LOUIS VUITTON unveils two exhibitions in Osaka

Louis Vuitton announces the opening of Visionary Journeys, an immersive exhibition presented at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka from July 15 to September 17, 2025.

Images by Jeremie Souteyrat.

Coinciding with World Expo Osaka Kansai 2025 and marking 170 years since the founding of the House, the exhibition offers a transformative journey through Louis Vuitton's creative heritage and its enduring cultural dialogue with Japan. Curated by renowned fashion historian Florence Müller and designed by Shohei Shigematsu-OMA, Louis Vuitton’s Visionary Journeys is an all-encompassing voyage that unfolds across twelve thematic chapters, illuminating the House's evolution through innovation, savoir-faire, and global exploration.

Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, which opened to the public in 2022, is already considered among the leading cultural institutions in Japan for modern and contemporary art. From its solid black cubic façade to its soaring interior, the museum has a transporting effect that the exhibition builds upon as visitors enter the dynamic 12-room scenography designed by Shohei Shigematsu-OMA. Presenting more than 1,000 objects with upwards of 200 Japan-specific artefacts, the show paints a remarkable portrait of the House – from its origins to its latest creations – in tribute to a long-lasting and precious relationship with Japan.

Visitors enter through the Atrium where eight monumental trunk columns composed of Monogram washi paper are lit from within. Guests are then greeted by two distinct Trunkscapes – created by Shohei Shigematsu-OMA, these are the signature installations of theVisionary Journeys

exhibition. The journey continues with Asnières, a room that traces the House's origins and key milestones as an evolution of time from both the family perspective and the workshops that remain active today.

In Origins, the archives outline the origins of the House through to the present – including flat-top trunks, Steamer bags, and the revolutionary lock system and the narrative continues with Expeditions, where rugged travel pieces, from zinc trunks to "Secrétaire Bureau Stokowski", accompany tales of explorers and pioneers.

Louis Vuitton and Japan underscores the deep cultural exchange between Louis Vuitton and Japan, from the House's early Japonisme inspirations to contemporary collaborations with Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Rei Kawakubo, and NIGO®. From the tradition of tea ceremonies to the fascination with kawaii, Louis Vuitton pieces and authentic artefacts from internationally renowned museums' collections are displayed on floating tatami platforms, which are mirrored on the ceiling in the form of tatami lights.

Materials offers a tactile exploration of the four elements at the heart of Louis Vuitton trunks: wood, metal, leather, and canvas and, staged like a large-scale celestial map, the Monogram canvas space shines a spotlight on the 1896 canvas created by Georges Vuitton. An original sample from 1897, rediscovered in the Archives de Paris, is exhibited here for the first time in a central vitrine, surrounded by iconic creations that have carried the Monogram motif through generations of reinvention on a suspended, sinuous platform with rotating rings.

The Workshop honours the craftspeople behind each creation – notable in this space are two bespoke trunks: a Toolbox Trunk for Sho Hirano, artist and House ambassador, and a Courrier Trunk for Osaka-born designer Verdy. In Testing, visitors witness the engineering behind longevity.Atelier Rarex – a contraction of rare and exceptional – refers to the House's dedicated high-fashion and bespoke workshop located at Place Vendôme in Paris, which produces one-of-a-kind couture pieces worn by celebrities at global events, including the Met Gala and the Academy Awards. The mansard roof of the Louis Vuitton Maison Vendôme in Paris becomes a backdrop for notable celebrity looks.The exhibition culminates in Collaborations, a room dedicated to artistic encounters that have shaped fashion history. From the graffiti of Stephen Sprouse to the Supreme x Louis Vuitton crossover, and the immersive worlds of Kusama and Murakami, this room is a celebration of creativity without borders.

From one awe-inspiring space to the next, and through archival items, sketches, artworks, trunks, bags, and multimedia installations, Visionary Journeys reveals how Louis Vuitton continues to reimagine the Art of Travel, extending its forward vision to the way we experience culture, beauty, and innovation.The book "Louis Vuitton Japan", a collaborative publication with Rizzoli Editions will also be available in pre-launch in July in the Nakanoshima giftstore, in Rizzoli and Louis Vuitton stores.

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In parallel with World Expo Osaka Kansai 2025, the Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka is proud to present YAYOI KUSAMA - INFINITY – Selected Works from the Collection, a brand new exhibition bringing together works by the iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, from her emergence on the global art scene through to her current work. The chronological arc of this exhibition provides insight not only into the breadth and variety of her work, but also the unifying threads that have guided her practice from the New York of the early 1960s to the present day. This presentation lives within the framework of the “Hors-les-murs” programme of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, showcasing holdings of the Collection at the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Venice, Beijing, Seoul and Osaka, thus following the Fondation Louis Vuitton's mission to mount international projects and reach a broader global audience.

Yayoi Kusama is a prolific artist whose work is remarkable for its shape-shifting identity and compulsive proliferation. At every stage of her career she has displayed an extraordinary level of creative energy as a painter, sculptor, performance artist, novelist and fashion designer. The pieces presented in this exhibition facilitate exploration of the relationship between her creative journey and certain major currents in the history of Japanese and American art, against and with which Kusama has built her practice. Although her artistic career has interacted with, and inspired, both pop art and minimalism, her essential strength lies in the impressive independence that her highly personal pieces reflect and retain, right up to the most recent pieces shown in this exhibition.

At the heart of the exhibition, the first of her many Infinity Mirror Rooms, Infinity Mirror Room- Phalli's Field (or Floor Show) (1965/2013), welcomes visitors to become disorientated as they immerse themselves in a world of endlessly repeated polka dots. In this iconic environment, as in the poetry that accompanies Every Day I Pray for Love (2023) and in her repetitive painting practice, the artist reveals both her hallucinatory visions and her philosophy on the place we occupy as individuals within the universe. Through the broad diversity of techniques she uses in her Dots and Infinity Nets, Kusama beckons the viewer to think about infinity and allow themselves to be absorbed by the visual experience in a process she calls “self-obliteration.” She effectively invites us to step back and become one with the environment that envelops us all.