2010 | Exhibition Timeline

10 April 2010 - 4 July 2010

[Detail]

18 July 2010 - 3 November 2010

“SickeTel—Kyupi Kyupi and Ishibashi” is the first large-scale exhibition in Japan of the works of Kyupi Kyupi and Yoshimasa Ishibashi. Composed primarily of new creations—including recent moving image works by Ishibashi and a large-scale moving image installation created by Kyupi Kyupi for the spaces of this museum—the exhibition immerses visitors in their dazzling world of moving imagery. [Detail]

Kyupi Kyupi, Sicke Monica, 2010 Photo: Yoshimasa Ishibashi

Hiroshi Sugimoto ORIGINS OF ART｜Science

21 November 2010 - 20 February 2011

This first exhibition looks at the spirit of Science. With fear and trepidation, humans approached nature and set forth explicating all they encountered. Sugimoto himself has drawn inspiration from the likes of Faraday, Talbot and Newton to conduct exacting observations and experiments, probes into the very essence of phenomena resulting in images of primal dynamism. Concentrated distillations of scientific curiosity, these works may very well awaken an awe of nature lying dormant deep inside the viewer. [Detail]

Polarized Colors 037, 2010
©Hiroshi Sugimoto / Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Hiroshi Sugimoto ORIGINS OF ART | Architecture

2 March 2011 - 15 May 2011

Following the first installment “Science” presented from last November, this second exhibition looks at Sugimoto’s involvement with “Architecture” in photographs and other media, including his intentionally “infinite focus” images of famous buildings, sculptures and installations of his own architectural works. The Museum is especially proud to host his Anti-gravity Structure installation utilizing ancient timbers and images from the Three-storey Pagoda of Taima-dera temple in Nara, and his series In’ei Raisan (In Praise of Shadows) that traces the origins of architecture back to primal memories of fire via photographs of a dying candle flame, displayed here by candlelight.
This exhibition thus offers insights into Sugimoto’s command of structure and space, while at the same time probing the very bases of art in the architectural constructs of our human consciousness. [Detail]

Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1997
Collection of the National Museum of Art, Osaka
© Hiroshi Sugimoto / Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Hiroshi Sugimoto ORIGINS OF ART | History

29 May 2011 - 21 August 2011

The third exhibition of "The Origins of Art" entitled “History” includes Sugimoto’s Photogenic Drawings printed from paper negatives created by the inventor of negative-positive photography William Henry Fox Talbot, Stylized Sculpture images of the changing forms of twentieth century fashion in social context and other works of historical inquiry. By examining change via the overwhelming realism of Sugimoto’s photographs, we hope viewers will give thought to the curiously modern relationship between photo images and history—and further to question Just what is history? How does it figure in the advancement of humankind? [Detail]

Permian Land, 1992
© Hiroshi Sugimoto / Cortesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Hiroshi Sugimoto ORIGINS OF ART | Religion

28 August 2011 - 6 November 2011

Our unprecedented year-long exhibition program comes to its final installment. This exhibition comprises new displays of photographic works and new installations, including Sugimoto's "Seascape" evocations of oceanic time immemorial, a Heian period standing Jūichimen Kannon, and a 14th century bust of Christ. Also premiering is his "Sea of Buddha" printed in large scale for the first time depicting a thousand standing figures of the Thousand-Armed Kannon Bodhisattva photographed at Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, as well as "Five Elements," a model pagoda symbolizing Buddhist cosmology rendered in optical glass with a Seascape sealed inside.We hope the many provocative images and objects will give viewers a full sense of Sugimoto's art and cause to reflect upon of the profound connections between art and religion. [Detail]

Caribbean Sea, Jamaica, 1980
© Hiroshi Sugimoto / Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Closed for renovation

7 November, 2011 - 3 February, 2012

Closed for renovation [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma Words from within a Hand - Artworks on Paper

4 February 2012 - 4 March 2012

As a result of a career spanning 70 years, Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) left the world a great many artworks. More than 20,000 are in the collection of Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art. Over 90 percent of those works are executed on paper.
This exhibition presents Genichiro Inokuma works of all sizes, large and small, executed on art paper, in sketchbooks, and even on memo paper, many of them publicly displayed for the first time. All are “painter’s words” revealing the charm and expressive power of Inokuma’s art. [Detail]

Beautiful Noise, 1980
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Chiharu Shiota―Where Are We Going?

