Instituto Tomie Ohtake
Contemporary art centre in Pinheiros inside Ruy Ohtake's curving tiled towers, with free exhibitions.
The Instituto Tomie Ohtake opened in November 2001 in Pinheiros, honouring the Japanese-Brazilian painter and printmaker Tomie Ohtake, who worked in São Paulo from the 1950s until her death in 2015. The building was designed by her son, the architect Ruy Ohtake, and forms part of a mixed-use complex whose two curving office towers are faced in coloured tiles, one a deep magenta and the other blue. Galleries, an auditorium, teaching rooms, a bookshop and a restaurant occupy the lower levels, and admission is free.
The institute mounts around a dozen exhibitions a year, mixing Brazilian and international contemporary art with shows on architecture, design and Tomie Ohtake's own work, and it holds an archive of her paintings, prints and public sculpture. Its education department runs residencies, courses and programmes for teachers, alongside projects on climate and on Black artistic practice. A second site, the Casa-ateliê Tomie Ohtake in Campo Belo, opened as a house-museum in the artist's former home and studio.
Highlights
- Ruy Ohtake's curving towers clad in magenta and blue tiles
- Free-entry galleries with a changing contemporary programme
- Archive and displays devoted to Tomie Ohtake's own work
- Casa-ateliê annexe in the artist's former home and studio
