SEARCH RESULTS

ARTIST TALK: Jorge Palacios and Dakin Hart Saturday, January 27, 2-3pm SEIZAN Gallery presents an Artist Talk with sculptor Jorge Palacios and curator Dakin Hart on the occasion of Palacios' solo exhibition  Paradoxes of Cognitive Constructs: Physics As Language ,  which open from Thursday, January 25th through Saturday, March 9th, 2024.   Hart, who curated Palacios’ solo exhibition at The Noguchi Museum (New York, 2018-2019), will discuss with the artist his latest sculptures, which are full of conceptual rigor and theoretical depth, and take a deep dive into his artistic practice. For general general inquiries, email to info@seizan-gallery.com For press inquiries, contact Hannah Gottlieb-Graham, ALMA Communications Dakin Hart is currently Curator for Fundación Casa Wabi (Mexico City and Puerto Escondido, Mexico and Tokyo, Japan). Between 2013 and 2023, he was Senior Curator at The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum (New York, NY), where he oversaw the Museum’s exhibitions, collections, catalogue raisonné, archives, and public programming—and had the daily good fortune to collaborate with Isamu Noguchi in absentia. His other previous positions include Assistant Director at the Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, TX), Artistic Director and Director of Artists in Residence at Montalvo Center for the Arts (Saratoga, CA), and Assistant to the Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He has also worked as an independent writer and curator. Image: [Left] Photo by Carlos Cid. [Right] Photo by Levi Mandel. ©️The Noguchi Museum/ARS

Special Event Hiromi Kawakami & Kelly Link in Conversation Saturday, April 6, 2pm – SEIZAN Gallery 525 W 26th St. Ground Floor.  New York, NY 10001   SEIZAN Gallery is excited to host a very special event: Hiromi Kawakami & Kelly Link in Conversation , in collaboration with the annual anthology  MONKEY New Writing from Japan . On Saturday, April 6, MONKEY’s founder, scholar, translator and author Motoyuki Shibata will moderate a conversation between acclaimed authors and MONKEY contributors Kawakami and Link. They will take a deep dive into their latest works and writing practices.    MONKEY, published in English and Japanese in separate editions, features visual work by artists, illustrators and photographers, including SEIZAN artists Asako Tabata and Motohide Takami. To celebrate this special event, recent paintings by Asako Tabata and Motohide Takami will be on view in the gallery's Project Space, March 28 through April 27.    MONKEY New Writing from Japan  and volume 6 of  Monkey Business , which features the work of Kelly Link , will be available  for purchase at the gallery.    Hiromi Kawakami is one of Japan’s most popular fiction writers. Her writing has been published in English, in  Manazuru ,  The Nakano Thrift Shop ,  Parade ,  Record of a Night Too Brief, Strange Weather in Tokyo  (shortlisted for the Mann Asian Literary Prize in 2013), and  The Ten Loves of Nishino .  Dragon Palace , translated by MONKEY editor-in-chief Ted Goossen, was published under the MONKEY imprint in 2023.    Kelly Link is an award-winning writer and co-founder of Small Beer Press. Her latest book is the debut novel  The Book of Love . Her story collections include  Get in Trouble, Magic for Beginners ,  Pretty Monsters ,  Stranger Things Happen  and  White Cat, Black Dog . Her short stories have been published widely, including in  The Best American Short Stories  and  Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards . “Horoscopes,” a collection of 12 very short stories, appeared in Monkey Business, vol. 6 (2016).    Top image: [Left] Photo by Rinko Kawauchi    [Right] Photo by Sharona Jacobs Photography

Join us at SEIZAN Gallery for a special screening of  Half Life (2020)  by  Alex Ito , followed by a conversation with curator Howie Chen. In commemoration of  Day of Remembrance (February 19)—marking the issuance of Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which led to the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II—SEIZAN Gallery presents Ito’s  Half Life . This 12-minute video work dreamily weaves together 3D animation and footage from the artist’s visit to Gila River, Arizona, where his grandparents were incarcerated, alongside imagery from a nuclear waste site in New Mexico, Trinity Site at White Plains Missile Range and a family home.  Following the screening, Howie Chen, director and curator at 80WSE Gallery (NYU), will engage in a discussion with Ito about his ongoing exploration of family memory, war, and displacement. The talk will also delve into Ito’s works currently on view in the group exhibition  LIFE STUDIES , including  Western Verbiage V (Risk Management) —a site-specific assemblage in dialogue with works by Miné Okubo and Hiroshima-based photographer Aya Fujioka. Screening & Gallery Talk: Alex Ito X Howie Chen Saturday, February 22, 2pm SEIZAN Gallery 525 W 26th St. Ground Floor, New York, NY 10001 A mixer with refreshments will follow the talk. About the Speakers Alex Ito  is a fourth-generation Japanese American artist whose interdisciplinary practice explores the visual cultures of violence, war, and industrialization. His work reflects on historical memory, inviting viewers to recognize the precarious frameworks of life within a world of uncertainty and possibility. Ito’s art has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including  Other World/s  at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon, currently on view through March 15, 2025. Howie Chen is the director and curator of 80 Washington Square East (80WSE) Gallery at NYU and the founding director of Chen’s, a Brooklyn townhouse gallery. Previously, he held positions at the Whitney Museum and MoMA PS1. His work spans curatorial practice, publishing, and research. Chen is also the editor of Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network 1990-2001 and the curator of Legacy: Asian American Art Movements in New York City (1969-2001) at 80WSE Gallery. Still Image from Alex Ito HALF LIFE (2020)

