A Rotating Exhibition Series Celebrating the Japan Room
Japan in Practice is a rotating exhibition series presented in celebration of the International Museum of Surgical Science’s new Japan Room, opening October 23, 2026. Bringing together contemporary artists, cultural practitioners, and objects from the Japanese Culture Center collection, the series explores relationships among art, the body, material, memory, health, and everyday life.
Changing exhibitions consider how artistic and cultural practices—from calligraphy, tea, and textiles to contemporary interdisciplinary art—carry knowledge through the body and across generations. Presented alongside the Museum’s collections and its Anatomy in the Gallery program, Japan in Practice expands conversations about health and the human experience through artistic and cultural practices connected to Japan.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Palmarin Merges — ART LOAF: DAILY SLICE
September 18–November 8, 2026 | Gallery 4F
In ART LOAF: DAILY SLICE, interdisciplinary artist Palmarin Merges considers art-making as an essential part of everyday life and wellbeing. Inspired by her experiences walking through Japan, Merges gathers overlooked objects and visual fragments encountered along the way, transforming them through book arts, textiles, found materials, photography, and hand-carved stamps.
Through acts of walking, collecting, observing, and making, the exhibition asks how sustained attention to our surroundings can alter perception and reconnect us with the physical world. The works reflect an ongoing daily practice in which creativity becomes a means of nourishing both body and mind.
The Way of Tea
September 18–November 8, 2026 | Gallery 4B
Japanese tea ceremony, or chanoyu (茶の湯), is a living practice shaped through the preparation and sharing of a bowl of tea. Within this seemingly simple yet carefully considered act, objects, gestures, movement, attention, hospitality, and relationships come together.
The Way of Tea presents tea utensils and related materials from the collection of the Japanese Culture Center of Chicago, including objects from the collections of the late Ikka Nakashima Sensei and Omar Francis Sensei, as well as objects acquired by the Center. Additional objects are drawn from the private collection of Mami Takahashi. Accompanied by video documentation, the exhibition considers how cultural knowledge is carried through objects, embodied practice, and relationships between teacher and student, host and guest.