*Available early September 2026. Pre-order now.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is pleased to present a major solo exhibition of Tada Minami (1924–2014), a leading abstract artist whose work spans sculpture, design, and architecture in postwar Japan. An official exhibition catalog will be published to coincide with this exhibition.

Tada, who produced approximately 200 sculptural pieces and 500 works integrated into architectural spaces over the course of her career, extended her practice far beyond the confines of the museum, leaving her creations in a wide range of urban spaces—including parks, railway stations, city halls, hotels, and theaters—where they have formed an integral part of people’s everyday life over many years. Her body of work, varying widely in both material and scale, includes stainless-steel sculptures that appear to shapely rise skyward, glass and acrylic works that harmonize with surrounding landscapes, and “Illuminated Walls” that contain richly colored light.

Tada was among the pioneering artists who actively incorporated into their artistic expression industrial materials and fabrication technologies—widely adopted during the period of rapid economic growth in Japan. Her works feature smooth, inorganic surfaces that conceal traces of manual labor, while integrating organic elements such as light’s reflection, transmission, refraction, and fluctuation. They respond to changing environments and the movement of viewers, continually transforming their appearance. These explorations represent a departure from the academic conventions of figurative sculpture, which emphasizes mass and stability, and instead align with postwar abstract sculpture oriented toward spatial and environmental relationships. Notably, Tada positioned light not as a mere visual effect but as the very core of form itself. Through her cross-disciplinary practice spanning fine art, product design, interior design, and architecture and her direct engagement with space, she established a unique position within the artistic trends of her time.

With the full cooperation of the Minami Tada Associates, this exhibition presents approximately 70 works, including early paintings, sculptures from various periods, and lighting works—including chandeliers—that the artist described as “Lighting Sculptures” alongside components of architectural works, photographs, sketches, and other archival materials. Together, these works and documents offer a comprehensive and renewed overview of Tada Minami’s nearly seventy-year career. This exhibition catalog examines Tada’s career from multiple perspectives through a wealth of illustrations, columns, and four essays, while also tracing the history of her activities with the help of comprehensive materials such as a chronology.

An exhibition will be held at Morioka Shoten to celebrate the release of the publication–a great occasion to look at the paintings alongside the book.

Exhibition

Tada Minami―Still, shimmering light

August 29–December 6, 2026

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Gallery B2F

Size: 182 × 257mm / Hardcover, French flaps / 232P

Text: Midori Yoshimoto (Gallery Director), Masaharu Hosoda (Architect), Hikari Odaka, Mariko Tamura (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

Design: Yurie Hata

Languages: Japanese / English

Price: 3,500 yen

Publisher: torch press

ISBN: 978-4-907562-68-7

Year: 2026

Tada Minami

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1924 and grew up in Korea. While still in high school, Tada exhibited work at the Chōsen Art Exhibition, where she received an award. In 1944, she graduated from the Oil Painting Department at Joshibijutsu Senmon Gakkō (current Joshibi University of Art and Design). In 1956, she exhibited oil paintings at the 41st Nika Art Exhibition, and then at the 9th Yomiuri Independent Exhibition in 1957. That same year, she produced the relief Coal Mine for the Tanrō Kaikan [Coal Miner’s Union Building] in Tokyo. In 1962, she established the Minami Tada Associates. Her most representative sculptural works include Frequency 37306505 (1965, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), a piece consisting of hemispherical acrylic forms with aluminum vaporific coating to achieve a mirror-like surface, and Chiaroscuro (1979, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), an outdoor stainless-steel sculpture. Her significant architectural works include a lighting sculpture for the new Imperial Palace (1968), Dawn (1970), an illuminated wall composed of approximately 7,600 glass blocks for the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, and Auspicious Clouds (1973), a lighting work inspired by auspicious purple clouds for the RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, Vignette Collection. Tada passed away in 2014. Awards and honors include Excellence Award at the 8th International Art Exhibition, Japan (1965), Grand Prize at the 1st Henry Moore (1979), the 6th Isoya Yoshida Award (1981), the Medal with Purple Ribbon (1988), and the Order of the Precious Crown, Wistaria (1994). Major solo exhibitions in Japan include MINAMI TADA (1991, Mie Prefectural Art Museum and Shoto Museum of Art) and 40th Anniversary Exhibition: Minami Tada (2009, Hakone Open-Air Museum).