Tada Minami—Still, shimmering light

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo · Exhibition Gallery B2F · Tokyo · –

Across 69 numbered works on the official list, the exhibition traces nearly seven decades of Tada Minami bringing metal, glass, and light into sculpture, lighting, and public space. This highlights guide covers twelve works.

In-depth audio guide

Features: Tada Minami: a twelve-work guide to light and material

Plan your visit

Opening hours
10:00–18:00 Until 20:00 on Fridays in November; last admission 30 minutes before closing.
Closed
Mondays (open Sep 21, Oct 12, and Nov 23), plus Sep 24, Oct 13, and Nov 24.
Closed during the exhibition
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Admission
  • Adult ¥1,600
  • University/vocational student or age 65+ ¥1,100
  • Junior-high/high-school student ¥640
Reservation
No reservation required; check the official site for updates.

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Works (12)

  1. 2. Transformer Substation Tada Minami · Oil on canvas · 20th century · 1958 · The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo — Stand a little off-center and follow how the substation becomes a compact rhythm of pressure, conduits, and painted planes.
  2. 5. Coal Mine Tada Minami · Oil on wood panel · 20th century · 1957 · The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo — This oil painting also had a practical task: to communicate an idea for an architectural relief.
  3. 21. Frequency 373055MC Tada Minami · Aluminum · 20th century · 1963 · Minami Tada Associates — Move slowly across the work’s front and let gallery light, not the numerical title, reveal where its aluminum surface changes direction.
  4. 25. Phase-Space 6943 Tada Minami · Acrylic with vacuum-deposited aluminum, steel, motor · 20th century · 1969 · Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama — Watch from a safe distance long enough to distinguish motor-driven change from reflections produced by your own movement.
  5. 27. Autosynchrone Tada Minami · Acrylic · 20th century · 1973 / 2026 · Minami Tada Associates — Read both the material and the dates: the object before you connects 1973 with 2026.
  6. 31. Frequency 37306505 Tada Minami · Acrylic with vacuum-deposited aluminum, steel · 20th century · 1965 · Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo — Use the work’s large upright scale as a reference, then look through, across, and back from its acrylic and mirrored layers.
  7. 46. A Dipole ’89 Tada Minami · Glass / stainless-steel base · 20th century · 1989 · Minami Tada Associates — Move between frontal and oblique views, watching the glass shift from near-transparency to reflection while keeping its stainless-steel base in view.
  8. 54. Mirage Tada Minami · Stainless steel, ceramic panel / linoleum · 20th century · 1989 · Minami Tada Associates — Read stainless steel, ceramic, and linoleum as one installation, noting where an artwork begins to behave like an architectural finish.
  9. 62. Bone China Light Tada Minami · Ceramic · 20th century · 1976 · Minami Tada Associates — Give a lamp the attention you would give a sculpture: look at the object, then its relationship with light.
  10. 65. Lighting Sculpture Tada Minami · Acrylic · 20th century · 1965 / 2026 · Minami Tada Associates — Treat this as a 2026 reconstruction of a 1965 Osaka nightclub installation, and look for the social scale implied by light above or around bodies.
  11. 67. Lighting Sculpture: Auspicious Clouds Tada Minami · Crystal glass and ball chain · 20th century · 1973 / 2026 · Minami Tada Associates — Let your eyes move from individual crystal and chain links to the larger cloud-like field refabricated from a RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka commission.
  12. 68. Auspicious Radiance Tada Minami · Oil on canvas · 21st century · 2013 · Minami Tada Associates — This oil painting lets you consider the color decisions behind a ceramic work that became part of a building.

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