Image: Official exhibition poster, Aomori Museum of Art
Aomori Museum of Art will present a solo exhibition by photographer and artist Lieko Shiga titled 'Nanumo Kanumo' (rendered in English on the poster as 'Anything and Everything') from October 31, 2026, to March 14, 2027. It is organised by the Shiga Lieko Exhibition Executive Committee, made up of the museum, Aomori Broadcasting, Aomori Television, Aomori Asahi Broadcasting and the Aomori Prefecture Tourism and International Exchange Organization, and is curated by the museum's Takahiro Okuwaki. The museum describes the project as the largest exhibition of Shiga’s career, bringing together new and older works in photography, video, text and installation. It is also framed by the museum as part of Aomori Museum of Art’s 20th anniversary and a 15-year marker since the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The exhibition title comes from a Sanriku coastal dialect phrase, and the museum says the word opens different meanings depending on who uses it and in what setting. Shiga’s work for the show is drawn from long engagement with Tohoku, including Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata, Akita, Iwate and Aomori. According to the museum, the exhibition emerges from close attention to the land, its history, the voices she has heard and the landscapes she has encountered across the region.
The museum positions Shiga as an artist known for photographs and moving-image works rooted in bodily sensation, light, color and theatrical image-making. The exhibition will revisit key strands in her practice while also introducing new works. Among the highlighted pieces is her series 'Spiral Coast', which the museum identifies as one of the artist’s best-known bodies of work and one that drew major attention after Shiga moved to Miyagi in 2008 and worked in the coastal area of Natori’s Kitakama district.
Shiga was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1980, moved to Miyagi in 2008 and is now based in Ishinomaki. A central focus of the exhibition is Shiga’s evolving exploration of Tohoku in the years before and after the earthquake and tsunami. The museum says the show assembles works made before the disaster alongside later material, with the aim of presenting what Shiga has seen in the process of recovery and in the region’s present conditions. The museum also notes that the exhibition includes a 2025 work titled 'Nanumo Kanumo', newly reconfigured for the venue, as well as other recent pieces such as 'That Place Where the Night Connects' and 'When the Wind Blows'.
The exhibition will be held at Aomori Museum of Art, with opening hours listed as 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on three special evening openings in November, December and January. Admission prices listed by the museum are 1,700 yen for adults and 1,200 yen for university students on the day, with advance tickets at 1,500 yen and 1,000 yen respectively, and a combined ticket with the collection exhibition at 2,060 yen. Admission is free for those 18 and under and for high school students, and also for visitors with disabilities and one accompanying person.
A related program of talks and events is planned alongside the exhibition. The museum lists six events, including an opening talk with Shiga on October 31, 2026, additional sessions focused on themes such as Tohoku, nuclear issues, energy and image, and a closing talk with a special live performance scheduled for March 13, 2027. A marketplace in the museum shop will also feature works and crafts by artists and makers connected to Shiga’s studio and circle of collaborators.
