Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) is counted among the most influential figures in postwar American art. Emerging in the 1960s amid the rise of minimalism and conceptual art, LeWitt replaced the emotional expressionism of earlier generations with a rigorous focus on systems, structures and ideas. His works, from modular ‘structures’ based on cubes to his celebrated Wall Drawings, transformed how art could be made, perceived and even authored. As he famously wrote in his 1967 essay Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, ‘The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.’ ‘Open Structure’ is the first major public museum survey of the artist’s work in Japan. Spanning wall drawings, sculptures, works on paper and artist’s books, the exhibition traces LeWitt’s lifelong pursuit of an art of pure thought and open form. Six wall drawings, realised by local teams following LeWitt’s own detailed instructions, invite viewers to experience his radical redefinition of authorship and collaboration. Highlighting LeWitt’s ‘open structures’, the exhibition reveals how his skeletal cubic forms, stripped of surface and solidity, expose the underlying architecture of thought. The artist’s enduring influence lies in his conviction that ‘ideas cannot be owned; they belong to whoever understands them’.

The MOT will launch visitors into the mysteries of the universe with this groundbreaking exhibition running from January 31 to May 6. Marking ten years since the museum’s acclaimed ‘Mission [Space x Art]’, the new show expands the former’s scope in celebration of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (2025), bridging cosmic exploration with the ever-evolving field of quantum research. The exhibition traces the origins of the world and the invisible forces that shape it through collaborations between artists, space scientists and quantum researchers. Alongside works inspired by astronomical investigation and spaceflight, the show will unveil the first artwork created using a Japanese quantum computer – a milestone revealing the expressive potential of a realm where conventional notions of time and space dissolve. Visitors can expect a constellation of installations, extended-reality experiences and experimental prototypes by leading creators including Akihiro Kubota, Norimichi Hirakawa, Takuro Osaka, Yoichi Ochiai, Hideki Yoshimoto, JAXA’s research teams and many others. The exhibition also features a robust programme of talks by artists and scientists, encouraging audiences to imagine their own ‘quantum-native’ futures. Bold, exploratory and visionary, ‘Mission∞Infinity’ invites you to witness how art continues to push beyond the boundaries of the known universe.

Did you even have a childhood if you didn’t turn the hole-punched pages of The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Originally published in 1969, this children’s classic will be celebrated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, marking 50 years since the book’s Japanese release (Japan was the first place the beloved caterpillar ever appeared in print). Prepare to feast your eyes upon 180 objects – all bursting with bold bright colours, playful patterns and Eric Carle’s specially curated collages. Over 27 picture books will also feature, offering a deep dive into the ingenuity of Carle’s imagination. The late American author and illustrator was famed for his fresh take on storytelling; simple shapes are layered with textured hand-painted tissue paper, resulting in whimsical works that were deceptively clever and remain iconic to this day.

Minami Tada (1924–2014) was a quietly radical figure in post-war Japanese art whose practice unfolded across sculpture, relief, lighting and architectural space. Working at the intersection of art, design and emerging industrial technologies, Tada developed a distinctive visual language that embraced transparency, reflection and light – materials and phenomena closely tied to Japan’s rapid economic growth. As a pioneering female artist operating in a male-dominated field, her work anticipated many later conversations around spatial perception and the expanded field of sculpture. From August 29 to December 6, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents the artist’s first solo exhibition in Tokyo in 35 years. This long-overdue retrospective traces the arc of Tada’s career, from early paintings to her most emblematic sculptural works, as well as large-scale pieces created for architectural settings. Drawing on industrial materials and contemporary technologies, her works explore how light interacts with form and space, producing effects that shift with the viewer’s movement. The exhibition also includes archival materials that shed light on the artist’s process and intellectual context, situating her practice within broader developments in post-war Japanese art and design. At a moment when interest in overlooked modernist figures is growing both in Japan and internationally, ‘Tada Minami’ offers a timely reassessment of an artist whose work feels strikingly current....