UPCOMING EXHIBITION
WHERE WE ARE NOT
Yasushi Ikejiri, James Isherwood, Tom Nakashima, Danielle Winger
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 3, 5-7pm
July 3 – August 23, 2025
(Summer Holiday Closure: August 10-18)
We are pleased to present the summer group exhibition WHERE WE ARE NOT, featuring works by Yasushi Ikejiri, James Isherwood, Tom Nakashima, and Danielle Winger. On view from July 3 through August 23, 2025 (with a holiday closure from August 10 to 18), the exhibition brings together four distinct but thematically convergent practices that envision landscapes largely devoid of living beings—prompting reflection on place, memory, and the quiet traces humanity leaves behind.
Yasushi Ikejiri, influenced by a broad lineage of landscape painters—from the dense forest scenes of Ivan Shishkin to the solitary architecture of Edward Hopper—depicts overlooked corners of urban and suburban Tokyo with meticulous realism. His oil paintings, marked by heightened chromatic intensity and extraordinary detail, convey a hushed stillness tinged with dystopian unease. In recent years, Ikejiri has drawn inspiration from The Chocolate Candy Angel, a poignant children’s story by Mimei Ogawa (1882–1961), a pioneer of modern Japanese fairy tales. His latest works portray desolate parks and empty streets populated only by candy wrappers and discarded snack boxes—evocative remnants of absent lives that lend the scenes a quiet, melancholic charge.
Yasushi Ikejiri (b. 1971, Hokkaido, Japan) studied at the Toyo Institute of Art and Design and lives and works in Tokyo. His work has been widely exhibited in Japan and the U.S., including a 2024 solo show at SEIZAN Gallery New York, and has been featured in art fairs such as SCOPE Miami and VOLTA New York.
James Isherwood constructs architectural landscapes where human presence is implied but absent. His structures—silent protagonists—are rendered in vivid, hyper-saturated palettes that recall the traditions of Hopper and Hockney while veering into dreamlike surrealism. Through layered washes and gestural improvisation, Isherwood conjures scenes that feel at once familiar and uncanny, inviting the viewer into spaces that hover between the real and the imagined.
Described as a “master of deception” by Pier Luigi Sacco in Flash Art (2020), James Isherwood (b. 1971, Massachusetts) holds a BA from Parsons and lives in Brooklyn, NY. His recent solo exhibitions include SEIZAN Gallery (2024), Susan Eley Fine Art (2022), and Galeria Ana Serratosa in Valencia (2021). He is the recipient of fellowships from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Willapa Bay AiR, and VCCA, and his work is held in the U.S. Department of State Art Bank and various private collections.
Tom Nakashima works across painting, printmaking, collage, and digital media to explore landscapes shaped by memory, cultural legacy, and spiritual geography. Living presence often recedes into the background as Nakashima’s imagery foregrounds natural and architectural forms—such as tree piles and rural chapels—composed in meditative stillness. His first presentation with SEIZAN Gallery features Hanford K East (20XX), a monumental oil and collage painting inspired by a building at the Hanford Site, a decommissioned U.S. nuclear production complex along the Columbia River in Benton County, Washington. The haunting, depopulated scene reflects on the latent histories embedded in seemingly inert structures.
Tom Nakashima (b. 1941, Seattle, WA) has exhibited extensively across the U.S. and abroad. Recent solo shows include Terzo Piano (Washington, D.C.) and the Huntington Museum of Art. His work is currently featured in the traveling exhibition Resilience: A Sansei Sense of Legacy. His works are held in over 60 public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the High Museum of Art, Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum, and the Jersey City Museum. He lives and works in Floyd, Virginia.
Danielle Winger paints contemplative, emotionally resonant landscapes shaped by the expressive spirit of German Romanticism. With bold brushwork and saturated hues, her works evoke mountains, forests, and deserts not just as topographical forms but as metaphors for solitude, transcendence, and inner life. Her paintings suggest that the natural world is as much a vessel for emotion and memory as it is a physical space.
Danielle Winger (b. 1986, Nevada) has exhibited internationally, including at König Bergson (Munich, 2025), Lamb Gallery (London, 2024), and Red Arrow Gallery (Nashville, 2021 & 2023). She is a returning presence at SEIZAN Gallery, having participated in The Shape of Water (Tokyo, 2024), Art Taipei, and Art Tokyo. Her work has been featured in ArtMaze Magazine and New American Paintings Midwest #173 (2024). Winger lives and works in La Fontaine, Indiana.
To learn more, click here.
RECENT EXHIBITION & CLOSING EVENT
KEIKO ARAI: INKSCAPE
Closing Day Lecture & Talk: Saturday, June 28 at 2pm
May 8 – June 28, 2025
We are pleased to present KEIKO ARAI: INKSCAPE, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States featuring a wide-ranging survey of works created using a single pigment—sumi ink—on washi paper. Through experimental techniques that challenge traditional practices, Arai reshapes sumi ink painting, a practice with roots stretching back over a thousand years in East Asian art history, while exploring the expressive possibilities of monochromatic abstraction.
The exhibition features over twenty-two works from Arai’s ongoing series, including Zone and Now and Then. Zone presents contemplative yet playful abstractions, composed of biomorphic shapes that resemble organelles seen through a microscope or fragments of satellite images capturing isolated islands adrift in the ocean. While traditional sumi ink art is often defined by bold brushstrokes that express spontaneity and momentum, Arai takes a contrasting approach in this series. She begins by wetting washi paper with sumi ink, then masks selected areas using cutouts of various materials. This method slows the drying process—sometimes taking an entire day—resulting in forms with organic contours and rich, unpredictable textures. Through this repetitive and immersive process, Arai creates ink fields that are deeply personal and visually distinctive.
The exhibition also includes a series of paintings in which Arai combines sumi ink with unconventional organic materials—such as exhausted indigo dye to create brown hues, and bronze patina for green tones. Another series features sculptural works, where she constructs washi paper in dimensional forms mounted on traditional scrolls.
On Saturday, June 28, join the closing-day lecture and conversation with ink artist Keiko Arai and Susie Ferrell, Associate Curator of Chinese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)! The 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. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Arai share insights into her practice and experience her exhibition on its final day!
To learn more, click here.
RECENT SPECIAL PROJECT
MORIOKA SHOTEN: THE BOOK OF TEA
May 20 – June 21, 2025
Talk & Music Performance: Saturday, May 24 at 2pm
We are excited to open a special two-week pop-up this May, MORIOKA SHOTEN: THE BOOK OF TEA, 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 our 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 2pm. 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.
Alongside the bookstore, a curated pop-up store explores the culture, history, and aesthetics of the Japanese tea ceremony. Highlights include ceramics by Taro Tabuchi and Keita Matsuyama, “urushi” lacquerware by Eri Asano and Atsuko Nakajima, and a selection of rare vintage objects.
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.
To learn more, click here.
About the Gallery
Since its founding in Tokyo in 1996, Seizan Gallery has represented artists who work in a variety of media and styles. Based in Ginza, in the heart of culture and luxury business in Tokyo, Seizan represents nearly fifty contemporary artists as well as the estates of modern masters. After inaugurating its first overseas exhibition space in 2018, in Chelsea, NYC, the gallery has presented the work of artists who produce artworks with universal aesthetic appeal yet possess a strong connection to traditional roots. Such artists include Yasuko Hasumura, Kengo Takahashi, Emi Katsuta, Toko Shinoda, Toshiyuki Kajioka, and Yasushi Ikejiri. Located in vibrant cultural centers in both East and West, Seizan Gallery works with emerging artists to fulfill their vision and potential to contribute to the art world.