18 March 2012 - 1 July 2012

An exhibition devoted to Chiharu Shiota, an artist of rapidly growing reputation based in Berlin. Shiota embodies in art the memories we impart to objects and places, our sense of a presence made stronger by absence, and the anxieties and fears we encounter in daily life. The artworks she creates, as a result of discerning such feelings and emotions in her own being, transcend her own thoughts and powerfully affect the viewer.

The exhibition will present works concerned with “walls,” a theme Shiota has embarked on in recent years. The works arise from her experience of living in Germany far from Japan and her thoughts of how nationality, religion and other categories assigned to individuals are helpful aids for knowing others and ourselves and, simultaneously, unsurpassable walls preventing us from really knowing each other. The featured artworks will also include a boat installation prompted by her experience of the Setouchi region where this museum is located and a video work produced on the basis of interviews with children in Berlin. The exhibition will ask: Where did I come from? What is my existence now and where am I going? [Detail]

Dialogue with absence, 2012
installation view at MIMOCA
©Chiharu Shiota
photo by Sunhi Mang

Takashi Homma: New Documentary

15 July 2012 - 23 September 2012

This is the first solo art museum exhibition in Japan for Takashi Homma, who engages in photography from a neutral position without letting himself be bound by genre or methods of display. The exhibition is now making its third stop, having previously traveled to Kanazawa and Tokyo in 2011. Interweaving photographic prints with works of varying media—books, paintings, video, and photo-based silk screens, as well as an entirely new installation, this time—the exhibition demonstrates how Homma’s photographs commute between expression and documentation. Viewers are made to wonder, “What is a photograph?” in an exhibition that inquires into the essence of “seeing.” [Detail]

1. from the series, Tokyo and My Daughter 2006
©Takashi Homma

Butsu Butsu

15 July 2012 - 23 September 2012

Genichiro Inokuma (1902-93) was something of a collector as an artist. He collected things he felt to be beautiful or cute, whether waste objects discarded in the street or expensive antiques, in a natural way in day-to-day life.
His collection of “things” (butsu butsu) is now in the safekeeping of this museum. From that collection, stylist Miyoko Okao has selected certain items catching her interest, and photographer Takashi Homma has photographed them. This exhibition, then, is the result of their selecting and photographing objects in close collaboration, “muttering” (butsu butsu) together all the while. [Detail]

Installation view of "Butsu Butsu" at MIMOCA
Photo: Manami Takahashi

Ishiuchi Miyako SILKEN DREAMS

7 October 2012 - 6 January 2013

Photographer Ishiuchi Miyako has worked with tireless passion, ever since winning the Kimura Ihei Award for new photographers in 1979. In 2005, Ishiuchi represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with “Mother’s,” a series of photographs of her late mother’s belongings. She thereafter embarked on the series “hiroshima,” for which she photographed one-piece dresses and other personal articles of victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. In the process, she had contact with a great many silk garments—an experience that awoke her interest in silk. Then, because Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, her home city until the age of six, is a famous textile production region, she in 2010 took “silk” as a theme and began photographing meisen silk weave fabric, silkworm cocoons, silk mills, and weaving mills. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma Change and Changelessness

13 January 2013 - 4 April 2013

During his 70-year career, Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) changed painting styles frequently and radically. The realistic portraits of his early period, the geometric abstract paintings of his post-war period, the serial works of faces of his late years: arranged period by period, his paintings display such variety, they might have been painted by several different artists. On the other hand, images that differ entirely show similarities of motif, composition, and color balance. This exhibition looks retrospectively at Genichiro Inukuma with a focus on the “Inokuma touch” that never changed in his art, no matter how incessantly he altered his art in pursuit of new expression. By displaying Inokuma works of differing style side by side to exhibit the features they share in common, the exhibition reveals the fascination of his art from both aspects: change and changelessness. [Detail]

Ballerina―Message to the 21st Century, 1988
collection The Kagawa Museum
©The MIMOCA Foundation

