Visionary paintings of imaginary landscapes that transcend time and place.
The visionary paintings of Minoru Nomata depict imaginary landscapes that transcend time and place. Featuring architectural superstructures and topographical forms devoid of human presence, his uncanny depictions are portals into mysterious and uncertain worlds.
Coming from a family who ran a business dyeing kimono fabrics, Nomata grew up in Tokyo’s industrial district of Meguro during a period of rapid urban and economic growth in Japan. Amidst this evolving landscape, he became fascinated by the structural design of factories, chimneys, and water towers throughout his hometown, which would eventually lead him to create his own architectural depictions.
Nomata has drawn upon a vast array of references in his work: from elements of Greek and Roman architecture to tropes from Medieval and Renaissance painting; from the machine-age aesthetic of the American ‘precisionist’ painter Charles Sheeler to the ambient musical compositions of Erik Satie and Brian Eno. Underpinning this wide-reaching vocabulary is a continuing search for unseen dimensions within each of the landscapes that he creates, which are as strangely familiar as they are prophetic. While conjured from the artist’s imagination as science-fictional renderings of reality, the worlds that Nomata depicts are always rooted in a familiar visual language, one of collective memory and a shared sense of responsibility for the environments that we inhabit.
For this solo exhibition, Nomata’s first outside of Asia, he has responded to the architecture of our Grade I listed building through a site-specific display that reflects its modernist structure whilst also connecting to its nautical setting. Demarcating the gallery is a series of wooden mast-like display structures connected above by a network of wire support, imitating the forms and sightlines one would encounter whilst navigating a shipyard.
Presented across each mast and the surrounding walls is a selection of works made over the last thirty years, which evidence Nomata’s blending of the industrial with the fantastical, the archaic and the futuristic. Brutalist in beauty, aerodynamic in form and ambient in their atmosphere, Nomata’s landscapes are meditations on an ever-changing world and vehicles to alternative futures.
See our short film about the exhibition below:
Minoru Nomata (born 1955, Tokyo) lives and works in Tokyo. He studied design at Tokyo University of the Arts, graduating in 1979 before taking up a position in an advertising agency in Tokyo. After five years Nomata left in order to focus on his painting practice, and in 1986 held his debut exhibition ‘STILL – Quiet Garden’ at the Sagacho Exhibit Space, an alternative gallery in Tokyo run by Kazuko Koike. Further solo exhibitions include Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo (1993); Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2004); The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan (2010) and recently at White Cube, Hong Kong (2021).
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There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following :
- By Rail
Direct trains go from London Victoria, Brighton and Ashford to Bexhill.
There are also trains from London Charing Cross, changing at St. Leonards Warrior Square and from London Bridge or Charing Cross going to Battle. Battle is only a short taxi journey away (15 mins approx).
Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for up-to-date train travel information. - Taxis
Town Taxis: 01424 211 511
Parkhurst Taxis: 01424 733 456 - By Car
If driving from the London area:
Take the M25, then A21 to Hastings. Turn off at John‘s Cross and follow the signs to Bexhill.
OR
Take the A22 to Eastbourne, go across the Bishop roundabout to the A271 and follow the signs to Bexhill and the seafront. The De La Warr Pavilion is on the Marina.
From the Brighton area:
Follow the A27 out of Brighton until you arrive in Bexhill On Sea. - Parking
Please be aware the Rother District car park outside the De La Warr Pavilion operates paid parking until 7pm. After this time parking is free. There is also lmiited free car parking along the seafront.
Within the limits of this Grade One listed building, the De La Warr Pavilion strives to be fully accessible with a range of facilities to support your visit.
Assistance Dogs are permitted into the building.
Please contact the Box Office on 01424 229 111 to arrange a visit.
Facilities for disabled visitors
- Ramped access at the front of the building
- A low counter at the Box Office and Information Desk
- Disabled toilets on two floors
- A lift to all floors
- Accessible galleries on both floors
- An accessible Café
- Spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium for seated events
- Ramped access in the auditorium for events during the day
- Ramped access into the Studio
- Two travel wheelchairs are available for use at the De La Warr Pavilion. To reserve, please call our box office and information desk on (01424) 229111 or ask a member of staff on arrival. The chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and are intended for use inside the Pavilion. Please contact us for more information.
Facilities for blind or visually-impaired
- Large print season brochures
Facilities for the hard-of-hearing
- An T-Switch induction loop in some areas of the auditorium (please indicate when booking as this facility is not available on the balcony)
- British Sign Language interpretation tours of the building and exhibitions are available on request.