Dates: Sat., December 13, 2025 – Sun., May 31, 2026 Open Daily

Venue: Atrium Gallery, Pola Museum of Art

Admission: Free

Organizer: Pola Museum of Art, Pola Art Foundation

This is the first solo museum exhibition by emerging mosaic artist Yamadakazuki, who composes images using traditional techniques and finely crushed, colorful stones. He focuses on the inherent “low resolution” of mosaics, which lack shadows and fine detail, and relates these visual qualities to the uncertain character of regional folk tales and myths, creating works that give form to ambiguous legends in stone.

In the works in this exhibition, the repetitive act of breaking stones in the mosaic-making process and the sounds of mountain-dwelling spirits reverberate through the forest like an echo. The exhibition features a selection of his key works to date, along with a new, large-scale work that draws on folklore associated with Hakone. In an age when precision and reproducibility are paramount, what are these quietly resonating voices of stone asking us?

Artist Profile

Yamadakazuki

Born in Kumamoto in 1995. He studied mosaic production at Tokyo University of the Arts, and received a scholarship in the 8th term of the Kamiyama Foundation Art Support Program in 2021. In 2023, he trained in Ravenna, Italy, a city known for its rich heritage of early Christian art, as a Pola Art Foundation Overseas Study Fellow. Motivated by a desire to pass on compelling and enduring folk tales to posterity in durable materials like stone and glass, he produces mosaic works that preserve local memories, including legends and folklore from around Japan. Focusing on mysterious, allegorical and sometimes humorous elements of folk tales, he explores a visual language that integrates traditional techniques and contemporary sensibilities. Recent solo exhibitions include Storyteller of Stone at Gallery Maruhi (Tokyo, 2025). Recent group exhibitions include 100×100 Mosaico at MAR (Ravenna Art Museum, Italy, 2024).

Artist Website