Art Gallery / Museum Information - Recommended Exhibitions in December 2025

We present the exhibitions of art galleries and museums in December 2025. In addition to the schedule of events, we will provide you with detailed information such as the works on display. Please check the website of each museum for current opening hours before visiting.

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo¡¡¡ÈSol LeWitt: Open Structures¡É

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo presents the first solo exhibition of Sol LeWitt at a Japanese public museum. Since the 1960s, LeWitt explored the central idea of ¡Èconcept¡É in art, developing a practice that emphasized systems, thought processes, and instructions over physical execution. The exhibition features wall drawings, sculptures, works on paper, and artist¡Çs books, shedding light on how his ideas materialize spatially. Six wall drawings and a selection of vibrant structural works allow visitors to experience LeWitt¡Çs distinct approach to form, color, and the logic behind artistic creation.


Period: December 25, 2025 – April 2, 2026
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 1F Special Exhibition Gallery (4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo)
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (Last admission 30 min before closing)
Closed: Mondays (open Jan 12 & Feb 23), Dec 28–Jan 1, Jan 13, Feb 24
Admission: Adults 1,600 yen / University & vocational students & seniors (65+) 1,100 yen / Junior & senior high school students 640 yen / Children free
Organized by: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Cooperation: The Estate of Sol LeWitt
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en/exhibitions/LeWitt/

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum¡¡¡ÈVan Gogh: The Family Who Preserved the Artist¡Çs Dream¡É

This exhibition focuses on how the works of Vincent van Gogh were protected and passed down through generations. It traces the devoted efforts of his brother Theo, Theo¡Çs wife Jo, and their son Vincent Willem, who played vital roles in preserving the artist¡Çs legacy and introducing his work to the world. More than 30 pieces—including oil paintings, drawings, and four letters shown in Japan for the first time—are on view from the Van Gogh Museum collection. The exhibition reveals how the family¡Çs determination helped shape Van Gogh¡Çs posthumous fame and allows visitors to rediscover the artist¡Çs creative journey.


Period: September 12, 2025 – December 21, 2025
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (8-36 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo)
Organizers: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), NHK, NHK Promotions, The Tokyo Shimbun
Cooperation: NISSHA, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
URL: https://gogh2025-26.jp/

Toyota Municipal Museum of Art¡¡¡ÈVISION: Stars and Star Maps¡É

To mark its 30th anniversary, the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art is reexamining its collection from new perspectives in a four-part exhibition series. The second phase, ¡ÈVISION: Stars and Star Maps,¡É highlights two main currents: postwar Japanese art shaped by collective movements, and artists who have pursued their own independent timelines. The show features the reinstallation of Terauchi Yoko¡Çs Pangea: Red Square Line, a new installation by Megumi Mukae, and works by Ayako Miyawaki and women artists associated with the Wiener Werkstätte, among others. Through these diverse practices, the exhibition invites visitors to experience the collection as a constellation of works that together form a ¡Èstar map¡É of intersecting ideas across time and place.


Period: October 4, 2025 – December 21, 2025
Venue: Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (5-1 Kozakahonmachi 8-chome, Toyota, Aichi)
Hours: 10:00–17:30 (Last admission 17:00)
Closed: Mondays (open Oct 13, Nov 3, Nov 24)
Admission: Adults 300 yen [250 yen]; High school & university students 200 yen [150 yen]; Junior high school students and younger free (figures in [ ] are group rates for 20 or more visitors; see official website for exemptions)
Organizer: Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Image credit: SAITO Yoshishige, Complex Body 95, 1995, Collection of Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
URL: https://tinyurl.com/tkfwhntc

Yokohama Museum of Art¡¡¡ÈAlways by Your Side: 80 Years of Art in Japan and Korea¡É

To celebrate the reopening of the Yokohama Museum of Art, this large-scale exhibition traces 80 years of artistic exchange between Japan and Korea. Timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965, the show is co-organized with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Bringing together around 160 works by more than 50 artists, it explores the post-1945 relationship between the two countries through painting, sculpture, photography, moving images, and installations. Featuring works shown in Japan for the first time as well as new commissions, the exhibition offers an opportunity to reconsider historical connections and to imagine new forms of ¡Èneighborliness¡É through art.


