At the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, NYC: "No Ordinary Light" Marks 75 Years of Akari

The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens, is showing "No Ordinary Light: Akari at 75" from November 4, 2026 through September 5, 2027. The exhibition marks 75 years since Isamu Noguchi began making his Akari light sculptures and asks why they still matter.

The story starts in 1951, when a visit to Gifu led Noguchi to rethink the traditional Japanese chochin lantern. He kept the handmade, collapsible structure but gave the lights new shapes of shade, electric bulbs and modern wire bases. Over roughly three decades he produced more than 200 models. "Akari" is the Japanese word for light, which to him suggested both illumination and weightlessness. As he put it, "Akari is no ordinary light."

The show follows the many ways Noguchi presented the lamps across his career. They sit in dialogue with his sculptures in stone, metal and clay, in settings ranging from intimate domestic interiors to monumental installations. Several displays take cues from landmark presentations, including the Akari's debut at a tea ceremony at the Eames House in 1951 and their appearance in Noguchi's solo show at the 1986 Venice Biennale. The idea running through it is that each lamp is activated by use, encounter and surroundings.

The exhibition is curated by Kate Wiener and Matthew Kirsch. The museum is at 9-01 33rd Road, at Vernon Boulevard, and is open 10 am to 5 pm. For Japanese-speaking visitors, the show's roots in Gifu craft and lantern-making add a familiar thread. With a run of nearly a year, there is time to visit in more than one season.