Lee Ufan and Tatsuo Miyajima in major group exhibition at Mori Art Museum

4 August 2020

On 30 July, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, opened it's major group exhibition 'STARS: Six Contemporary Artists from Japan to the World', presenting the work of Yayoi Kusama, Lee Ufan, Tatsuo Miyajima, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

The exhibition explores the work of these artists whose careers propelled them beyond the confines of Japan in the second half of the nineteenth century, when decades of postwar economic growth were punctuated by a series of national events including the Olympics and World Expo, as the country began to turn its gaze outward once more. In the contemporary art world, the period was characterized by debates on decolonization and multiculturalism, and the proliferation of new contemporary art settings, such as biennials and art fairs. Tracing their journeys from the earliest to the latest works and exploring how their practices have been evaluated in a global context, 'STARS' also presents archival materials related to major Japanese contemporary art shows staged internationally from the 1950s to the present.

A resident of Japan since 1956, Lee Ufan was a pioneering member of the Mono-ha movement formed in 1960s Tokyo. Displayed here are two paintings from the Dialogue series, and two Relatum sculptural works in steel, glass and stone. Tatsuo Miyajima presents a new iteration of his Sea of Time large-scale LED installations. Sea of Time – TOHOKU Project serves to remember the victims of Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake. Consisting of 719 LEDs, this is the largest work in the series.

Find out more via Mori Art Museum.

Image: Installation view of works by Lee Ufan in 'STARS: Six Contemporary Artists from Japan to the World', Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2020. Photo: Takayama Kozo