Tsubaki Noboru: FREEDOM *

The Towada Art Center is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Tsubaki Noboru, one of Japan’s foremost contemporary artists. The exhibition will run from June 6 to November 8, 2026.
In a career spanning around 40 years from the significant early work Chameleon Eater (1985), Tsubaki has continued to interrogate the realities of modern capitalist society through the modeling of giant, seemingly mutant life forms. Catapulted to the forefront of the contemporary art scene following a stunning international debut in 1989 with the massive yellow monster FRESH GASOLINE, in 2001, at the Yokohama Triennale, Japan’s first major international art show, he attracted even wider attention with the giant inflatable sculpture Insect World, made in collaboration with Muroi Hisashi.
The mammoth crimson-red robotic ant aTTA (2008) installed outdoors at the Towada Art Center is the only rendition of this work on permanent display in the artist’s home country, and makes a powerful impression on all who visit.
Showcasing works employing different techniques and formats, the exhibition will focus especially on the latest of the artist’s giant life forms, unveiled for the first time here.
This first Japanese museum exhibition devoted exclusively to the work of Tsubaki Noboru in 14 years, and his first in the Tohoku region, promises to be a peerless survey of a multifaceted practice spanning more than four decades.