Wednesday, May 7, 6 PM SEIZAN Gallery, 525 W 26th St, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10001 Featuring: Margit Erb – Director, Saul Leiter Foundation Michael Parillo – Director, Saul Leiter Foundation Siri Hustvedt – Writer Sam Messer – Artist Motoyuki Shibata – English-to-Japanese Translator, Writer Pauline Vermare – Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum Photo: (Auster, left) ©Spencer Ostrander, (Leiter, right) Robert Freson, Saul Leiter , c. 1965 SEIZAN Gallery  invites you to a special evening honoring Paul Auster  and Saul Leiter —two artists who reimagined New York City in deeply personal ways through their work. In commemoration of the first anniversary of Paul Auster’s passing, we welcome a distinguished group of speakers—close collaborators and longtime friends of the acclaimed writer: Siri Hustvedt , author and Auster’s partner; Sam Messer , celebrated painter and longtime friend; and Motoyuki Shibata , renowned translator of most of Auster’s titles in Japanese.  Though Paul Auster and Saul Leiter never met—Leiter having been born 25 years earlier—their words and images seem to echo each other. They were combined in the publication It Don’t Mean a Thing (The Gould Collection) in 2017. Both artists have built enduring communities of admirers, not only in New York but around the world, particularly in France and in Japan. Joining the conversation are Margit Erb and Michael Parillo  of the Saul Leiter Foundation, along with Pauline Vermare  of the Brooklyn Museum. Together, they will discuss the connections and resonances between the writer and the photographer. The talk will be accompanied by an exhibition featuring selected prints by Saul Leiter, paintings and prints by Sam Messer, and portraits of Auster by the photographer Spencer Ostrander , Auster son-in-law. Together, they had collaborated on an acclaimed publication focusing on gun violence in America: Bloodbath Nation . (Grove Press, 2023). The exhibition will be on view from  May 7 through May 17 . Copies of  The Gould Collection Volume 2: Saul Leiter & Paul Auster   (reprint edition) and recent issues of  MONKEY New Writing from Japan  will be available for purchase at the event. Paul Auster was born in Newark in 1947.  Working mainly as a poet during his youth, he turned to prose with The Invention of Solitude , published in 1982. He gained renown as a novelist with The New York Trilogy —three novellas published in 1985–86.  He continued to publish novels and books of essays for four decades, establishing himself as one of the most important and beloved contemporary American writers.  His novels include The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), 4 3 2 1 (2017), and Baumgartner (2023).  Among his books of nonfiction is Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane (2021).  Auster died in 2024.  His books have been translated into more than forty languages, and his work is treasured all over Europe as well as in Japan.   Saul Leiter  was born in Pittsburgh in 1923. He began painting and taking photographs as a teenager and enjoyed some early success in exhibiting his paintings. When he moved to New York City in 1946, he focused on photography as a way to earn a living, while continuing to paint. In 1957 Leiter started a fashion career in magazines such as Esquire  and Harper’s Bazaar , shooting street photographs all the while, mostly in his downtown Manhattan neighborhood. In 2006 his first monograph, Early Color (Steidl), was published, revealing the artist as a master of color photography from as far back as the late 1940s. Leiter died in 2013 as his popularity was growing, and since then the Saul Leiter Foundation has arranged museum exhibitions and book releases worldwide.

