TOKYO.- This exhibition is the first major survey of the art of Shigeko Kubota (1937–2015) in Japan nearly in three decades. Born in Niigata and educated in Tokyo, Kubota moved to New York in 1964 to join the Fluxus movement. Kubota became internationally known as a pioneering artist for her “video sculpture,” which integrated video into three-dimensional structures. Her contribution to contemporary art, however, has yet to be adequately evaluated.

The goal of the exhibition is to provide an updated and contextualized survey of the Japanese American female artist Shigeko Kubota to international audiences. Shortly after the artist’s passing in 2015, the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation was established in New York at the bequest of the artist to preserve and further the study of Kubota’s life and legacy, in addition to advancing the field of video art. Drawing significantly from a collection of recently restored sculptures, drawings, photographs, and ephemera of the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, and complementing them with additional works from Japanese museums and archival materials from the artist's family, the exhibition will showcase a diverse array of materials for the first time.

What was Kubota thinking and seeking as a female artist who was developing her art on the world stage at the dawn of new media art? The exhibition presents multivalent views of Kubota’s life and work through drawings, photographs, archival documents, and video - including her Duchampiana video sculpture series.

Organizers: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Japan Association of Art Museums

Sponsors: Lion Corporation, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., Nippon Television Network Corporation

Grant support: Terra Foundation for American Art, The Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2020, The Pola Art Foundation

Curators: Mayumi Hamada, The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art / Azusa Hashimoto, The National Museum of Art, Osaka / Mihoko Nishikawa, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / Midori Yoshimoto, New Jersey City University, U.S.A.