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In conjunction with the opening of Continuum, the debut solo exhibition in London of Japanese contemporary artist Nomata Minoru, Japan House London is delighted to collaborate with White Cube for a special artist talk taking place at White Cube Mason’s Yard. Nomata will be joined in conversation by Sam Thorne, Director General and CEO of Japan House London.

Over the past four decades, Nomata Minoru has crafted a lexicon of imaginary architectural and topographical forms in his paintings, transcending specific times and places. His visionary works are characterized by their absence of human presence, blending the familiar with the mysterious and the heroic with the haunting. Nomata’s paintings feature solitary architectural structures rising from low horizon lines, reaching towards the sky and descending to subaqueous landscapes, depicting vast hydrological formations such as icebergs, frozen waterfalls, and glaciers, which interact with manmade mechanical elements.

The talk is introduced by Irene Bradbury, Senior Director of Artist Liaison at White Cube and is then followed by a preview of the exhibition, which features new works that expand upon the artist’s Continuum series, first exhibited in Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in 2023.

About the speaker

Nomata Minoru (born 1955) lives and works in Tokyo. He studied design at the Tokyo University of the Arts, graduating in 1979 before taking up a position in an advertising agency in Tokyo. After five years, Nomata left to focus on his painting practice, and in 1986 held his debut exhibition STILL – Quiet Garden at the Sagachō Exhibit Space, an alternative gallery in Tokyo run by creative director Koike Kazuko. Further solo exhibitions include Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo (1993); Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2004); The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan (2010); Sagachō Archives, Tokyo (2012, 2018), De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhillon-Sea (2022) and most recently at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2023). Until recently, Nomata was also Professor at the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo.