Minimalist Anyway
Project description
Minimalist Anyway is a dialogue exhibition bringing together Japanese-born artists Kazuko Miyamoto (b. 1942, Tokyo) and Lydia Okumura (b. 1948, Brazil). The exhibition brings together historical works made during their respective periods in New York from the 1970s through the mid-1980s, exploring their distinct responses to Minimalism and the social, political and feminist movements that shaped the city’s artistic landscape.
Taking its title from Miyamoto’s observation that “being Japanese you are minimalist anyway”, the exhibition considers how both artists developed practices that offered an ironic counterpoint to Minimalism’s serialised, masculine and industrial character. Working through string, line, sculpture, drawing and installation, Miyamoto and Okumura transformed space in ways that foregrounded perception, the body, manual labour and performance.
Both artists drew on elements of their respective visual cultures. Miyamoto incorporated the Japanese dyeing technique shibori into her practice, while Okumura’s work reflects an engagement with Brazilian geometric abstraction and Japanese calligraphy. Their use of line, string and spatial structures creates works that are simultaneously precise and handmade, inviting the viewer to move through and experience the work bodily.
The exhibition presents a selection of installation works, with a particular focus on string and line sculptures, alongside smaller sculptures, works on paper and plans. Central to both practices is the relationship between the body and the environment, highlighting the importance of time, process and manual labour. The intricacy of the handmade introduces a subtle counterpoint to the industrial logic traditionally associated with Minimalism.
Miyamoto and Okumura also shared an engagement with collective and collaborative practice. In 1980, they participated in Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States, a group exhibition co-curated by Miyamoto and Ana Mendieta at A.I.R. Gallery in New York. Despite the affinities between their practices, this was the only exhibition in which the two artists participated together.
Minimalist Anyway brings their practices into dialogue, highlighting how both artists developed singular approaches to abstraction and spatial practice while challenging the dominant narratives surrounding Minimalism and its predominantly white, male artistic community.
Bio
Kazuko Miyamoto (b. 1942, Tokyo) is a Japanese-American artist whose practice spans sculpture, installation, drawing and performance. Based in New York from the early 1960s, she developed an influential body of work using string, thread and everyday materials to explore space, perception, the body and manual labour. Her practice engages critically with Minimalism while drawing on Japanese traditions and techniques, including shibori.
Recent solo exhibitions include Kazuko Miyamoto at Museo Madre, Naples (2023), Belvedere 21, Vienna (2024), and String Constructions at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2025). Her work has also been presented at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Lydia Okumura (b. 1948, São Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian-Japanese artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing and site-specific work. Her geometric and spatial works use materials including glass, thread, wire and stone to explore perception, balance, space and the relationship between the viewer and the environment. Her work draws on Brazilian geometric abstraction, Japanese calligraphy and the architectural qualities of space.
Recent exhibitions include Lydia Okumura: Immateriality in Everything at Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo (2024), Co(r)respondences: Constructive Affinities/Painting as Surface at Galeria Nara Roesler, New York (2024), and Every Sound Is a Shape of Time at Pérez Art Museum Miami (2024–25). Okumura’s work has also been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and in major exhibitions across the United States, Brazil and Europe.
Project details
Year: 2017
Artists: Kazuko Miyamoto and Lydia Okumura
Exhibition: Minimalist Anyway
Venue: White Rainbow, London
Format: Two-person exhibition
Works: Installation, sculpture, works on paper and plans
Location: London, United Kingdom
Period represented: 1970s–mid-1980s