Michiko Nakatani's "Shadow, Lulling the Fish to Sleep" at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe City.

2025/09/08

Beginning September 5, 2025, the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art presents Collection Exhibition I: Special Feature — Form in Art: Perceiving with the Hand, showcasing a new work by artist Michiko Nakatani (born 1981, Tokyo), "Shadow, Lulling the Fish to Sleep".

Form in Art—Perceiving with the Hand is a unique series of exhibitions launched in 1989 that allows visitors to touch and experience artworks directly. Now in its 35th iteration, the series has long provided opportunities for audiences—including those with visual impairments—to engage with art through the sense of touch as well as sight.

For this occasion, Nakatani has created a monumental relief measuring over ten meters in length, the result of a year-long process. Confronted with the limitations of her studio space, she produced the work in sections that came together as a complete whole for the first time in the exhibition gallery. While she usually applies color to her works, Nakatani deliberately chose not to use pigment here, instead exploring how form and shadow alone might speak. By running their hands across the surface, viewers are invited to sense the relationships between forms, distances, and voids, discovering something “visible” even with eyes closed.

This exhibition offers a chance to reconsider the very meaning of “seeing,” navigating the boundaries between touch and vision. We warmly invite you to experience Michiko Nakatani’s latest challenge in person.

2025 Collection Exhibition I:
Form in Art—Perceiving with the Hand
Nakatani Michiko "Shadow, Lulling the Fish to Sleep"

Dates: September 5 (Fri) – December 14 (Sun), 2025
Venue: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (1-1-1 Wakinohama Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe City 651-0073 [Inside HAT Kobe])
Official Website: [link]