MORIOKA SHOTEN: THE BOOK OF TEA May 20 – June 21, 2025 Special Talk & Music Performance: Saturday, May 24 at 2 PM SEIZAN Gallery is pleased to present  MORIOKA SHOTEN:  THE BOOK OF TEA ,  a special two-week pop-up from May 20 to 31, 2025, featuring the internationally celebrated Tokyo bookstore  Morioka Shoten . This marks the bookstore’s first-ever appearance in New York. The event will take place in SEIZAN's project room and culminates in a talk by founder  Yoshiyuki Morioka , followed by a live  clavichord performance by Akira Uchida  on  Saturday, May 24 at 2 PM . Tea will be served by  Ippodo Tea  from Kyoto. Founded in 2015,  Morioka Shoten  is a one-of-a-kind bookstore that presents just  one title per week , accompanied by related artworks, design objects, and cultural programming. With its minimalist concept and deep reverence for the power of books, Morioka Shoten has developed a devoted international following and become a quietly iconic cultural destination in Tokyo. For this special New York edition, Morioka has selected  The Book of Tea  by  Okakura Kakuzō  (also known as Okakura Tenshin, 1863–1913), a seminal work first published in English in 1906. Blending philosophy, aesthetics, and cultural commentary, the book explores the Japanese tea ceremony ( chanoyu ) as a lens through which to understand Japanese spirituality, design, and worldview. Over the decades, it has deeply influenced Western artists, writers, and intellectuals—including  Georgia O’Keeffe . Morioka recently traveled to  O’Keeffe’s Home and Studio in Abiquiú, New Mexico , where he discovered two copies of  The Book of Tea  in her personal library, one with handwritten underlines. Photographs taken during his visit, along with a portrait of O’Keeffe by  Todd Webb , will be on view alongside a first edition and recent versions of the book. Join us on  Saturday, May 24  for a special program featuring Morioka’s reflections on his research journey and a live  clavichord performance  by  Akira Uchida , described by Morioka as “an urban alternative to the sounds of the tea house.” Special thanks to The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Todd Webb Archive, and Ippodo Tea. RSVP for Talk & Live Performance on May 24 Left (O’Keeffe): Todd Webb Georgia O’Keeffe Pouring Tea at the Ghost Ranch, 1962 Vintage gelatin silver print 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.32) Right (book page): Photo by Yoshiyuki Morioka

LECTURE & TALK KEIKO ARAI × SUSIE FERRELL (LACMA) Saturday, June 28, 2pm SEIZAN Gallery525 W26th St Ground Fl. New York, NY 10001 SEIZAN Gallery invites you to a special lecture and conversation featuring ink artist Keiko Arai and Susie Ferrell, Associate Curator of Chinese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Held as the closing event of INKSCAPE , Arai’s first solo exhibition in the United States, this special program will begin with a lecture by Ferrell on Ink Painting of East Asia , exploring the tradition’s rich history and the ways contemporary artists are pushing the boundaries of monochrome expression. The lecture will be followed by a conversation between Arai and Ferrell, reflecting on Ferrell’s 2023 visit to Arai’s studio and discussing how Arai’s practice challenges conventional approaches to ink painting and carries the medium into the future. A casual mixer with refreshments will follow the talk. Keiko Arai  (b. 1963, Tokyo) is a self-taught ink painter who has exhibited widely in Japan, France, and Korea. Recent solo exhibitions include presentations at the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art Gallery, Chiba City Museum, and Funabashi Andersen Park/Children’s Museum of Art. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at the 30th International TANNAN Art Festival, Centre culturel Les Fosses d’enfer (France), the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Arai has completed several public commissions, including fusuma-e  (sliding door paintings) for Okamoto Shrine and Otaki Shrine in Fukui, Hojoji Temple in Chiba, and the Udatsu Paper and Craft Museum in Fukui. Arai lives and works in Chiba, Japan. Susie Ferrell  is Associate Curator of Chinese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A specialist in contemporary Chinese art, she has worked closely with both the Yuz Foundation Collection and the Fondation INK Collection—comprising over 400 promised gifts of contemporary Chinese and global ink art. Since joining LACMA in 2016, Ferrell has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions, including The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China , The Abode of Illusions: The Garden of Zhang Daqian  (Yuz Museum, Shanghai), Ink Dreams: Selections from the Fondation INK Collection , Legacies of Exchange: Chinese Contemporary Art from the Yuz Foundation , Zheng Chongbin: Golden State , and Line, Form, Qi: Calligraphic Art from the Fondation INK Collection . She holds an MA in the History of Art from The Courtauld Institute and a BA in Art History and Fine Art from Scripps College.

“Wild swimming and TikTok dances: Hiroshima today - in pictures“ Aya Fujioka’s award-winning Here Goes River series documenting contemporary life in Hiroshima is featured in The Guardian. The series showcases how everyday moments unfold against the backdrop of the city's profound history. "Aya Fujioka set out to shake the weight of history from her home city and capture her own relationship with it. But she couldn't help picking up echoes from the past..."  - The Guardian This year marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing. Read the full article from The Guardian here. Selected works from this series will be displayed at Tokyo Gendai from September 12-14, where we will present Fujioka's work alongside Alex Ito and Toshiyuki Kajioka.  SEIZAN Gallery at Tokyo Gendai Booth A07  Pacifico Yokohama 1-1-1 Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku Yokohama 220-0012, Japan VIP Preview (Invitation Only) & Vernissage Thursday, September 11  General Admission:  September 12-14    www.tokyogendai.com   Top Image: Aya Fujioka Here Goes River (74), 2017 Edition of 8 Chromogenic print ©︎ Aya Fujioka

