Image: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
'Floating Worlds: Prints from Osaka & Kyoto' is scheduled for 30 January to 18 April 2027. The exhibition will feature never-before-seen AGSA acquisitions alongside paintings, kimonos and samurai armour.
Opening in January 2027, the exhibition explores the pleasure, fashion and cultural life that flourished in Japan's Kamigata region during the Edo period, from 1603 to 1868. Its focus is kamigata ukiyo-e, or 'pictures of the floating world', a body of work created between about 1790 and 1900 and renowned for its craftsmanship and distinctive visual language, which reveal the unique artistic character of the Kamigata region.
By day, merchants, or chōnin, attended to business and family life; by night, they gathered in theatres, cultural salons and pleasure quarters, inspiring a rich visual culture.
The exhibition will range across images of Kabuki actors, samurai warriors, ghosts, beauties and landscapes. 'Floating Worlds' traces a dynamic tradition of woodblock printmaking born from a prosperous era of artistry.
