"From a Pedestal into Space," at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO), is Yuji Takeoka's first major retrospective in Japan, featuring works from the 1980s to today.

On entering the museum's vast gallery space, you will find it populated with minimalist sculptures of different forms and sizes in a meticulously organized composition — some hanging on the walls, others sitting on the floor. Made from a variety of materials, including terra cotta, wood, glass, artificial marble, bronze and polished brass, they add texture and color to the space. Up close they start to look a little like architectural elements of different kinds of buildings.

Born in Kyoto in 1946, Takeoka studied art at Kyoto City University of Arts before moving to Dusseldorf, Germany, where he continued his studies and began showing his work during the early '80s. He first started garnering attention with his "pedestal sculptures," a series of pedestals — the kind used to display art — that he transformed into artworks. He later developed other unique concepts, including "spatial presentation" — an exploration of the acts of seeing and presenting artwork.