MIMOCA'S EYE vol.3 Francis Upritchard:Potato Poem

13 April 2013 - 30 June 2013

Our third Mimoca’s Eye exhibition of young talent introduces London-based artist Francis Upritchard. Born 1976 in New Zealand, after art school she emigrated to the UK in 1998 and began creating installations with brightly coloured human figures sculpted in modelling clay. Chosen to represent New Zealand at the 2009 Venice Biennale, this internationally acclaimed artist evokes an eerie sense of déja vu as she freely mixes references across time and cultures, often including intentionally misconstrued elements to humorous effect, encouraging us to question how history has been fabricated and culture represented.
In this, her first solo show in Japan, Upritchard asks us re-examine our preconceptions and understandings of other cultures from new perspectives, while revealing a world with countless hidden interpretations. [Detail]

Liar, 2012
courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London

Genichiro Inokuma Murals

13 April 2013 - 23 June 2013

In summer 2011, a mural by Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) was found at a building demolition site near the Kamogawa River in Kyoto. The building was a hotel of long-standing, Hotel Fujita Kyoto, which had ceased operations in January of the same year. The mural, Fluid City (1969), had been installed in the hotel’s lounge.
Hotel Fujita Kyoto opened in 1970 on the occasion of the Expo’70. The building’s architect, Junzo Yoshimura, asked Inokuma to design a mural. When the hotel was remodeled in 1982, however, a new wall was installed before the mural, which became hidden from sight. After announcement was made of the building’s impending demolition, the hotel’s owners received an anonymous phone call informing them of the mural’s existence. The mural was then safely removed from the demolition site and gifted, thereafter, to Marugame City and restored at this museum.
This exhibition will publically display the mural for the first time since its restoration. A mural of large scale, some 3m high by 15m wide, it consists of chrome-plated steel panels punched with 3,000 to 4,000 holes. The panels have a colored acrylic plate backing. When illuminated from behind, the work displays a colorful geometric pattern of lines. Both in terms of materials and techniques, the mural is an artwork of extreme rarity in Inokuma’s oeuvre. [Detail]

Fluid City, 1969

Shinro Ohtake: NEWNEW

13 July 2013 - 4 November 2013

"Shinro Ohtake: NEWNEW" is a solo exhibition of his new works since 2010. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma:
Toward New Beauty—Exploring the Abstract

16 Nov 2013 - 16 Feb 2014
closed: 25-31 Dec 2013

[Detail]

Pot and the Portrait of a Sitting Woman, 1950
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Genichiro Inokuma　Together with Marugame －The Marugame Senior High School Collection and Related Works

16 Nov 2013 - 16 Feb 2014
closed: 25-31 Dec 2013

After graduating in 1921 from Kagawa Prefectural Marugame Middle School (present Marugame Senior High School), Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) entered Tokyo Fine Arts School (present Tokyo University of the Arts). In 1926, while still in art school, he was selected for inclusion in the Imperial Art Academy’s 7th Art Exhibition. Thereafter, as Inokuma increasingly gave play to his genius as a painter, he was specially selected for the Imperial Art Academy’s 10th (1929) and 14th (1933) exhibitions as well.
In 1933, he painted Mt. Myogi for Marugame Middle School’s 40th anniversary. Inokuma continued to donate works to the school in the years that followed. He also twice gave lectures as part of the school’s anniversary celebrations and otherwise maintained a close relationship with his alma mater.
The events and encounters of his youth in Marugame became a starting point for Genichiro Inokuma the painter. This exhibition, which marks Marugame Senior High School’s 120th anniversary, recalls Inokuma’s relationship with Marugame and, especially, his alma mater and introduces related artworks. [Detail]

Myōgisan, 1933
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Playmaking

1 March - 1 June 2014

What is 'play' for human beings?　Not only to receive ready made forms of entertainment but try using your own actions or ideas to change the banal into the fertile. Unwinding mentally and physically with contemporary art may be one way to achieve this, and at the same time making your heart flutter.