Period: December 6, 2025 – March 22, 2026
Venue: Yokohama Museum of Art
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (Last admission 17:30)
Closed: Thursdays, Dec 29 – Jan 3
Admission: Adults 2,000 (1,900) yen; University students 1,600 (1,500) yen; Junior & senior high school students 1,000 (900) yen; Children free
URL: https://yokohama.art.museum/eng/

NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]¡¡¡ÈToward the Great Necropolis of Perception: Interactive Installations by Mikami Seiko¡É

Marking the 10th anniversary of media artist Mikami Seiko¡Çs passing, this exhibition focuses on her pioneering interactive installations. It presents key works from the late 1990s onward, including the newly restored Desire of Codes and efforts to conserve her seminal installation, World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body, which led to the construction of ICC¡Çs anechoic room. Through environments that respond to the viewer¡Çs presence, movement, and sensory perception, the exhibition revisits Mikami¡Çs lifelong inquiry into how bodies, data, and space intersect. Visitors are invited to reconsider the relationship between perception and the world in the context of today¡Çs media-saturated society.


Period: December 13, 2025 – March 8, 2026
Venue: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Galleries A & B
Hours: 11:00–18:00 (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (if Monday is a national holiday, closed the following day), year-end and New Year holidays (Dec 29 – Jan 5), and building maintenance day (February 8)
Admission: Adults 1,000 yen (900 yen); University students 800 yen (700 yen) *Figures in parentheses are group rates for 15 or more visitors; various discounts available; free admission for visitors with disability certificates and one companion, visitors aged 65 and over, high school students and younger, and Grutto Pass holders.
URL: https://tinyurl.com/298b4vem

Art Tower Mito, Contemporary Art Gallery¡¡¡ÈISOZAKI Arata: Architecture as Archipelago¡É

From November 2025 to January 2026, Art Tower Mito¡Çs Contemporary Art Gallery presents ISOZAKI Arata: Architecture as Archipelago, the first large-scale retrospective in Japan since the architect¡Çs passing in late 2022. The exhibition surveys Isozaki¡Çs far-reaching practice, which extends from cities and buildings to visual art, music, and philosophy, framing his projects as an interconnected ¡Èarchipelago¡É of ideas. Through models, drawings, sketches, photographs, and installations, visitors can trace the development of one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. Held in the very complex designed by Isozaki himself, the show offers a rare opportunity to experience his thinking both on paper and in built form.


Period: November 1, 2025 – January 25, 2026
Venue: Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (Last admission 17:30)
Closed: Mondays (open Nov 3, Nov 24, Jan 12), year-end and New Year holidays (Dec 27 – Jan 3), and temporary closures on Nov 4, Nov 25, and Jan 13
Admission: Adults 900 yen; Groups of 20 or more 700 yen; High school students and younger, visitors aged 70 and over, and visitors with disability certificates and one companion: free; Annual pass 2,000 yen; ¡ÈFirst Friday¡É discounts for students and visitors aged 65–69 (100 yen, ID required)
Image credit: Tsukuba Center Building, completed 1983, completion photograph, 1983, © Kochi Prefecture, Ishimoto Yasuhiro Photo Center. Photo: Ishimoto Yasuhiro
URL: https://tinyurl.com/yemc63wy

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT¡¡¡ÈLearning from Design Maestros¡É

This exhibition shines a spotlight on leading masters of 20th-century design, introducing them as ¡Èdesign mentors¡É for our time. In an era of rapidly circulating information and sweeping social change, the show looks back at how these designers opened up new horizons with strong convictions and hopeful visions. Spanning fields such as graphic design, product design, and architecture, the exhibition traces their careers, methods, and ways of seeing the world. By encountering the curiosity, persistence, and courage that fueled their practice, visitors are invited to reflect on how design can offer new perspectives and guidance for the future.


