Keiko Ueki Appointed New Director of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
The Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka appointed Keiko Ueki as its new director on October 1, 2026.Summary
The Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka appointed Keiko Ueki as its new director on October 1, 2026. Ueki, born in Niigata Prefecture, previously worked as a curator at the Suntory Museum [Tempozan], where she organized exhibitions on European architecture and design, including "Pure Form: The Era of Dieter Rams," which toured Tokyo, Seoul, and three cities in Europe and the United States, and won a gold award at the New York ADC. After transferring to the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts Construction Preparation Office (now the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka), she worked on building the PFI business scheme and led the Industrial Design Archives Research Project and the exhibition "Design Loved Art, Art Jealous of Design" (2023). The museum opened in February 2019, and its first director, Tomio Sugaya, retired on March 31, 2026, with Ueki serving as acting director. In her inaugural message, Ueki noted that the museum opened in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, saw excitement around the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, and celebrated its 5th anniversary in 2026. She expressed gratitude to the 3 million visitors and various supporters. She emphasized the museum's core principles of "keeping a small profile" and "looking at one's feet," and expressed her commitment to building a museum as an active entity rooted in Osaka, with connections and support from outside its walls. The new leadership will build on the previous director's insights, addressing challenges such as further utilizing collections and archives, deepening research, enhancing learning, public relations and marketing, facility utilization, and risk management amid changing social conditions, while offering diverse exhibitions that are recognized as characteristic of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka.
(Source：美術展ナビ)