Yoshitomo Nara heads to SFMOMA in autumn 2027 with around 100 works
The retrospective will span painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and photography, including Voyage of the Moon’s first overseas presentation.
A major Yoshitomo Nara retrospective is planned for autumn 2027 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. SFMOMA says approximately 100 works will span painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and photography. Presented in the seventh-floor galleries, it will be Northern California’s first comprehensive survey of his practice. For viewers familiar with the wide-eyed children, the prospect is to return an iconic figure to a longer creative journey. This remains an exhibition announcement rather than an already-open destination.
Nara’s 2026 Matryoshka layers figure and colour.Yoshitomo Nara seated in front of an image-covered wall.
A moon above a wooden house becomes a central work
The museum highlights the first overseas presentation of the 2006 installation Voyage of the Moon (Resting Moon). Inspired by the artist’s painting studio, it places a painted moon head above a roof, appearing to watch over the surroundings. The work belongs to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Unlike a picture hung on a wall, it asks viewers to consider house, head and their own bodily scale together.
The wooden-house motif expands looking at an image into confronting a place. Moon and night sky connect with Nara’s childhood imagination, while the studio points to where painting happens. Bringing media into a shared trajectory allows comparison of how solitude, a gaze or watchfulness can move from a face into a surrounding space.
Where to look beyond the wide-eyed figures
SFMOMA describes the recurring solitary figures as vulnerable and resolute, connecting Nara’s practice with folk music, punk and postwar visual culture. These are curatorial directions rather than instructions to reduce every expression to a single emotion. Begin with empty backgrounds, the direction of a gaze and whether text or an object changes the figure’s distance from the viewer.
Photography, sound and reused objects also show that recognition need not depend on one painting style. Newcomers can start with familiar portraits before comparing lines on paper, sculptural materials and installation space. Those with previous exhibition or collecting experience may find more in how a theme is remade across periods than in identifying only the most famous face.
What still needs confirmation for a 2027 trip?
Guest curator Mika Yoshitake and Nancy Lim, SFMOMA’s Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture, organise the exhibition. The museum’s October 13 announcement specifies autumn 2027, the seventh floor and approximately 100 works, without complete opening and closing dates or exhibition-specific ticket details. Anyone planning international travel should wait for confirmed dates before linking flights and accommodation; “autumn” should not be converted into an invented day.
SFMOMA will host the retrospective in autumn 2027.
SFMOMA is at 151 Third Street, San Francisco, with other collections and exhibitions on view. Free public spaces do not mean every gallery is free. Check admission, floor access and photography rules when details become available. The announcement’s clearest direction is a view of Nara through multiple media, moving beyond labels such as cute or rebellious. The final work list remains subject to subsequent museum announcements.