【Participating Artists】
Misaki Kawai (Born 1978 in Osaka / New York)
Ryota Kuwakubo (Born 1971 in Tochigi / Gifu, Tokyo)
Tsuyoshi Ozawa (Born 1965 in Tokyo / Saitama)
Tetsuya Umeda (Born 1980 in Kumamoto / Osaka) [Detail]

You reach out – right now – for something : Questioning the Concept of Fashion

14 June 2014 - 23 September 2014

This is an exhibition based on Nakako Hayashi’s book Expanding Fashion (Space Shower Networks) published in 2011, examines fashion from the aspect of creation. Regarding fashion as an instrument for developing aesthetics in everyday life, and for communicating our own ways of life and thinking to others, the exhibition will present the works of artists from in and out of Japan that employ diverse methods ranging from independent publishing to photography, painting, video, performance and workshops to create things related to fashion in novel ways.
The exhibition will be an opportunity to rethink about fashion not as a subject of trends and consumption, but as the locus of self-expression that is closest to our daily lives. [Detail]

COSMIC WONDER《COSMIC WONDER RESTAURANT》2013
photo:Takashi Homma

Genichiro Inokuma: All Kinds of Shapes and Forms

4 Oct 2014 - 18 Jan 2015
closed: 25-31 Dec 2014

[Detail]

Sun and Primitive Bird, 1988
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Risaku Suzuki - Stream of consciousness

1 February 2015 - 31 May 2015
Open everyday

This exhibition will display some 100 photographic works and 3 video pieces with a focus on Risaku Suzuki’s new and previously unseen works. His works taken by a large-sized camera using 8×10 inches film invites viewers to enjoy the pure act of seeing. By confronting the photograph before us without preconceptions, conscious of all it depicts, we will re-experience the world “seen” by Suzuki and know the fresh delight of seeing. [Detail]

Risaku Suzuki, Étude 10,F-5, 2010
©Risaku Suzuki / Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Martino Gamper　
100 Chairs in 100 Days

13 June 2015 - 23 September 2015

Martino Gamper (born 1971 in Italy, resides in London), known for his crossovers between fine art and design, came to major acclaim with 100 Chairs in 100 Days (2007), for which he culled disused chairs from London alleyways and friends' homes and reassembled them one per day into poetic, often humorous forms. Drawing upon the history of furniture yet altogether unique and original improvisations, he has toured 99 chairs around the globe, always creating another 100th chair in each new location. So for this exhibition, he will create a yet-unveiled 100th chair from a find here in Marugame. Working within self-imposed parametres — found materials, structures, designs and a single day — Gamper's 100 chairs showcase his wit and experiments in transforming limitations into elements of possibility. Transcending mere design and function, Gamper's unprecedented methodology lets us glimpse the stories hidden within things. [Detail]

Installation View: Triennale Design Museum, Milano, 2009
Photo: Åbäke/ Martino Gamper

Genichiro Inokuma
Cats

13 June 2015 - 27 September 2015
Open everyday

Cats were a motif Genichiro Inokuma (1902-93) felt a particular fondness for. Both he and his wife liked cats, and at one time, they kept a dozen cats in their house. Living with cats around him every day, Inokuma naturally came to view them with an artist’s eye. This exhibition will look at Inokuma’s cat pictures from varying perspectives, such as style, technique, and how he combines cats with other motifs. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Title Unknown, around 1987
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Genichiro Inokuma—Sharing Our Impressions and Coming to Like Him

3 October 2015 - 6 December 2015
Open everyday

Genichiro Inokuma (1902-93) enjoyed drawing pictures since childhood and painted prolifically with great energy until just before his death at the age of 90. His works, many of which surprise the viewer, are brimming with a cheerfulness that makes us smile, an aspect perhaps reflecting his strong curiosity and his ability to thoroughly enjoy himself, no matter what he did. This exhibition features works ranging from childhood sketches to large-scale paintings of his later years around a core of artworks chosen by Inokuma himself for the opening exhibition of this museum in 1991. In our galleries, we place warmly affectionate impressions and anecdotes related to Inokuma and his work, received from numerous people. With these as our “exhibition guide,” we present the entire scope of Inokuma’s paintings and pictures. Let us all—whether Inokuma newcomers or longtime enthusiasts—join in sharing our perceptions (impressions) of works of captivating charm and discovering little known aspects of Genichiro Inokuma the man. Together, we can come to know his works and like them even more. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Flying with Joy, 1993
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Our Beloved World

