This installation presents a group of Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi from 1952–86 and hand painted by FUTURA2000 in 2020. It also includes two cosmic paintings in aerosol on canvas, one of which, El Diablo, is a classic work from 1985.

A pioneer when graffiti met the art world, FUTURA2000 was known as early as the 1970s for his radical approach in the street, introducing abstraction to a primarily letter-based discipline. Entirely self-taught in what he calls “the subway school,” his works on canvas caught gallery attention in the 1980s, concurrent with Noguchi’s final efforts to put Akari at the center of his sculptural legacy.

Working across canvas, paper, sculpture, photography, graphic design, large-scale mural work, and his commercial practice and product brand Futura Laboratories, Futura, like Noguchi, is an open-to-the-world boundary crosser. He has been compared to Wassily Kandinsky for his mastery of color, geometric composition, and line—and is celebrated alongside his friends Dondi White and Rammellzee for his progressiveness and of-the-moment dynamism. 

Coinciding with Futura Akari at The Noguchi Museum is Futura 2020 (October 22–January 9, 2021) at Eric Firestone Gallery, 40 Great Jones Street, the first solo gallery show for the artist in New York City in over 30 years; and the release of the publication FUTURA: The Artist’s Monograph (Rizzoli, 2020).