Seitaro Yamazaki Newsletter April 1, 2025

JOURNAL

Hello, this is Seitaro Yamazaki.
I have several updates for this month.

My Work Exhibited at SXSW

My artwork was showcased at SXSW (South by Southwest), a massive annual event held every March in Austin, Texas.

SXSW began as a music festival in 1987 and has since expanded into a major international event encompassing film, technology, business, and art. Interestingly, its name is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie North by Northwest.

Here’s the official website:
https://www.sxsw.com

My work was featured in Satellite Ranch, an outdoor art festival held on a ranch outside of Austin.

Check out the Instagram highlights here

Until now, my exhibitions in the U.S. have primarily been in northern regions such as Minnesota, Washington D.C., New York, and Northern California. This was my first time showcasing my work in Texas. The piece exhibited was from the Voice within the Voice series, which, unusually for my work, features warm colors. I believe it blended well with the southern atmosphere while maintaining its unique presence.

Group Show at Van Der Plas Gallery

I’m thrilled to be participating in a group exhibition again at Van Der Plas Gallery in New York. This is the second time since 2022 that I’ve been invited to showcase here.

The 8 Million Traces series has previously been presented in the form of scrolls, framed works, and large-scale installations. However, this time, I have taken a new approach by transforming the series into sculptures.

The concept of this series involves extracting unidentified sound fragments from urban soundscapes, visualizing them as sonographs, and interpreting them as spiritual echoes of the land. The title 8 million refers to the Japanese Shinto belief that spirits reside in all things (Yaoyorozu), symbolizing vastness and inclusivity.

This sculpture is modeled from one of the sonograph shapes. I used CAD software to give it a sense of rotation and ascension, then 3D-printed it and applied a gold vapor-deposited coating. I imagine it as a spirit emerging from the ground, twirling as it disappears into the sky.

The exhibition runs March 28–April 6, in Manhattan in the area between Chinatown and the East Village.

Van Der Plas Gallery official site
https://www.vanderplasgallery.com/

Exhibiting at NordArt

I’ve also been invited to exhibit at NordArt, a contemporary art festival held every summer in the town of Büdelsdorf in northern Germany. In a way, it’s the polar opposite of SXSW—a European-style contemporary art festival. However, it features many artists not only from Europe but also from the Middle East, Central Asia, South America, and East Asia. Interestingly, there seem to be few artists selected from North America.

There is often a distinction between the styles of contemporary art preferred in the U.S. and Europe. For example, my Fossils from the Future series tends to resonate more with American audiences, whereas my Specimens of the Spilled Over series is better received in Europe, particularly in Germany.

NordArt runs for quite a long time, June 6 to October 5, so if you’re traveling to Germany during that period, please stop by. The work will be available for purchase as well. However, since they welcome a large number of visitors during the festival, the gift shop apparently gets extremely crowded. Keep that in mind!

Official website
https://www.nordart.de/en/

Exhibiting at URBANBREAK

In August, I will be holding a solo exhibition at URBANBREAK, a street art-focused art festival in Seoul!

Official site
https://urbanbreak.com/urban-break-2025/

It will be held August 7–10 at the B2 floor of COEX HALL in Seoul, South Korea. The overall setup is somewhat similar to SXSW, featuring contemporary art exhibitions along with music festivals, international conferences, live mural painting, and interactive art workshops for visitors.

I was recently in Seoul as a guest speaker to talk about my book Yohaku Shikō (Embracing the Blank Space), and I had the chance to meet the URBANBREAK team in person. They are a young, passionate crew, and we hit it off immediately.

Like the Marginal Art Fair, the art Fair that I directed, URBANBREAK is an alternative art fair that challenges the conventional format of art fairs. Participating artists are required to submit a proposal outlining their exhibition’s conceptual approach.

My exhibition space will showcase the Fossils from the Future series including brand new pieces that will be shared to the public for the first time.

Initially, I considered a construction-site-inspired installation using scaffolding, similar to my previous exhibitions at ACRMTSM in Kanazawa and Spiral Garden in Tokyo. However, after discussions with the URBANBREAK curators, we developed an entirely new concept for this show. The exhibition will be a highly conceptual presentation, distinct from my solo show in Roseville, California.

I encourage everyone in Asia to check out URBANBREAK in early August! Of course, visitors from Europe and the U.S. are also more than welcome. I’ll be there throughout the festival.

Designing Jewelry in Refined Metal

There is a term “urban mining,” which likens discarded electronics and wiring to a precious metal mine. The metals recovered from this “urban mine”—and those recycled from old jewelry—are called refined metals.
I received an offer to design jewelry using these refined metals. In many ways, it feels like I’m creating an art piece in jewelry form. I’ve tried to express the sense of an alternate flow of time—something that might have existed but diverged from our own real history—a theme I frequently explore in my artwork.

The jewelry I designed will be on display and available for purchase from April 9 to 15 at the ISETAN SALONE in Tokyo Midtown Galleria. Three designers are participating in this project: newnow (the brand by Nana Eikura and Miyuki Uesugi), fashion designer Daichi Miura, and me. If you’re in the area, please drop by!

Official website (Japanese only)
https://event01.refinedmetal.org/