BEYOND NIHONGA: TRADITION MEETS MODERNISM IN JAPANESE FIGURE PAINTING BY DARIA MELNIKOVA SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2 PM AT SEIZAN GALLERY 521 W 26TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10001 SEIZAN Gallery welcomes Daria Melnikova, Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Japanese Art at Columbia University, for a unique gallery talk on Nihonga painter Eri Iwasaki. Melnikova, whose essay on Iwasaki is included in the exhibition catalog, will explore major artistic traditions in Japan and beyond as well as how contemporary artists rediscover and reinterpret the traditions of the past. Participants will look at The Tale of Genji and 17th-century genre paintings, Ukiyo-e prints, Renaissance portraiture, modern Yōga and Nihonga, and contemporary artists such as Yoshitomo Nara in conjunction with Iwasaki's work. To attend the talk, please RSVP to info@seizan-gallery.com. Image: Eri Iwasaki, Tiny Light, Tiny Night , 2019 Photo by GION

Motohide Takami Painter Motohide Takami will join the Artist Talk for the upcoming exhibition Catenations hosted by Tiger Strikes Asteroid . Cantenations , is a group exhibition curated by Rachael Gorchov and Jo Yarrington. Works in various mediums explore the roles water plays in health, happiness, as well as the politics of water. Motohide Takami will be showing FIRE.P , 2013 along with works by Atul Bhalla, Gail Biederman, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Mary Dwyer, Timothy Fadek, Julia Krolik and Owen Fernley, Phoebe Murer, Bridget Frances Quinn, Karolin Schwab, and Cheryl Yun. FIRE.P is from the artist's iconic series of “burning house” paintings. They reference the Japanese expression, “fire on another shore,” meaning unfortunate events that are not related to you. This painting addresses the limitations of human empathy and is especially resonant now in 2020. In anticipation of the opening of “Cattentions” now rescheduled for fall, Gorchov and Yarrington are hosting Zoom discussions to introduce the works. Takami will join five of the participating artists from his studio in Tokyo. DATE: JUNE 24, 2020 @8PM (EDT) RSVP HERE: HTTPS://BIT.LY/2AP8N3K You will receive a Zoom link two hours before the start time for this event. Image: Motohide Takami FIRE.P , 2013 Oil on canvas 51.2 x 76.4 inches (130 x 194 cm)

We have some exciting news as we gear up toward the opening of SEIZAN artist Asako Tabata’s first solo show next month! Two of her works are featured in the current issue of MONKEY , a literary magazine founded by renowned translators Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen. The magazine, originally launched as MONKEY BUSINESS in 2011 introduces new voices from Japan. The latest issue themed “Travel” features writings by Mieko Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, Hideo Furukawa and many more, along with artworks and illustrations by master and emerging artists. Tabata contributed her sculpture of an Amabie made of Papier-mâché as well as an oil painting of an Amabie accompanied by Hiromi Kawakami’s short story “Sea Horse.” The issue is on sale at: https://monkeymagazine.org Asako Tabata, Amabie , 2020. Acrylic on papier-mâché. 11.4 x 2.8 x 3.5 inches (29 x 7 x 9 cm)

SEIZAN Gallery is delighted to announce our inaugural participation in VOLTA New York , May 18 through May 22. The focus of our presentation is the work of artist Yasushi Ikejiri. Influenced by a variety of landscape painters, from Ivan Shishikin to Edward Hopper, Yasushi Ikejiri (b.1971, Hokkaido, Japan)explores mundane scenes from everyday life in Tokyo. He depicts these images with extraordinary detail and saturated color. The paintings recall the pure, celebratory joy often found in landscape painting, yet a dystopian undercurrent is also present. For VOLTA New York, Ikejiri presents new oil paintings from his recent “candy box” series. The classic children's story The Chocolate Candy Angel by Mimei Ogawa (1882-1961) in a key impetus for this series. Each painting depicts the corner of a desolate street or park and a mysteriously placed empty candy box. With evocative hints at human life in otherwise empty landscapes, Ikejiri speaks to the viewer’s imagination with implied narratives. SEIZAN Gallery at VOLTA New York Booth 309 May 18 through May 22, 2022 548 W 22nd Street New York, NY 10001 Wednesday May 18 Private View: 2-6pm Public Vernissage: 6-9pm Public Opening Thursday, May 19 12-8pm Wednesday, May 20 12-8pm Saturday, May 21, 12-8pm Sunday, May 22, 12-5pm All Inquiries please email: info@seizan-gallery.com Image: Yasushi Ikejiri, Among the Peony Flowers , 2022. Oil on Canvas. 23.9 x 31.6 x 1.2 inches (60.6 × 80.3 x 3 cm).