20 December 2015 - 27 Mach 2016
(closed from 25 to 31 December)

The world in which we live is fraught with problems—problems we are apt to simply turn our backs on. If we want to keep living happily and comfortably, hereafter, it is important that we take a stance of looking sincerely at the world and trying to find some small way to make a change. The artworks by four artists in this exhibition in each case emerged from the artist’s efforts to examine his world and ponder its problems as if they were his own. The works suggest to us possible approaches to problems and, moreover, throw light on the direction that society is taking. The works, thus, present us with an occasion to stop and look at the state of the world around us, and begin to move—even if very slowly—toward meaningful change in the world. [Detail]

Ryudai Takano, 15.04.17.#e37, 2015
Courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates, Zeit-Foto Salon　©Ryudai Takano

Genichiro Inokuma—My Resume Part 1: It Takes Courage to Paint

6 April 2016 - 30 June 2016

In January 1979, Genichiro Inokuma (1902-93) looked back on his life in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s popular column, “My Resume” (Watashi no Rirekisho). In a light-hearted vein, he wrote of how he was raised in pastoral surroundings in Kagawa, Shikoku—a child with a love of drawing pictures, then went out into the wide world and forged a career as a painter through hard work while befriending people of all backgrounds. Drawing from Inokuma’s recollections, this two-part exhibition will survey his life and work through artworks and materials related to episodes in his artistic career. Part I of the exhibition will trace his development from childhood and middle school to his art college years and studies in Paris in his late thirties. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma at his studio

Teppei Kaneuji's "ZONES"

17 July 2016 - 6 November 2016

Teppei Kaneuji (born 1978, resident Kyoto Prefecture) takes materials from his surroundings and collages them together in altered contexts, cutting away and connecting parts, to create works of art. This exhibition, his first major solo show in Japan in seven years, will comprise mainly new work, including a large space-specific installation, exploring extended collage though connections with the “other” as a means of production and a new way of sculpture. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma—My Resume Part 2: Tokyo/New York

19 November 2016 - 12 February 2017
closed: 25-31 Dec 2016

[Detail]

Wall in New York around the latter half of 1950s or the 1960s
photo: Genichiro Inokuma
©The MIMOCA Foundation

25th Anniversary Exhibition MIMOCA’s Collection: Artworks of All Kinds!

25 February 2017 - 28 May 2017

[Detail]

Yukio Nakagawa, FLOWER IS THE MYSTIC MOUNTAIN, 1989（2001）ⒸYukio Nakagawa

Lieko Shiga: Blind Date

10 June 2017 - 3 September 2017

[Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma - Works during World War Ⅱ

16 September 2017 - 30 November 2017

Genichiro Inokuma (1902-93) experienced war for a period when he has around forty. After the Pacific War started in December 1941, he was assigned as an army artist responsible for creating war record paintings. In this role, he was dispatched to the Philippines in '42 and Burma (present Myanmar) in '43. Materials from that time confirm the existence of three war record paintings created by Inokuma as an army artist. Two of them were lost, so only the other work still exists. That work was painted in Burma at the site of Thai-Burma Railway construction. Although almost no other paintings of war scenes remain, Inokuma did keep, in his own collection, oil paintings he made of local people and scenery in lands he visited as an army artist and sketches he made during evacuation. Many of these are mild, realistic pictures showing daily life, and from them, we can sense the heavy restrictions placed on art expression, at the time, as well as Inokuma’s circumstances as an artist who, even then, had to be painting or drawing something.
This exhibition traces his movements at the time and asks how he, as an artist, looked at war and how war influenced his work. Presented, along with Inokuma’s surviving war record painting and other works of that time, are his photos, journals, books, correspondence and other materials, and war record paintings other artists, including Tsuguharu Foujita and Kei Sato, with whom he enjoyed close friendships. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Heroic Landscape (Corregidor), 1942
©The MIMOCA Foundation

