Shigeko Kubota. Liquid Reality

21.08.2021 - 01.01.2022

Shigeko Kubota. Liquid Reality

The Museum of Modern Art presents Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality, on view from August 21, 2021, through January 1, 2022. Likening video technology to a “new paintbrush,” New York–based Shigeko Kubota (Japanese, 1937–2015), whose career spanned more than five decades, was one of the first artists to commit to the video medium in the early 1970s. Formally trained as a sculptor, Kubota’s varied accomplishments as an artist, collaborator, curator, and critic helped to shape a pivotal period in the evolution of video as an art form. The first solo presentation of the artist’s work at a US museum in 25 years, this exhibition focuses on a body of work whose resonances are particularly poignant amid today’s digitally interconnected world.

The six sculptural works in the exhibition include: Three Mountains (1976-1979), Berlin Diary: Thanks to My Ancestors (1981), River (1979-1981), Niagara Falls I (1985), Video Haiku (1981), and Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase (1976). The single-channel work, Self-Portrait (c. 1970–71), is Kubota’s earliest known experimentation with video and electronic color synthesis.

Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality is organized by Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, with the support of Veronika Molnar, Intern, Department of Media and Performance.