Kagawa Naoshima
Japan
Naoshima New Museum of Art opened new exhibitions by Sanitas Pradittasnee and Kenjiro Okazaki as part of the museum’s summer exhibition changeover on Sunday, June 7, 2026. This marks the museum’s first partial exhibition changeover since its opening in 2025. Alongside these presentations, a satellite exhibition for Motoyuki Shitamichi’s Setouchi “Yoichi Midorikawa” Museum also opened. The museum also launched a new library project with indieguerillas and held a series of public programs related to the exhibitions, offering opportunities for new discoveries and exchanges for visitors from both within and outside the island. Further exhibition is planned, with Kei Imazu & Bagus Pandega scheduled for winter 2026.
The Sound of Naoshima by Sanitas Pradittasnee is an open-air installation inspired by the “88 temples of Naoshima” scattered across the island. She conceived the idea for the work in a state of mindfulness only attained through the experience of “listening to the sound of one hand clapping by the ear in mind” derived from a Zen question. It is constructed with traditional Thai techniques as well as materials found on Naoshima, and composed primarily of a stupa, SILENCE, arranged as if blending in with the surrounding nature. Pradittasnee’s work enhances our senses so that we focus on the moment and feel the cycle and transience of nature.
Tender Buttons is an exhibition by Kenjiro Okazaki. Since the 1990s until present day, Okazaki has continuously worked on Naoshima, creating and exhibiting his works. With key concepts such as the time axis of “Kenjiro Okazaki and Naoshima,” “the relationship of words and painting,” and “reserve, remember, renew,” the exhibition explores how small, everyday fragments can be connected to evoke memories and open up new perceptions through works from various time periods, including those created in relation to Naoshima.
Coming this winter is Currents without Anchors, an exhibition by Kei Imazu & Bagus Pandega. Through concepts like currents, purification and preservation, destruction and regeneration, it attempts to visualize the movement of resources across the sea, the expansion of desire, and the disasters and memories that then result from that. Past, present, and future, along with myth and historical fact, all intersect and overlap in a space evocative of underwater life and forests. From a vast amount of driftwood that shifts in the light like waves to a large painting, and 3D-printed wall sculpture, the highly varied body of works connects with the natural materials, forming a giant, breathing living organism, and inviting the viewer to reflect deeply on the environment in which they live and on the state of the world.
Works by the following artists will remain on display until the winter closure:
N. S. Harsha (multipurpose cafe space &CAFE, 1F)
Martha Atienza, Heri Dono, Heri Dono & indieguerillas, Pannaphan Yodmanee (Gallery 1, 1F)
Do Ho Suh (Gallery 2, B1F)
Makoto Aida, Takashi Murakami (Gallery 3, B2F)
Cai Guo-Qiang (Gallery 4, B2F)
About Naoshima New Museum of Art
Opened in May 2025, the Naoshima New Museum of Art (Director: Akiko Miki) is located on a hilltop near the Honmura district of Naoshima. Designed by Tadao Ando as his tenth architectural project for Benesse Art Site Naoshima, the museum presents and collects significant works by artists and groups from across Asia, including newly commissioned site-specific installations. The museum occupies a three-story building with four gallery spaces, a café, and outdoor exhibition areas. Unlike other museums within Benesse Art Site Naoshima, which are primarily dedicated to permanent displays, it combines permanent installations with exhibitions that partially change over time, offering visitors new encounters with art on each visit. In addition to exhibitions, the museum hosts talks, workshops, and other public programs that foster dialogue and exchange among visitors from Japan and around the world.
