Takehiro Iikawa: Gathering Matters and Mediations
February 28, 2026 – May 6, 2026 10:00―18:00 (no admittance after 17:30)
Takehiro Iikawa attends to the relativity of time and fluctuations in perception, creating works that draw our awareness to the uncertainty of human recognition and to presences often overlooked in society through his careful observation of ordinary scenes and familiar things. His Decorator Crab series, inspired by reflection on the act of recording and the things that inevitably slip through our grasp, freely combines sculpture, painting, photography, and video to create works that reveal the characteristics of their surrounding space—for instance, an enormous pink cat that suddenly appears in the middle of a city, or objects installed indoors and outdoors that shift and transform in response to viewers.
This exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Iikawa’s practice to date, alongside new participatory installations that embrace the ambiguity of information and the imperfection of perception as sources of new possibilities. The response these works elicit recalls the behavior of people so absorbed in play that they lose all sense of time. Perhaps it is beyond such “play,” in a realm that transcends time and space, that someone someday may encounter a vision unlike the familiar sights of everyday life. But when we stumble upon something so completely unexpected—a strikingly vivid experience that leaves us raw with emotion—how can we convey those feelings to others who have not shared them? This exhibition is an invitation to think together about the (im)possibility of transmission.
Takehiro Iikawa
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Born in 1981 in Hyogo and currently based in Kobe, Takehiro Iikawa is best known for his ongoing Decorator Crab series (2007–). His practice, which draws attention to the mechanisms of public spaces and exhibitions, centers on works that shift and change in response to the viewer’s physical perception and imagination, as well as to the contingencies of place. Among his most representative works are Expecting Spectators, which transforms space and generates new relationships between objects through the viewer’s active engagement, and Arrangement, Adjustment, Movement, which activates the fragmentary and incomplete nature of perception as a tool for interpreting physical environments. Notable solo exhibitions include Measuring the Future, Pulling Time (Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, 2023) and Occurring simultaneously or awareness being delayed (The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa, 2022). Iikawa has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Range of the Senses: What It Means to “Experience” Today (The National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2022) and the Yokohama Triennale 2020 (Yokohama Museum of Art/Plot 48). Concurrent with his exhibition at Art Tower Mito, Iikawa will also present solo exhibitions at KOTARO NUKAGA Tennoz (Tokyo) and gallery αM in April 2026.
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Arrangement, Adjustment, Movement, 2020, Yokohama Triennale 2020 (PLOT48), Kanagawa, Japan, Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Mr. Kobayashi the Pink Cat (back view), 2022, The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa, Japan, Photo: Takafumi Sakanaka, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Expecting Spectators, 2024, Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Decorator Crab – Make Space, Use Space, 2022, Collaboration between the group exhibition Range of the Senses: What It Means to “Experience” Today (The National Museum of Art, Osaka) and the solo exhibition Decorator Crab – Make Space, Use Space (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art)., Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Make Space, Use Space, 2022, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan, Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Measuring the Future, Pulling Time, 2023, Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan,Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Measuring the Future, Pulling Time, 2023, Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan,Photo: Takafumi Sakanaka, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Arrangement, Adjustment, Movement, 2018, A-Lab, Hyogo, Japan, Photo: Hyogo Mugyuda, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Fade out, Fade up "Expressway", 2012, Lambda print, mounted on acrylic board, 42×56cm
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Takehiro Iikawa, Referee Stop #1, 2024, Colored pencil on paper, 38×27cm, Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
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Takehiro Iikawa, Installation view: Decorator Crab – Very Heavy Bag, 2021, Chiba City Museum of Art, Japan, Photo: Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
