Image: Installation view, MOMAT Collection, Room 12. From left: Yayoi Kusama, ‘Signpost to the Underworld’, 1976; Akiko Maemoto, ‘Great Crimson Lotus’, 1986; Miho Shirai, ‘Waterfall (Why Are You Afraid of Black and White?)’, 1993; all collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Photo: Dai Yanagiba
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, has published a review of Room 12 in its ongoing ‘MOMAT Collection Exhibition’, examining how different representations of the body interact within the gallery. The review was announced by the museum on August 25, 2026, through its web magazine, ‘Gendai no Me’ (‘The Modern Eye’).
The text is written by Kyoko Ozawa, a professor at Rikkyo University. According to the museum, Ozawa guides readers through the exhibition as if they were moving through the room themselves, considering how the works’ images of the body resonate with one another in the exhibition space.
The review specifically discusses works by Yayoi Kusama and Akiko Maemoto, identified in the museum’s announcement by their Japanese names, 草間彌生 and 前本彰子. The museum presents their practices as part of a broader exploration of how bodily imagery is constructed and experienced through the works assembled in Room 12.
Rather than announcing a new exhibition, the feature provides interpretive coverage of a presentation drawn from the museum’s collection. Its emphasis is on the relationship between individual works and the physical experience of viewing them together, with the gallery itself treated as part of the review’s subject.
The museum’s announcement does not specify the opening or closing dates of the Room 12 display. It identifies the presentation as currently on view and directs readers to the full review on the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo’s web magazine.
