Coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale, from May 9 to September 13, 2026, the Museum of Oriental Art in Venice presents Keita Miyazaki – From Water to Form, a solo exhibition by the Japanese artist, curated by Pier Paolo Scelsi, Ilaria Cera, and Riccardo Freddo, with scientific direction by Elisabetta Barisoni, Marta Boscolo Marchi, Daniele Ferrara, and Stefania Portinari. The exhibition is promoted by the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Veneto – Museum of Oriental Art, gallery rosenfeld, and CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo, with the patronage of the Consulate General of Japan in Milan and the Japan Foundation.
In From Water to Form, water — an original presence, generative principle, and transformative force — becomes both interpretive key and symbolic material: capable of destruction and regeneration, of erosion and fertility, inscribing within matter and collective memory a continuous cycle of dissolution and rebirth. It is an element that runs through both Japanese culture and the very identity of Venice, a city built upon a fragile balance between nature and human intervention.
Within the setting of the Museum of Oriental Art at Ca’ Pesaro, a building that embodies Venice’s history and openness to cultural exchange and houses one of Europe’s most significant collections of Japanese Edo-period art, the project finds further resonance. Venice itself emerges as a natural curatorial device: a city built on water, a crossroads of exchanges between Europe and Asia, a place where cultures, materials, and techniques have met and transformed over centuries. Here, water is not merely a theme but a living presence, capable of reflecting and amplifying the meaning of the works.
