Art Gallery of New South Wales Lands a Major Takashi Murakami Retrospective, Opening in Sydney This December
Sydney is about to get its first full-scale encounter with Takashi Murakami’s universe. On December 5, 2026, the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) will open “Takashi Murakami,” a city-exclusive retrospective that surveys three decades of the Japanese artist’s work across 150 pieces, from early 1990s experiments to the instantly recognizable imagery that helped define his Superflat aesthetic.
The exhibition, which runs through July 18, 2027, will unfold across part of AGNSW’s Naala Badu building, the museum’s relatively new subterranean expansion dedicated to modern and contemporary art. According to the institution, the presentation will include paintings, sculptures, video, and large-scale installations, positioning the show as Murakami’s most expansive Australian museum project to date.
Murakami has appeared in Australia before, but only in limited form. In 2019, he produced a new mural for AGNSW as part of the group exhibition “Japanese Supernatural.” The forthcoming retrospective marks a different scale of commitment, and a significant moment for a country that has not previously hosted a comprehensive museum survey of the artist whose work has traveled widely across Europe, Asia, and the United States.
AGNSW will begin the narrative in the Ainsworth Family Gallery, tracing Murakami’s development from his early 1990s work to the visual language that later became ubiquitous. The museum frames this arc as an evolution from a would-be manga creator who struggled to find a foothold, to a globally influential artist who articulated Superflat as both a formal strategy and a politically charged critique of postwar Japanese culture, consumerism, and the collapse of distinctions between “high” and “low” imagery.
The exhibition’s climax is set for one of the building’s most unusual spaces: the Nelson Packer Tank, a 23,680-square-foot former oil reserve used during World War II. There, Murakami will premiere new works currently in production at his Tokyo studio, a highly organized operation that has long fueled comparisons to the Factory-era model of American Pop artist Andy Warhol.
Murakami is also contributing new writing to the exhibition catalog. His text will appear alongside essays by AGNSW senior curator of Asian art Melanie Eastburn and Ed Schad, curator and publications manager at The Broad in Los Angeles. The Broad debuted a traveling survey of Murakami’s work in 2022, underscoring the artist’s continued institutional momentum as museums reassess the cultural stakes of his bright surfaces and mass-media fluency.
“Takashi Murakami” is one of two exhibitions presented under New South Wales’ Sydney International Art Series, now in its 16th year. The other project will spotlight French installation artist Philippe Parreno, who is set to transform two floors of the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art Australia using artificial intelligence, robotics, sound, and light.
In press materials, Steve Kamper, Australia’s minister for jobs and tourism, called the Murakami booking “a fantastic coup,” arguing that the exhibition will bring “significant economic benefits” to the state while reinforcing Sydney’s cultural profile.
“Takashi Murakami” will be on view at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney, from December 5, 2026, to July 18, 2027.
