Descanso Gardens is pleased to announce Sound of Water: Feminine Expressions of Fluidity, a group exhibition of contemporary Japanese women artists exploring water as both a source of serenity and a force of disruption. Opening June 20, 2026 at the Sturt Haaga Gallery, the exhibition is curated by Japanese art historian Meher McArthur and commemorates the 60th anniversary of Descanso’s Japanese Garden.

Japan’s identity as an island nation has long shaped its relationship with water—abundant, life-sustaining, and at times destructive. That duality runs throughout the exhibition where water appears as shifting weather, reflective surface, meditative sound, and an increasingly urgent presence in an era of climate change.

Bringing together six artists based in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom—Mineko Grimmer, Yumiko Glover, Miya Ando, Emiko Aida, Yuko Kimura, and Ayomi Yoshida—the exhibition will highlight a distinctly nuanced approach to the subject. While water has been a central theme in Japanese art for centuries, these artists will explore it through a quieter, more contemplative lens, focusing on subtle movement, material transformation, and emotional resonance rather than spectacle.