DELRAY BEACH, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is preparing to open Light as Air: The Buoyant Sculptures of Mariko Kusumoto, a new exhibition that turns the museum’s main gallery into something calm and dreamlike.

Museum members get a first look on Friday, Nov. 7. The exhibition will start its public run on Saturday November 8th and will continue until April 5th 2026.

Kusumoto developed her artistic vision from her childhood experience living within a 400-year-old Japanese Buddhist temple because she experienced the wooden floor sounds and the aging walls and paper screen light patterns. Her father served as the temple priest and these everyday experiences from her childhood would appear in her artwork many years after.

She studied at Musashino Art College in Tokyo and later at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She spent twenty years working with metal to create her clean and polished metal designs. She discovered her interest in tsumami zaiku which is the traditional Japanese method of creating dainty fabric designs through folding and pinching techniques.

The change brought about a complete transformation. Her new pieces appear as if they float effortlessly through the air with designs that resemble floating flowers in water and drifting marine life. The objects show different light reflection patterns because their light exposure alters when you move by them.

For Light as Air, Kusumoto created a site-specific installation designed to fill the Morikami’s main gallery. The museum describes the installation as a flowing and floating experience which will occupy all areas of the exhibition space so visitors can enter the artwork directly instead of viewing it from a distance.

The display area maintains a peaceful atmosphere even though it remains motionless. The atmosphere changes throughout the day because morning sun produces soft colors which transform into golden tones when afternoon sunlight appears.

The Morikami describes Kusumoto’s work as “a blend of centuries of craftsmanship with curiosity and wonder,” and the show fits that idea perfectly. The artwork combines classic methods with contemporary elements to create an elaborate work that demands complete artistic freedom.

Light as Air: The Buoyant Sculptures of Mariko Kusumoto opens Saturday at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road in Delray Beach. The exhibition will remain on view through April 5, 2026.

About the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens stands as one of Palm Beach County’s most distinctive cultural landmarks — a living tribute to the connection between Japan and South Florida that began more than a century ago.

During the early 1900s Jo Sakai together with his fellow young Japanese farmers established the Yamato Colony which would eventually become northern Boca Raton. They came to grow pineapples and vegetables, bringing new farming ideas to Florida’s soil. The economic problems together with military conflicts throughout history reshaped their historical development. The majority of colonists left the area by the 1940s while the U.S. government took control of large areas of land to support military activities during World War II.

One settler stayed — George Sukeji Morikami. His gift of land to Palm Beach County later became Morikami Park, which opened in 1977 as a center for Japanese art, history, and cultural exchange.

Today, the Morikami spans more than 200 acres, featuring two museum buildings, three galleries, a tea house, and 16 acres of Japanese gardens designed by landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu. The museum displays more than 7000 artifacts which showcase traditional Japanese items including textiles and tea ceremony objects that create a connection between Japanese heritage and Florida’s natural environment.

The mission of Morikami exists to present Japanese culture to South Florida residents through its rotating exhibitions and tea ceremonies and educational programs and its signature gardens which unite designs from different centuries into one unified space.

Visitors can find the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens at 4000 Morikami Park Road in Delray Beach, open year-round.