Period: November 21, 2025 – March 8, 2026
Venue: 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Gallery 1 & 2
URL: https://tinyurl.com/2s3brsz6

Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art¡¡¡ÈHIRAKO Yuichi: ORIGIN¡É

HIRAKO Yuichi: ORIGIN at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art presents a wide-ranging selection of works by the artist, who explores the shifting boundaries between plants, nature, and human beings. Paintings, sculptures, and installations fill the galleries with lush imagery and delicate color, evoking the presence of living things that quietly inhabit our everyday surroundings. The exhibition features the new work Lost in Thought: Origin alongside earlier pieces that trace the artist¡Çs evolving vocabulary. On the final weekend, a signing event will celebrate the publication of the official catalogue, and limited-edition postcards will be offered as purchase bonuses, giving visitors further opportunities to engage with Hirako¡Çs imaginative world.


Period: September 16, 2025 – November 9, 2025
Venue: Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Basement Exhibition Room
Hours: 9:00–17:00 (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Admission: Adults 1,500 yen; Visitors aged 65 and over and university students 1,300 yen; High school students and younger free
Image credit: Twin Flames in the Azure Castle
URL: https://okayama-kenbi.info/exh-20250916-hirako/

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo¡¡¡ÈMOT Collection: Multiple Self-portraits
Special Feature NAKANISHI Natsuyuki IKEUCHI Akiko: Arc and Catenary¡É


To mark the 30th anniversary of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, this MOT Collection exhibition features two intertwined presentations that spotlight recent acquisitions and the broader practices of the artists behind them. Multiple Self-Portraits examines how images of the self are refracted through masterpieces of the past, historical events, and scenes from everyday life, revealing layered and shifting identities. NAKANISHI Natsuyuki & IKEUCHI Akiko – Arcs and Catenaries brings together new collection works and site-specific installations by the two artists, creating a space in which the body serves as a starting point for sensing the expansion of the world around us.


Period: December 25, 2025 – April 2, 2026
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Collection Gallery
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (open Jan 12 & Feb 23), Dec 28 – Jan 1, Jan 13, Feb 24
Admission: Adults 500 yen; University & vocational students 400 yen; High school students & seniors (65+) 250 yen; Junior high school students and younger free
URL: https://tinyurl.com/48nswu8k

PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO¡¡¡ÈCollection of Works Publishing Commemorative Exhibition
Ejogoe Crossing Line¡É


Crossed Lines is a new solo exhibition by emerging artist EGAMI Etsu, held at PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO to commemorate the publication of a new monograph. The show presents a selection of portraits featured in the book, depicting figures closely connected to the artist, including Tanaami Keiichi and Hoshimachi Suisei. Bold, fluid lines and vivid colors animate the surfaces, capturing not only the likeness of each sitter but also the energy of their presence. The exhibition space, designed by architect Kuma Taichi, extends the world of Egami¡Çs paintings into an immersive environment, allowing visitors to experience the works as they unfold across the gallery.


Period: December 5, 2025 – December 22, 2025
Venue: PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, 4F Shibuya PARCO
Hours: 11:00–21:00
URL: https://tinyurl.com/52hzepdw

POLA Museum of Art¡¡¡ÈHIRAKU Project Vol.17¡¡Yamadakazuki¡¡Echoes in the Earth¡É

As part of the HIRAKU Project series, this exhibition introduces the practice of Yamada Kazuki, who works with traditional mosaic techniques using finely crushed stone, tiles, and smalti. Drawing on local folktales, myths, and oral traditions, Yamada likens the repetitive act of breaking stone to ¡Èechoes¡É reverberating through the land. His works conjure a sense of ambiguity and invite viewers to gaze into invisible realms that lie beneath the surface of everyday life. Alongside representative pieces, the exhibition premieres his largest mosaic to date, including a new work inspired by the legends of Hakone titled The Trickster of Mount Hakone, offering a contemplative encounter with memories embedded in place.


Period: December 13, 2025 – May 31, 2026
Venue: POLA Museum of Art, 1F Atrium Gallery
URL: https://tinyurl.com/58r6kjp3


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