[MATSUYAMA STUDIO] Contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama’s “Color of the City” to be exhibited for a continuing period at the Bowery Wall in Houston, New York MATSUYAMA STUDIO Press Release: October 21, 2025 To Members of the Media Contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama’s “Color of the City” will remain on display at the Bowery Wall in Houston, New York. Currently, his solo exhibition “Liberation Back Home” is on view at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. New York-based contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama’s work, Color of the City, will be exhibited at the iconic Houston Bowery Wall, located at the intersection of Houston and Bowery Streets in Manhattan, New York City, until January 2026. The work has been on display since September 10, 2023, and will mark its two-year anniversary in September 2025, making it the longest-running exhibit in the Houston Bowery Wall’s history.
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https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/95875/9/95875-9-fd31bb38a0ef2dbc7793565dbbaef064-1024×683.jpg “Color of the City” is a series of 30 portraits of New York City residents, cultural icons, film scenes, and people Matsuyama has photographed over the past 20 years. It will debut on the wall in September 2023, attracting significant attention. Matsuyama had this to say about the work at the time: “New York has always been a city where cultures intersect and create something new. With this mural, I sought to reflect that dialogue. I combined imagery from my Japanese cultural background with the contemporary visual language of the city where I live. The Houston Bowery Wall is an iconic space, and it’s a great honor to be able to add my voice to its history once again and leave behind a work that reflects the rhythm of the city.” The Houston Bowery Walls, owned and curated by Goldman Global Arts, are widely known as a global epicenter of street art. Renowned artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, Swoon, Aiko, Ron English, and Letna have exhibited their works there. Matsuyama was officially
commissioned by the company to create a mural in 2019. Goldman Global Arts positions Matsuyama’s current exhibition as a “Houston Bowery Wall revitalization project.” “Color of the City” reflects New York’s energy, diversity, and global identity through Matsuyama’s unique visual language, blending traditional and modern, East and West, by layering Japanese and American culture with contemporary textile motifs. The work will be exhibited again at this location as an embodiment of the ever-evolving spirit of New York. Jessica Goldman Srebnick, CEO of Goldman Global Arts and Co-Chair of Goldman Properties, said the following about the exhibition: “The Houston Bowery Wall has long been a dialogue between the city and artists. Reinstating Matsu and reviving the wall is an extension of that dialogue, a reminder of the power of art to transform street corners into places of inspiration and surprise. His work demonstrates that the wall is not static; it evolves, just like the city itself, continuing to surprise and inspire.” This work, “Color of the City,” will be installed at 76 E Houston St, New York, NY 10012 in Manhattan, New York, and will be on display until January 2026. Currently holding his solo exhibition “Liberation Back Home” at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia Tomokazu Matsuyama’s solo exhibition, “Liberation Back Home,” is currently on view at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. The exhibition features new large-scale paintings and sculptures on the museum’s exterior facade as well as in dedicated exhibition spaces within the museum.
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https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/95875/9/95875-9-3f8ceb1993fc2cfc42c90f603238a27a-1920×1281.jpg “Return” does not necessarily mean “returning to the past.” It can also mean quietly confronting history and reconstructing it in order to move forward. Matsuyama’s perspective is clearly evident in this exhibition. Savannah, the setting of this work, is a land steeped in a history in which the concept of freedom has been repeatedly
challenged, including the American War of Independence, slavery, the Civil War, and the structural oppression that continued afterward. Rather than directly depicting these events, Matsuyama incorporates their “atmosphere” into his work, establishing intersections between discontinuity and continuity, memory and symbolism, decoration and emptiness. At the same time, this exhibition includes perspectives rooted in the artist’s own experiences—growing up in an immigrant community in Southern California, feeling alienated in Japan, and feeling “marginalized despite being visible” in New York, where he has lived for over 20 years. Race, culture, faith, and memories that are difficult to talk about. The presence of voices that are often overlooked is engraved in the works as a quiet resonance. The title “Liberation Back Home” refers not simply to a return to origins, but to the act of restoring “memory” and “the right to exist” in a space that is ambiguous and empty. Freedom is not something fixed, but something that exists in multiple layers, constantly changing and living—this exhibition quietly questions the very nature of that “freedom.” Exhibition Overview Exhibition Title: Liberation Back Home Dates: August 1, 2025 – January 4, 2026 Venue: SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah, Georgia) For opening hours, tickets, and more information, please refer to the website below.
https://www.scadmoa.org/exhibitions/liberation-back-home Author profile MATSUYAMA Tomokazu Tomokazu Matsuyama (born 1976 in Gifu, currently living in Brooklyn) received his MFA in Communication Design from the Pratt Institute in New York. His representative public art works include “Bowery Mural” (New York, 2019), “Hanao” (JR Shinjuku Station East Exit Plaza, Tokyo, 2020), and “Wheels of Fortune” (Meiji Shrine, 2020, part of the Jingu Gaien Art Festival). Major exhibitions include FIRST LAST (Azabudai Hills Gallery, Tokyo, 2025), Morning Sun (Edward Hopper House Museum & Research Center, Nyack, New York, 2025), Mythologiques (60th Venice Biennale, 2024), and Fictional Landscape (Hirosaki Brick Warehouse Museum of Art, 2023 / Shanghai Baolong Art Museum, 2023). He also participated in “Pop Forever. Tom Wesselmann & …,” held at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris) from 2024 to 2025. His works are held in major collections around the world, including LACMA (Los Angeles), Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), Crystal Bridges Museum (Arkansas), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid), the Dubai Royal Family, Bank of Sharjah, and Microsoft.
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