Seitaro Yamazaki Newsletter September 17 2025
Hello everyone,
I hope this message finds you well. After what felt like an endless stretch of “disaster-level” summer heat, the air is finally beginning to cool down. I’d like to share some updates from this summer—it’s been a season full of movement and new encounters.
I was scheduled to visit Hirono Town on July 30 for a project meeting. However, a large earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula that morning, and tsunami warnings were issued along Japan’s Pacific coast, including Tohoku and eastern Japan. The visit was postponed, but fortunately, Hirono and the surrounding Hamadori area were unaffected.
Our project in Hirono is moving forward steadily. The open call for Yohaku Art Fair Fukushima Hirono ed.2: Unresolved Landscapes closed on August 24, with 40 submissions currently under review. Even as jury chair, I don’t yet know who will be selected—but one thing is certain: student artist Koharu Suzuki will be invited, as she was the only applicant in the student category.
Beyond the open call, 48 artists have already confirmed participation. One of the unique rules of Yohaku is that artists who stay in Hirono during the fair or volunteer in its operations are guaranteed a spot in the next edition. This spirit of community has resonated—many artists fell in love with Hirono and wanted to return. Step by step, the vision of creating a contemporary art community centered around Hirono is becoming reality.
In August, I held a solo exhibition at K11 Shanghai, a large-scale cultural complex that blends contemporary art with retail, developed by New World Development (NWD) of Hong Kong.
The exhibition space was expansive—large enough to truly immerse visitors in the installation. My new work, “The Grammar of Silence”, took shape there, transforming umbrellas gathered in Shanghai into sculptural pieces that evoked the feeling of standing in a ukiyo-e rain scene.
With the installation team
Inside the large gallery space
Early stages of “The Grammar of Silence”
Like standing in a rain-soaked ukiyo-e print
Day 2: modifying umbrellas from Shanghai
Approaching completion
Adding wall captions
Finally complete!
Reception: sharing the work with a glass of wine
This show was a personal experiment: I exhibited only new works. Thankfully, the response from visitors and art professionals alike was overwhelmingly positive. In December, some of these works will travel to the Yohaku Art Fair in Hirono (December 6–7). If you’re able, I’d love to welcome you there.
Just days after wrapping up in Shanghai, I flew to Seoul for URBAN BREAK, a street art fair held at COEX, now also home to Frieze Seoul.
I presented works from my ongoing series, “Fossils from the Future”, which imagines what today’s branded products might look like if unearthed as fossils in a distant future. The booth was designed to resemble an artist’s studio, with one side showing today’s consumer culture and another evoking an archaeological dig site. Even Shin Ramyun made an appearance in fossil form as a new work!
My booth
Sand being placed across the floor
Shin Ramyun as a fossilized artifact
Booth wall and poster display
I also joined an international talk session alongside artists and producers from the UK and Thailand. While I’ve previously shown in Korea through CICA, this was my first time exhibiting on-site. I loved the energy of URBAN BREAK—it was different from the contemporary art fairs I usually join, but its street culture spirit felt close to home (I still ride a custom-built fixie bike myself). I hope one day to build bridges between URBAN BREAK and Yohaku.
This month, my work “Stories Not Used: OLD TESTAMENT BOOK OF GENESIS” is on view at The Book As Art v.13: Mixed Messages in Decatur, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. The exhibition runs from September 12 to October 25 at the Decatur Arts Alliance.
This fall, I will also participate in the 4th Larnaca Biennale in Cyprus, exhibiting “8 million traces” as part of the theme “Along Lines and Traces.” The biennale runs from October 15 to November 28 in Larnaca, the island’s capital.
That’s all for now. Thank you as always for following my journey. I look forward to sharing more soon—whether from Fukushima, Shanghai, Seoul, Georgia, or Cyprus, the thread that ties all of these together is the way art creates community across borders.
Until next time,
Seitaro Yamazaki
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