Ron Mueck Exhibition
Mori Art Museum (Roppongi Hills, Tokyo) 2026 May
Works on Display: 11 works, including 6 shown in Japan for the first time.
If someone asked me how I felt seeing them, I would say, "It was absolutely exhilarating!"
Why? Because even if someone could imagine such a scene, hardly anyone would actually think of making it a reality.
The wonderful thing is that Mueck not only imagined it—he actually created it and let us experience it. That's what I find so extraordinary about his art.
Ron Mueck's figures are incredibly realistic and meticulously detailed. Yet their unusual sizes completely change our sense of scale, creating an extraordinary experience.
I felt as if I had stepped into Gulliver's Travels—sometimes becoming Gulliver himself, and at other times feeling like one of the tiny people. Mueck allows us to enjoy this strange shift in perspective and the sense of wonder it creates.
Stepping into NYC 2026.1
January 15–20, 2026
I finally had the chance to take part in a group exhibition at a gallery in New York — something I had wanted to do for a long time.
The exhibition was organized by Kyoko Sato, a New York–based curator, and Motoichi Adachi, a well-known Japanese television producer. I applied to their open call, received an honorable mention, and that led to the opportunity to exhibit in New York City. For me, it was a great chance to experience New York firsthand, one of the major centers of contemporary art.
The venue was Gallery Max on Broadway. A total of 43 works were exhibited. Most of the participating artists were Japanese, with one artist from Korea, who received the top prize. Thirty-seven artists traveled to New York and took part in person.
The exhibition and the opening party at Gallery Max were important, of course, but another major purpose of the trip was to visit galleries in Chelsea and SoHo and introduce my work directly with my portfolio.
What impressed me most was how closely the New York art world connects curators, artists, galleries, and art journalism. For many artists, exhibiting in museums after building a long career is one of the major goals. New York made me realize how strongly art and business can work together, and why the city remains one of the world's most important platforms for contemporary art.
Broadway backstreet
Standing by my work with a portfolio in hand, waiting to see who'd show interest. A young woman artist came up and told me, "I wanna mimic your style," so I gave her a copy.
Gallery Max / NY Broadway
The day before, all of us participants unpacked our work together at the venue. I got to chat for a bit with people I was meeting for the first time, and after that we left the layout of the pieces up to the curator, Kyoko Sato.
Space776 Gallery / NY Lower East Side
As part of the organizer's program, a dozen or so of us artists visited the gallery to pitch our work. Here I'm showing my portfolio and talking through the pieces with Chun, a painter and writer who's on staff at the gallery.
To break into the US market, a portfolio is a must. Putting into words what my paintings mean, what message they carry, helped me get clear on my focus.
Van Del Plas Gallery / NY Orchard Street
Van Del Plas Gallery is down in lower Manhattan, just a few minutes' walk from Space776 Gallery mentioned earlier. It has a laid-back, easygoing vibe, bright and casual. The work on the walls has its own distinct visual language, not bound by conventional painting styles. From what I heard, the gallery works with a lot of Black and immigrant artists. I couldn't get a chance to talk with the owner here, but I left a portfolio behind.
At the Guggenheim January 19, 2026
Sanguine, 2025 — Installation view
Retrospective
“A Poem for Deep Thinkers”
Rashid Johnson
Born in Chicago in 1977, Rashid Johnson is an American contemporary artist based in New York. His wide-ranging practice includes painting, sculpture, photography, film, and large-scale installation.
Central to his work are themes of Black identity and history, personal memory, family, anxiety, and healing. His art is characterized by its strong sense of materiality, combining ceramic tiles, mirrors, black soap, shea butter, books, living plants, and other materials. Unconfined by the flat surface, his work impressed me with its bold sense of scale.
At the heart of his practice, I felt, were his experiences of living as a Black man in a society marked by discrimination and prejudice. The resulting anxiety, frustration, and anger were strongly expressed in his work.
Johnson originally studied photography and began his career as a photographer. Today, however, he is known not simply as a photographer but as a contemporary artist working across a wide range of media.
Anxious Men, 2015 — Ceramic tile, black soap, and wax
Escape Collage, 2018 — Mixed media
Busts, 2019 — Glazed stoneware and bronze
Untitled (Shea Butter Table), 2016 — Shea butter, Persian rug, and walnut
Broken Crowd, 2021 — Ceramic tile, mirror, black soap, wax, and mixed media
January in New York is, of course, the middle of winter. The wind cuts right through you, your breath turns white, and the icy sidewalks keep you watching every step.
The main purpose of my trip was to take part in a group show at Max Gallery and visit galleries to promote my work. Luckily, we had a few sunny days, so I took some time out to visit Central Park, MoMA, and other major museums.
Getting lost, panicking, making mistakes, and somehow figuring things out—it all came at me one after another. But looking back, it turned out to be one of the most thrilling and unforgettable experiences of my life.
Stepping into New York
A Trip to New York: January 13–21, 2026
The cityscape photo was taken from my hotel room window. I was surprised by how many of New York’s buildings were made of brick. Their warm, understated brown tones gave the city a calm, relaxed feel.
On a sunny day, I visited Central Park. Maybe because it was a weekday, there were only a few people around. The buildings peeking out from behind the trees made for a beautiful, picture-perfect scene.
The photo of the meal shows a breakfast I cooked myself. There was a supermarket nearby, so I bought some groceries and cooked in the kitchen in my hotel room. I had brought some nori, dried soybeans, and freeze-dried tofu from Japan, which came in really handy.
The map shows the galleries I had checked out in Chelsea. Major galleries such as Gagosian and Pace don’t accept unsolicited approaches from artists, so I focused on other galleries and visited more than a dozen of them.
Times Square is covered with huge digital billboards. It’s simply dazzling and incredibly bright. Artists’ faces and works are sometimes displayed there too. From there, it was about a 30-minute walk back to my hotel.
This photo was taken after I got off the subway and headed toward Chelsea. It had just started to snow. This was my second visit to the area, and this time I was on my way to the Whitney Museum. The first time, I had come to introduce my work to galleries.
At the Whitney Museum, there was an exhibition tracing the development of American art from modern to contemporary. There was also a Calder exhibition, and I was especially fascinated by his early works from before he began making mobiles. He created circus scenes using wire, fabric, and a variety of other materials.
I also saw one of Hopper’s masterpieces, depicting a street corner in Chelsea. Seeing the original gave me a very different impression from reproductions in art books. At first glance, it may look simply painted, but in fact, every detail seems carefully considered. I could also feel the rich depth and weight of the oil paint.
The Guggenheim was also showing works from its permanent collection. It was my first time seeing Picasso’s Woman Ironing. Unlike the reproductions I had seen in art books, the painting was composed of very delicate, pale grays mixed with subtle shades of blue and brown.
Another work was At the Moulin de la Galette, painted before his Blue Period, when Picasso was only nineteen. Although the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec is visible, you can already see Picasso’s distinctive freedom and confidence in his brushwork.