Sarah Morris’s Colorful Cities: A Must-See Solo Show in Osaka
Sarah Morris: What Is “Trading Authority”?
“Sarah Morris: Trading Authority” is Morris’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan.
The exhibition presents approximately 41 paintings and 17 video works created over more than 30 years of her career.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
1) Most of the works are being shown in Japan for the first time
2) A large new mural, Snowden, created exclusively for this exhibition and viewable only at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
3) Numerous works connected to Osaka are also on display
A distinctive feature of the exhibition is the parallel presentation of paintings and video works. Through cities and architecture, networks and economies, the exhibition reveals how power is exchanged through transactions and contracts. Visitors can gain a comprehensive understanding of Sarah Morris’s investigative artistic practice.
At a press preview event, Sarah Morris herself appeared and spoke about her thoughts and intentions behind the works.
Sarah Morris: Profile
Sarah Morris (born 1967 in the UK) is a New York–based artist whose practice spans a wide range of media. Internationally acclaimed, she is particularly known for her geometric abstract paintings that employ diagrammatic grids.
Since the 1990s, she has produced paintings, films, murals, drawings, and sculptures. These works reflect her deep interest in networks, typologies, architecture, and cities.
Introducing Selected Works by Sarah Morris
Midtown Series
This is one of her representative series. Around 1990, Morris set up an office near Times Square and began creating works inspired by the corporate buildings visible from there.
The paintings depict buildings that existed at the time: the headquarters of an American investment company (the PaineWebber Building, far left), the modernist Seagram Building (center), and the Armory (Madison Square Garden, far right).
Each company chosen for these works has its own unique story. Today, the name PaineWebber no longer exists due to corporate mergers. While the artworks remain, the real-world entities have disappeared as society has changed.
Soundgraph Series
These paintings visualize voices in the form of graphs.
● Work Information
Soundgraph
Created in 2018
Collection of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Spiderweb Series
These works were inspired by spider webs Morris observed in her garden during the stay-at-home period. The radiating webs resonate with the idea of the city as a structure formed by urban dwellers and their networks.
● Work Information
Dilemma
Created in 2020
Hong Kong Series
These works are inspired by buildings in Hong Kong. All of the pieces were created in 2024.
New Mural: Snowden
This mural was created over a 20-day period starting just after the New Year holidays in January 2026, with many people involved in constructing scaffolding and assisting in the process.
It incorporates imagery reminiscent of forests as well as architectural structures. The white dots evoke the image of falling snow.
The mural measures an impressive 18.85 meters wide and 5.95 meters high.
● Work Information
Snowden
Created in 2026 at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art
Exhibition Impressions
In the video installations, visitors can watch several films created by Sarah Morris. One of these works features many scenes that capture fragments of the city.
It feels as though the films visualize how a city functions.
Rather than anthropomorphizing the city as a living being, Morris presents it as a massive apparatus in which politics, economics, and infrastructure are intricately intertwined.
The flow of cars, the movement of buses.
As one drives, hills appear in the distance while buildings stand in the foreground, repeating endlessly.
A man drinking beer, countless bottles transported on a roller conveyor, workers monitoring the process, a huge beer factory and the people who work there.
Although there is no dialogue, the editing—close-ups, wide shots, and cuts—creates a sense of narrative that draws the viewer in.
Watching these films makes you want to uncover the messages conveyed within them, and then look even further beyond. They are works you find yourself watching one after another.
After viewing the films, returning to the paintings allows you to imagine how Sarah Morris perceives cities and translates them into visual form.
Cities around the world—and Osaka in particular—are depicted. Works from earlier periods have rich colors, while pieces created during the COVID-19 era possess a powerful intensity.
How did Morris feel about the city and the era in which each work was created? Thinking about these questions allows each viewer to experience the exhibition from their own perspective.
Please take the opportunity to see the works in person and feel them for yourself.
One of the major highlights: a gigantic wall artwork that can only be seen at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art.
This brand-new work, created right up until the day before the press preview, can only be seen during the exhibition period.
Because it is painted directly onto the wall, it cannot be transported to another venue.
What makes this especially fascinating is that the exhibition also displays the blueprints and detailed daily work schedules used to create this enormous mural.
It is rare to be able to see the design plans and behind-the-scenes process of a newly completed work.
Sarah Morris: Trading Authority — Exhibition Information
Exhibition Period: January 31 (Sat), 2026 – April 5 (Sun), 2026
Venue: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, 5th Floor Exhibition Galleries
Address: 4-3-1 Nakanoshima, Kita-ku, Osaka
Opening Hours: 10:00–17:00 (Last admission at 16:30)
Closed: Mondays, February 24 (Tue)
※ Open on Monday, February 23 (Mon, national holiday)
Admission: Same-day tickets — Adults ¥1,800 (¥1,600), High school & university students ¥1,200 (¥1,000), Junior high school students and younger: Free
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