Exhibition

  • A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond
    Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata, and Junya Ishigami
    Artists
    Pedro Gadanho and Phoebe Springstubb
    Curators
    Museum of Modern Art, New York
    Mar 13, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016
  • GRANTEE
    Museum of Modern Art
    GRANT YEAR
    2015

Toyo Ito, Sendai Mediatheque, 1995-2001, Miyagi, Japan. Courtesy of Naoya Hatakeyama.

The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond focuses on the network of several generations of innovative Japanese architects and designers that has developed around Pritzker Prize winners Toyo Ito and SANAA, revealing how shared architectural themes define a strong identity for a regional practice with global impact. Organized by Pedro Gadanho, director of the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon, and former curator of contemporary architecture at MoMA, the presentation explores the work of six contemporary Japanese architects through the display of models, drawings, and photographs: the innovative architect Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the renowned studio SANAA, Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata, and Junya Ishigami. A Japanese Constellation is accompanied by a print publication with new scholarship on the architects; a sub-site on the Museum's website; and a public program featuring architects and historians.

Pedro Gadanho joined the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon, in fall 2015 as its new director. Previously, Gadanho served as curator of contemporary architecture at the Museum of Modern Art. Upon joining MoMA in 2012, he oversaw the Young Architects Program and organized Conceptions of Space: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Architecture (2014); Cut 'n' Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City (2013); and 9+1 Ways of Being Political: Fifty Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design (2012). Gadanho holds an MA in art and architecture and a PhD in architecture and mass media. He is the author of Interiores 01010 and Arquitetura em Público, as well as a recipient of the Fostering Arts and Design (FAD) Prize for Thought and Criticism (2012). Gadanho was the editor of BEYOND bookazine, writes the ShrapnelContemporary blog, and contributes regularly to international publications. He curated Metaflux at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale and was chief curator of ExperimentaDesign in Lisbon between 2001 and 2003.

Phoebe Springstubb is a curatorial assistant in MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design, where she has worked on Frank Lloyd Wright and the City: Density vs. Dispersal (2014); Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes (2013); and Cut 'n' Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City (2013). She holds an AB in architecture and an MArch from Princeton University. Previously, she worked for Toshiko Mori Architect, where her projects included a design for the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. In 2013, she received an award from the Graham Foundation for her research project, Casino Capitalism: The American City's Stake in Luck.

Founded in 1929, MoMA is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world. The Museum manifests this commitment by establishing, preserving, and documenting a permanent collection of the highest order; by presenting exhibitions and educational programs of unparalleled significance to its diverse audience; by sustaining a library, archives, and conservation laboratory that are recognized as international centers of research; and by supporting scholarship and publications of preeminent intellectual merit