VIENNA.- With her ephemeral, sometimes radical works, Kazuko Miyamoto expands the boundaries of Minimal Art and defies simple categorizations. The Belvedere is honoring the Japanese American artist’s oeuvre with the largest international retrospective to date.
Stella Rollig, general director of the Belvedere: Belvedere 21 is the first Viennese museum to exhibit the impressive work of Kazuko Miyamoto, which deserves a permanent place in the history of art. The retrospective highlights the bridges Miyamoto has forged between the Japanese and Western art worlds as well as her roles as an activist and feminist.
Kazuko Miyamoto’s network extends from Tokyo to New York and all the way to Linz. Born in the Japanese capital in 1942, Miyamoto emigrated to the USA in 1964 in order to study art and soon settled in the Lower East Side of New York. She became an early member of the feminist A.I.R. Gallery, the first art space in the USA to be run exclusively by women artists. In 1986, she founded the gallery Onetwentyeight, where she promoted the exhibition of (post-)migrant art. In 1980, Miyamoto came to Austria for the first time to execute works by the US artist Sol LeWitt for the Forum Design exhibition in Linz. Since then, her commitment to various communities has extended to Linz, where she has cultivated enduring artistic and friendly relationships.
Kazuko Miyamoto occupies a unique position in the New York art scene. While she is closely aligned with the pioneers of Minimal Art, her works transcend the strict geometric abstraction of Minimalism and never deny their handmade nature. Despite their ephemeral character, they have a strong, physically defined presence in the exhibition space. In the 1970s in particular, Miyamoto created numerous two- and three-dimensional string constructions—impressive temporary installations consisting of hundreds, sometimes thousands of nails and cotton threads. From 1980 onwards, her works became more organic: Miyamoto twisted paper into ropes and used twigs to connect them to form bridges, ladders, and nests. Her later works frequently feature kimonos, which she wears to perform and dance. The artist thus addresses themes such as identity and belonging in a globalized world.
Eva Fabbris, curator of the exhibition: Following its initial release at MADRE in Naples and ongoing research, this exhibition further expands the number of works and documents on display, offering viewers an even more comprehensive view of this artist’s practice, which is significant from the perspective of her contribution to Minimalism, her feminist activism, and her extraordinary sensitivity straddling Eastern and Western cultures.
Miyamoto is a close observer of her surroundings and is firmly rooted in them. She focuses on working in her communities and largely keeps her distance from the commercial art world. It is only in recent years that her works have gained wider recognition as a result of international exhibitions and acquisitions by major museums in the USA and Europe.
The solo exhibition on the upper floor of Belvedere 21 is the largest international retrospective of Kazuko Miyamoto’s oeuvre to date. Eva Fabbris, the director of MADRE in Naples, presented Kazuko Miyamoto’s work at her institution in 2023 and has provided the concept for the exhibition at the Belvedere, which she is also curating; assistant curator Andrea Kopranovic is supporting the project on site in Vienna. In the circular and symmetrical exhibition architecture, seven short texts provide guidance for visitors, who are free to choose their own paths through the show without following a predetermined, strictly chronological or thematic sequence.
The exhibition comprises around 120 exhibits from the late 1960s to the 2010s, including loans from renowned institutions such as the Met, the Guggenheim, Lentos, SFMOMA, and MADRE. On display are the artist’s early paintings, photographs, drawings, installations, and iconic string constructions—including the approximately three-meter-high, two-part work Black Poppy, or the equally large-format work Trail Dinosaur, which was first shown in 1979 together with a performance by Japanese dancer Yoshiko Chuma and is now being presented for the first time since then. A special program at Belvedere 21 in February will also feature performers who will bring the works to life. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication from the publishing house Silvana Editoriale.