Nobuyoshi Araki-I, Photography

San 17 December 2017 - Sun 25 March 2018
closed: 25-31 December 2017

[Detail]

Nobuyoshi Araki, Flower Cemetary, 2017 ©Nobuyoshi Araki
courtesy of the artist and Yoshiko Isshiki Office, Tokyo

Shigeo Arai -Poems of Life

Sat 14 April - Sun 1 July 2018
Open Everyday

Born in Nagano Prefecture, Shigeo Arai (1920-) displayed an aptitude for drawing in childhood. After studying Yuzen (fabric dyeing) and Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) in Ueda, Nagano, Arai studied under Genichiro Inokuma. He thereafter relentlessly pursued new creative expression without regard for boundaries between Nihonga and Yoga (Western-style painting) or possessing a fixed style.
In every period of endeavor, Arai has explored his influences from Inokuma, such as skillfully manipulated bright colors, surprising combinations of media and motifs, and fresh perceptions of things encountered in daily life. As he has done so, the individual spirit he established has come to life.
This exhibition is an important opportunity to fully display Shigeo Arai's career of over 70 years in his "second home," Marugame. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma-Landscapes, Faces

14 July 2018 - 30 September 2018

Among the diverse works created by Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) during a 70-year career, his abstract “Landscape” paintings produced mainly in the early 1970s and his simply depicted, late-period “Faces” are well known. His “Landscape” paintings—works that define his unique style of abstract expression—emerged from the “city” theme paintings he created during some 20 years living and working in New York in the USA, where he moved in 1955 and freed himself from figurative painting. “Faces,” on the other hand—which he began to paint after the death of his beloved wife, Fumiko, at the age of 85—are works by which he reached a territory beyond distinctions of figurative and abstract, at the end of his career.
This exhibition features works of “Landscape” and “Face” motif painted at intervals by Genichiro Inokuma since his twenties. Inokuma steadily eliminated everything unnecessary from his works, seeking to achieve what he always valued most—a painting that had “beauty as a picture.” We invite you to travel with the artist on his aesthetic journey, through two of his most important motifs.
* Inokuma Genichiro no Sekai Ten (“Genichiro Inokuma’s World” exhibition; MITSUKOSHI, 1990)

[Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Faces 80, 1989 ©The MIMOCA Foundation

Genichiro Inokuma−Art is a Vitamin

We are pleased to welcome you, but we would like all visitors to understand hygiene and distancing rules to keep safety and comfortable viewing.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Sat. 18 April 2020 - Sun. 28 June 2020
Tue. 2 June 2020 - Tue. 22 September 2020

MIMOCA has newly reopened after renovation work to ensure the museum a long building life. On this occasion, we are returning to our beginnings to reaffirm Genichiro Inokuma's views on the role of art and his methods of giving beauty to daily life with his artworks. We reproduce the kitchen/living room of Inokuma's late-period Denenchofu house and demonstrate the use of his artworks in orchestrating a lifestyle. We also feature examples of Inokuma-design furniture and wrapping paper, and take a present-day look at his foremost works of public art. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Freedom, 1951, photo collage by Takashi Homma, ©Takashi Homma

The Window: A Journey of Art and Architecture through Windows

11 July 2020 - 27 September 2020
13 October 2020 - 11 January 2021
Closed: Mondays (except 23 November, 11 January 2021), Tue. 24 November, 25 - 31 December 2020

Windows—a common, indispensable part of our lives. Square or rectangular in shape, they frame the world outside for us to see. People have long perceived a close link between windows and paintings, which also frame for us a world existing elsewhere. As the times have progressed, this link has also been extended to photographs, films, and art installations.
In architecture, windows of varied form and character have continually been devised in every age and region, in response to aesthetic trends and the development of new technologies suiting the regional climate.
This exhibition—which is enhanced by insights from the Window Research Institute—presents window-related artworks ranging from paintings by Pierre Bonnard and Paul Klee to works by contemporary artists. Also featured are valuable drawings by architects such as Le Corbusier and Louis I. Kahn. We invite you to explore the wide world of windows from multiple perspectives.
[Detail]

Wolfgang Tillmans, windowbox (47-37), 2000, collection of WAKO WORKS OF ART

Genichiro Inokuma Pay Attention to Color!
What if we begin with red, yellow and blue?

