“To depict light, it is necessary to depict air,” Hajime Sorayama has said, “to depict air, it is necessary to depict transparency; the key is how to master the expression of reflection.” Given that statement, one might expect the 78-year-old Sorayama to work in ethereal minimalism. Not so. The Japanese master illustrator has had a career-long obsession with superrealist depictions of robots and sexy women, famously merging the two in his iconic “gynoids.” In 2001, Sorayama was commissioned by Aerosmith to paint a Marilyn Monroe-esque fembot pinup for their Just Push Play album cover, one of the first times his future-forward erotica was seen in America outside the pages of Penthouse. He’s also known for designing Sony’s AIBO robot dog at the turn of the century, creating a 12-meter-tall aluminum gynoid statue for Dior’s 2018 runway show, and collaborating more recently with The Weeknd. At Shanghai’s Nanzuka Art Institute, the exhibition “Light, Reflection, Transparency” showcases the artist’s visionary works from the 1970s to the present. —Spike Carter