Suspended Sheets of Cloth, LACMA Gives Reiko Sudō and NUNO Their Largest Survey
Textile Alchemy fills the Resnick Pavilion with more than 100 textiles, suspended sheets and a recreation of NUNO’s Tokyo store.
LACMA opened Textile Alchemy, The Art of Reiko Sudō and NUNO on September 20, and it stays in the Resnick Pavilion through March 7, 2027.
The museum bills the show as the largest in-depth survey to date of Sudō and NUNO, the Japanese textile collective she leads. Sudō has pioneered innovative textiles for more than four decades, and the exhibition gathers over 100 limited edition pieces, many of them from LACMA’s own collection. Alongside the cloth are drawings, sketches, raw materials, tools, mock-ups and prototypes that show how an idea becomes a fabric.
The press release says NUNO has transformed Japanese textile design through experimentation with traditional and contemporary materials and techniques, and that the exhibition traces those processes along with the studio’s work in technology and sustainability. Much of it was made with independent artisans and workshops across Japan, and celebrated architects have put the textiles to use. The museum’s exhibition page adds that NUNO’s work helps preserve regional crafts and historic production centers.
Time Out Los Angeles singled out the sights most likely to stop a visitor, namely suspended sheets of textile, including metallic pieces that it says would be incorporated into the curtains at the new David Geffen Galleries, along with colorful sketches and a recreation of the NUNO store in Tokyo. The magazine listed the show as recommended.
That Geffen connection ties the survey to the newest building on the LACMA campus, which opened to the public in May, as Velvet noted in its coverage of LACMA’s Art and Film Gala. Visitors should expect a show that is as much about process as finished cloth, with tools, raw materials and prototypes set beside the final textiles.
The museum is at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, and the D Line now stops at Wilshire/Fairfax. LACMA opens at 10 a.m. on weekends and 11 a.m. on weekdays, and it is closed Wednesdays, so check the ticketing page for the day you plan to go.