23 January 2021 - 7 March 2021

We are normally attentive to color when looking at things. We choose clothing and other products by how much we like their color, for instance. When viewing a painting, as well, it is fun to simply delight in its colors, hues, and color contrasts. Entering the world of the painting, we will feel surprise at the beauty of color, take joy in unexpected color effects, and discover the personality and characteristics of the artist.
This exhibition looks at paintings by Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) in the way we naturally learn in everyday life—by giving attention to color regardless of what the object is. Inokuma's paintings are characterized by rich colors, but here, our first step is to take up three colors—red, yellow, and blue—and "pay attention to color.” If we look at works in each of these colors, first, followed by works freely combining red, yellow, and blue and, finally, works adding other colors, the paintings will quickly grow familiar to us. Through color, the magical world of painting opens its doors.
[Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Two Gates, 1987 ©The MIMOCA Foundation

Encounter - Infinite Variety of Faces

Sat 20 March - Sun 6 June 2021
Closed: Mondays (except 3 May), Thu 6 May

The “face” is a composite of sense organs: eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. If we include the skin, the face enables not only sight and hearing but all five senses. By means of faces we identify other people and communicate with them, trying to know what is in their heart. By means of faces we live and function in society.
This exhibition looks at this important but elusive communicator, the face. Artworks by ten artists are featured taking three approaches—“Me and You,” “Faces and Relationships,” and “Play with Faces.” We invite you to meet faces of all kinds through artworks of many genres and periods. [Detail]

Designed by Satoko Miyakoshi

FEELIN’ GROOVY! : Walk Around New York with Genichiro Inokuma

19 June 2021 - 5 September 2021
Closed: Mondays (except 9 August), Tue. 10 August
Temporarily closed: Tue. 17 August - Tue. 31 August Sun. 5 September

Genichiro Inokuma (1902-93) lived and worked in New York for about 20 years from the mid-1950s.This exhibition will feature paintings from Inokuma’s New York period along with films and photos he shot there and examples of the gallery exhibition leaflets and other materials he amassed, so as to show this phase of his career and the background of that time. Visitors will enjoy strolling through the exhibition in the way Genichiro Inokuma enjoying walking around New York. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma in New York, Courtesy of BUNGEISHUNJU

Takeji Fujishima and Genichiro Inokuma　Simplicité and Simple

18 September 2021 - 5 December 2021
Temporarily closed: Sat. 18 September - Thu. 30 September
Closed: Mondays (except 20 September), Tue 21 September

[Detail]

Takeji Fujishima, Breaking Waves at Daio(-) Misaki, 1932, Collection of MIE Prefectural Art Museum

In Marugame – At the Moment – Three Artist Collectives

Sat 18 December 2021 – Mon 21 March 2022
Closed: Mondays (except 3, 10 January, 21 March 2022), Sat 25 - 31 December 2021, Tue 4, Tue 11 January 2022

This exhibition focuses on modern Marugame as an example of a local city. Three groups of artists with a unique perspective on contemporary society, including the current state and issues of art related to the community, KOSUGE1-16, Nadegata Instant Party, and Traveling Research Laboratory will hold an exhibition based on research at Marugame. I will make it up. Please take a look at the current situation that can only be Marugame by three sets of collectives composed of individual artists. [Detail]

In Marugame – At The Moment – Three Artist Collectives
Designed by Masataka Maruyama (TO inc.)

On the 120th Anniversary of His Birth
Genichiro Inokuma “Beautiful”

2 April 2022 - 3 July 2022
Closed: Mondays (except 2 May)

Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) consistently pursued the expression of beauty throughout his 70-year career. This year, we mark the 120th anniversary of the birth of him. In celebration of this milestone, we look back on Inokuma’s painting career. [Detail]

Shunsuke Imai: Skirt and Scene

Date: Sat 16 July - Sun 6 November 2022
Closed: Mondays (except 18 July, 19 September, 10 October), Tue 19 July, 20 September, 11 October

Shunsuke Imai (1978-), an artist known for his painting series featuring vividly colorful stripes, will hold his first solo exhibition at a museum. [Detail]

