the exhibition offers a timely reappraisal of surrealism’s enduring power to unsettle reality – and reimagine it. Note: this exhibition is closed on Mondays (except January 12 and February 23), December...

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...