Istanbul Modern is hosting a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of diplomatic relations between Japan and Turkey. Undoubtedly, the most striking feature of the exhibition is the large-scale installation the artist created specifically for Istanbul Modern. Curated by Öykü Özsoy Sağnak and Yazın Öztürk, the exhibition focuses on themes such as memory, existence, migration, journeys, and the human experience—subjects Shiota frequently explores through various mediums, including performance, video, installation, and painting.

This summer, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston ( ICA) opens the 2025 Watershed season with "Chiharu Shiota: Home Less Home", on view May 22 through Sept.1, 2025. The exhibition features two large-scale installations by the Berlin-based, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota (born 1972 in Osaka, Japan), including the debut of a new commission made for the ICA Watershed. Shiota foregrounds universal stories of migration, home, connection, memory, and survival. Her signature approach combines intricate, immense, and web-like installations built of thread and rope with quotidian objects—such as shoes, suitcases, beds, chairs, dresses, and keys—that serve as symbols for human presence and memory.

Acclaimed for the singularity of her work, at once melancholy and mysterious, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, of the Templon gallery, has set up shop at the Grand Palais until March 19, to reveal in a masterly exhibition a body of work shot through with illness, underlined by her compulsive weaving of threads unfolding in dazzling spidery enchantments.

Co-organized by the GrandPalaisRmn in Paris and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, “The Soul Trembles” is the largest exhibition ever devoted to Berlin-based Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota in France, showcasing over two decades of her multifaceted career. Known since the mid-’90s for her monumental installations of interwoven wool that envelop everyday objects like chairs, keys, suitcases, pianos and clothes, she invites visitors into dreamlike, immersive spaces that explore themes of memory, temporality and human connection. “Threads become tangled, intertwined, broken off, unraveled,” she says. “They constantly reflect a part of my mental state, as if they were expressing the state of human relationships. The black expresses the vast expanse of this deep universe, while the red expresses the red threads that connect one person to another, as well as the color of blood. ” Spanning more than 1,200 square meters, the exhibition includes seven large-scale installations alongside sculptures, photographs, videos, drawings and archival materials, offering a comprehensive overview of Shiota’s practice, which combines performance, body art and installations. By presenting these works, she aims to convey the tremors of her soul, drawing from personal experiences of life’s fragility to create a deeply poetic and emotional journey for viewers. She discusses her current show at the newly-renovated Grand Palais in Paris, on view through March 19, 2025.