Shunsuke Imai: Skirt and Scene
Designed by Rikako Nagashima (village®)

1st. MIMOCA EYE

20 November 2022 - 26 February 2023
Closed: Mondays (except 2, 9 January 2023), 25-31 December 2022, 4, 10 January 2023

[Detail]

Chikako Yamashiro: Flowers of Belau

21 March 2023 - 4 June 2023
Closed: Mondays

[Detail]

Koji Nakazono: Soulmate

Date: Sat 17 June - Mon 18 September 2023
Closed: Mondays (except 17 July, 18 September), Tue 18 July

Koji Nakazono (1989–2015) was a creator of unforgettable paintings of jewel-like chromatic variety. Based in the Kanto region following his graduation from Tokyo University of the Arts, Nakazono then found himself drawn to the climate and character of Kagawa, on the Seto Inland Sea, and in 2014 moved there, only to tragically pass away the following year at the age of twenty-five. Soulmate is the largest-ever exhibition of his work in Kagawa, his last home. [Detail]

"Koji Nakazono: Soulmate" flyer, designed by Yurie Hata

Sudo Reiko: Making NUNO Textiles

8 October 2023 - 10 December 2023
closed: Mondays (except 9 October 2023), 10 October 2023

Textile Designer Sudo Reiko's International Traveling Exhibition, Japan Premiere! [Detail]

"Sudo Reiko: Making NUNO Textiles" poster, photo: Masayuki Hayashi, graphic design: we+

Recovery

23 December 2023 - 10 March 2024
closed: Mondays (except 1, 8 January, 12 February 2024), 26-31 December 2023, 4, 9 January, 13 February 2024

[Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma: Honolulu

23 March 2024 - Sun 2 June 2024
closed: Mondays (except 29 April, 6 May), Tue 30 April, Tue 7 May

After suffering an illness in 1973, Genichiro Inokuma (1902–1993) decided to leave New York. Landing in Hawaii the following year he was heartened to be greeted by brilliant blue skies, and vowed to make this a new departure. Setting up studio in Honolulu, Inokuma made paintings inspired by the natural environment of Hawaii and the fascination with the cosmos.This exhibition showcases work from Inokuma’s Hawaiian years, in which sustained by new surroundings, he pursued his personal painting path with greater freedom than ever. [Detail]

"Genichiro Inokuma: Honolulu" poster, designed by Kenta Shibano

Katsuya Kamo: KAMO HEAD

30 June 2024 - 23 September 2024

This exhibition showcases the work of trendsetting hair and makeup artist Katsuya Kamo (1965–2020), whose career included multiple collaborations with many of the world’s most renowned fashion labels. [Detail]

"Katsuya Kamo: KAMO HEAD" poster, designed by kuroda design

Home Sweet Home

Date: Sat 12 October 2024 - Mon 13 January 2025

The word “home” evokes a number of different connotations, including house, family (or group of people who have assembled inside a house), and one’s own town or country.
In this exhibition, we introduce works by a group of contemporary artists, from both Japan and abroad, who address keywords such as history, memory, identity, the places where we belong, and roles. Through these works, we strive to shed light on the meaning of home (as well as the house and family), the regions that we are a part of, and social changes along with concepts such as universality. [Detail]

"Home Sweet Home" poster, designed by Tadao Kawamura

Genichiro Inokuma: Foundations of a life in painting —from art school to France

26 January 2025 - 30 March 2025

This exhibition unpacks Inokuma’s creative journey through his twenties and thirties, the formative years of his painting career from entering the Tokyo Fine Arts School, to his Imperial Art Academy Exhibition (Teiten) period, founding of the Shinseisakuha-kyokai (New Creation Society), and relocation to France. [Detail]

Genichiro Inokuma, Night, 1937

Commemorating the 1st “MIMOCA EYE” Grand-prize Winner

Akane Saijo—Double Touch

sun 26 January 2025 - sun 30 March 2025
Closed：Mondays(except 24 February), 25 February

[Detail]

Akane Saijo, The Melting Laborers #3, 2024
Photo: Takeru Koroda

Exhibition Timeline

Exhibitions from the Collection