To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the National Museum of Art, Osaka’s relocation from Expo Park to Nakanoshima, in the heart of Osaka, we are pleased to present a special exhibition titled “Garden of Painting—Japanese Art of the 00s.” In this event, we focus on new figurative painting from the last decade to showcase the vibrant activities of a younger generation of Japanese artists.

In this exhibition, we present some 200 works by 28 artists, including recent and new works, throughout the museum’s exhibition spaces in the second- and third-floor basements. Among these are the unforgettable O Jun with his witty portraits and iconography; Kobayashi Takanobu, who depicts landscapes and people shrouded in a distinctive kind of light; artists from the preceding generation such as Nara Yoshitomo, who is known for his pictures of young girls with incisive looks; up-and-coming artists like Goto Yasuka, Sakamoto Natsuko, and Atsuchi Tomoko, who were born in the 1980s; and Kusama Yayoi, who has in recent years been exploring new frontiers in painting through her use of line drawings.

Here’s a list of the things I liked the most: