iThe Photographers' GallerySoho
NINAGAWA Mika: Captive Blooms
A free outdoor exhibition of Mika Ninagawa's vibrant, dream-like photographs of blooming flowers and goldfish that dissolve the boundary between real and imagined.
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On a hoarding on Ramillies Street, a lone bug-eyed goldfish the size of a billboard looks out at the passers-by. It's the picture The Photographers' Gallery uses to promote this free outdoor show: nine enormous, heavily saturated photographs by NINAGAWA Mika, up until June 2027.
The images were chosen and scaled for this spot. Goldfish and water from Liquid Dreams (2003), flowers from Flowers, Shimmering Light (2021) and a new untitled piece from 2026 run along the hoardings, and two fabric banners of cherry blossom hang across Ramillies Place above you. You can walk past the lot in about a minute on the shortcut between Oxford Street and Great Marlborough Street. They're the only billboards this close to Oxford Street with nothing to sell you.
The Books & Boots reviewer found the colours so over-bright they "seem like neon dreams", and rated the final pair, red-pink goldfish beside very blue water, the strongest. There's no ticket, no booking and no closing time, since everything is outdoors.
Look for
The bug-eyed goldfish
Look for a single goldfish, eyes bulging, blown up to billboard size on the Ramillies Street hoardings; it's the show's poster image.
The cherry blossom banners
Two fabric hangings of intensely coloured springtime cherry blossom, strung across Ramillies Place over your head.
The red and blue pair
The last two hoardings set a dense red-pink swarm of goldfish right beside splashes of improbably blue water.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Evening Visits
Skip if
You want a gallery visit: this is nine outdoor prints you pass in about a minute.
Also at The Photographers' Gallery
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- NINAGAWA Mika: Captive BloomsCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- The RA CollectionCourtesy of Royal Academy of Arts
- Painting the French RivieraCourtesy of Royal Academy of Arts
- Nicole EisenmanCourtesy of Royal Academy of Arts
- The Photographers' GalleryThe wub / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Royal Academy of ArtsYair Haklai / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National Portrait GalleryIstvánka / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National GalleryCarlos Delgado / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- British MuseumHam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0