“NCAR×AWARE Women Artists Research Fellowship” Odawara Nodoka and Yamada Yuri selected as Inaugural Fellows for 2026

Photo: Odawara Nodoka and Yamada Yuri, selected fellows of the “NCAR x AWARE Women Artists Research Fellowship” 2026 (at the Institut français de Tokyo, April 15, 2026). © Yasuda Madoka

 

The National Center for Art Research, Japan (NCAR) and AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, Centre Pompidou have selected Odawara Nodoka and Yamada Yuri as the fellows for the inaugural 2026 edition of the “NCAR×AWARE Women Artists Research Fellowship” jointly launched in December 2025. The selected fellows and their research projects were officially announced on April 15, 2026, at the Institut français de Tokyo.

 

Odawara takes as her research subjects two women sculptors from Okayama, Kuhara Namiko (1906- 1994) and Ōta Kameno (1903-1986). By shedding light on the activities of women sculptors in modern Japan that have long been marginalized, and by examining the institutional and social constraints they faced, she reconsiders art history in relation to regionally grounded narratives.

Yamada examines women photographers active primarily in the Meiji period and into the early Shōwa period. Through research on exhibitions and relevant publications, she organizes the current state of evaluation and scholarship, and, by conducting archival analysis focusing on Shima Ryū (1823–1899), Hanawa Yoshino (1848–1884), and Yamamoto Kotome (dates unknown) as key case studies, clarifies the role of women’s photographic practices in the formation of modern Japanese photographic culture.

 

The Fellowship aims to strengthen scholarship about women artists in Japan and contribute to the global advancement of art historical research through more diverse and inclusive perspectives. NCAR and AWARE invited research proposals from researchers and curators residing in Japan, whose projects focus on visual artists with a connection to Japan who self-identify as women or non-binary. Research funding of up to EUR 5,000 will be provided during the one-year research period. The research outcomes will be published on both the websites of NCAR and AWARE to foster wider public and academic engagement.

Odawara Nodoka

Odawara Nodoka is a sculptor, critic, and publisher. She holds a PhD in Art Studies and was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1985. Her major solo exhibitions include those at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre ［ACAC］, the Tsunagi Art Museum (Kumamoto), and the Sugimura Jun Museum of Art in Shiogama, among others. She was awarded the Miyagi Prefecture Arts Award for Emerging Artists (FY2024). Her principal monographs include Sculpting / Overcoming Modernity (Kodansha) and Toward a Theory of Monuments: Sculpture as a Critical Problem (Seidosha). She also co-edited Art of This Country (Modern Japan): De-Imperializing Japanese Art History: Art and Legacies of Empire in Modern and Contemporary Japan (with Hiroki Yamamoto, Getsuyosha). She is a member of the Field Research Group on Artistic Practices and a faculty member at Yokohama National University.

 

Yamada Yuri

After studying art history, she specializes in the history of modern and contemporary photography. She is a curator of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and previously served as a curator of Izu Photo Museum. She organized the exhibitions Fiona Tan: Ascent (2016), Terri Weifenbach: The May Sun (2017), Memories Penetrate the Ground and Permeate the Wind Contemporary Japanese Photography vol. 18 (2021), Motohashi Seiichi and Robert Doisneau: Narrative Passages (2023), Luigi Ghirri: Infinite Landscapes (2025). She also co-curated I know something about love, asian contemporary photography (2018) with Kasahara Michiko, Reversible Destiny: Australian and Japanese contemporary photography (2021) with Natalie King.

Amada Marina	Representative of AWARE Japan, Curator
Otani Shogo	Head of Collections Group, NCAR; Deputy Director, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Kokatsu Reiko	Art Historian, Art Critic
Tatehata Akira	Director, Yayoi Kusama Museum
Nakamachi Keiko	Professor Emeritus, Jissen Women’s University; Special Director, Akita Museum of Modern Art Mizuno Ryoko Associate Professor, Japan Women’s University
Mizuno Ryoko	Associate Professor, Japan Women’s University

*In Japanese order, honorifics omitted; affiliations as of the time of the selection committee