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Wataru Yamakami

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Wataru Yamakami by Hiroshi Wada

Wataru Yamakami

Born in Kochi Prefecture in 1981, Wataru Yamakami began painting graffiti on the streets of Tokyo from the age of 16. At the age of 18, Yamakami embarked on a hitchhiking trip and traveled around Japan, Thailand, India and South American countries for about four years while creating art works. In India, he spent about a year moving from place to place studying religion and rituals. He became interested in shamanism and traveled around Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and held his first solo exhibition in Cusco, Peru. The origin of Yamakami’s themes “proliferation and transformation”, “connection of boundaries”, and “exploration of connection points” goes back to his encounters with shamans, indigenous peoples, and hippies. For Yamakami, the act of painting and creation is an attempt to connect this world full of questions with Yamakami himself. He won Special Award, The 12 th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art in 2009 and Runner-up Prize and Audience Award, Tokyo Midtown Award in 2013. In 2019, he received a grant from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs for Upcoming Artists and stayed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Heri Dono, a renowned artist representing Indonesia, was hosting Yamakami. In 2020, a solo exhibition was held at the space, Studio Karahan established by Heri Dono. In 2022, he held a solo exhibition World of the World -Gathering wind, to send off into the sky- at the Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama in Japan which used to be a former hydroelectric power plant. He exhibited a giant painting with the size of 12m x 7m which is the installation moved by the wind.

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