Exhibition Overview
YARTGALLERY (Seoul, Korea) x gallery 176 (Osaka, Jpan) Exchange Exhibition in Seoul
Exhibition Title: “Traces/Places”
Artists
NUNOGAKI Masakuni
SAITO Hiroyuki
Venue
YARTGALLERY
B1, Hanyoung Building
28, Toegye-ro 27-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea
Exhibition Duration
March 21 (Saturday) – April 11 (Saturday), 2026
Closed Days
Sunday
Open Hours
Monday–Friday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday: 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Exhibition Planning
YARTGALLERY, gallery 176
Exhibition Introduction
This exhibition presents photographic works by NUNOGAKI Masakuni and SAITO Hiroyuki, held at YARTGALLERY in Seoul, Korea.
Rooted in different regions—Kansai and Fukushima—the two artists have continued their photographic practices while engaging with places closely connected to their own memories and everyday lives. The exhibition presents works photographed in locations that hold personal significance for each artist.
Focusing on traces of time inscribed in the land and the memories that have been formed there, the exhibition places side by side the accumulated signs of daily life in the cities of Kansai and the lingering presence of winter in Fukushima.
The two perspectives, shaped by different landscapes, intersect as traces dwelling within each place. Through monochrome gelatin silver prints, quiet yet assured fragments of landscape and time are gently revealed.
Since 2023, we have started an exchange exhibition program between YARTGALLERY (Seoul, Korea) and gallery 176 (Osaka, Japan).
To date, gallery 176 has presented Kang Jae-gu’s photo exhibition “Soldier”, Kim Eun-ju’s photo exhibition “Again, SPRING”, and Jeoung Myoung-sik’s photo exhibition “CLEAR MIND AS STILL WATER”.
In 2025, YARTGALLERY hosted the photo exhibition “input x output | input = output” by TOMONAGA Yusuke and NISHIKAWA Yoshiyasu.
This exhibition is held as part of the ongoing exchange between the two galleries.
Artists’ presence during the exhibition
March 21 (Saturday)
Related events
Talk events
Date and time
March 21 (Saturday), from 4:00 pm
Venue Information
YARTGALLERY / 와이아트갤러리
B1, Hanyoung Building
28, Toegye-ro 27-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea
tel. 02-579-6881
e-mail. gu5658@nullnaver.com
Artwork Description
NUNOGAKI Masakuni “HIGAN_02”
In 1995, when the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred, I was 15 years old at the time. Looking back, it feels like that moment became the starting point at which I began to strongly recognize earthquakes as a defining event in my memory.
In 2002, while I was a student, I encountered the photobook All Round Kobe, West and East by SENOO Yutaka. This experience led me to begin photographing Kobe. What was depicted in the book were scenes of everyday life in the midst of the disaster, and they had a profound influence on me at the time.
After that, I focused mainly on photographing Kyoto and Osaka. However, in the Reiwa era (the current era in Japan), seeing Kobe by ABE Jun prompted me to face photographs of Kobe once again.
Viewed from my current perspective, having grown up in Osaka, Kobe appears not so much as a city defined by images of post-disaster reconstruction, but rather as a lively place where children and young people move through the streets.
Over the 23 years since I began photography, what has gradually come into view is the circulation of cities—Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe—and the movement of people within them. Born in Hyogo, with family ties to Kyoto, and raised in Osaka, these cities are places that feel close to my own bodily sense.
Photographing a city from the distance of someone who lives there—at the scale of everyday life. As I continue to build up these images, I feel that the act of photographing also becomes a way of recording my own existence.
Biography
Born in 1979
Lives and works in Osaka, Japan
2003 Graduated from the Photography Department, Osaka Visual Arts Academy
2007 Winner of the Konica Minolta Photo Premio Award
2008 Rakucyu Rakugai Observation Diary, solo exhibition, gallery 176
2012 Life and Will, How are you photography exhibition, Dohjidai Gallery
2014 noah, Gallery 10:06
2015 route_31, How are you photography exhibition, Dohjidai Gallery
In addition to these exhibitions, he has continued to hold solo exhibitions consistently to the present.
2025 Korean exchange exhibition, CLEAR MIND AS STILL WATER by Jeoung Myoung-sik
(Exhibition planner), gallery 176 / YARTGALLERY, Seoul, Korea
SAITO Hiroyuki “KALOS”
Born in Fukushima Prefecture, the artist moved his base to Osaka in 2018 and continued his photographic practice while traveling between Fukushima and Osaka. In April 2025, he returned his base to Fukushima, where he is currently engaged in artistic activities rooted in his local community.
In this exhibition, he presents works photographed between 2019 and 2022, focusing on winter landscapes in Fukushima.
These landscapes, familiar to him since childhood, are his original scenes—places deeply connected to memory. By once taking some distance from them and then returning, the landscapes have emerged as quiet and certain presences, becoming the foundation that supports his current work.
KALOS is a body of work created through the act of photography as a way of overlapping past memories with present landscapes, and of facing the land once again.
Biography
1972 Born in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Lives and works in Fukushima, Japan
From 2018, he was active in Osaka for six and a half years, and since 2023 has been involved in the operation of gallery 176.
He is currently based in Fukushima, continuing to produce works using monochrome gelatin silver prints.
YARTGALLERY (Seoul, Korea)
Blog
https://m.blog.naver.com/gu5658
gallery 176 (Osaka, Japan)
gallery 176 was founded on the principle of self-driven operation, with the goal of providing a space where members can showcase their photography work. Further, members are constantly seeking external interactions and exchanges that help propel their photography in a sound and healthy way and avoid complacency.
To date, gallery 176 has showcased numerous solo and group exhibitions by our members, as well as organized special exhibitions by non-member photographers and collaborative exhibitions with other galleries from both Japan and abroad.
gallery 176 also holds events and workshops, such as movie screenings, photobook sales, and question and answer sessions for up and coming photographers (‘Shashin wo Miru Kai’).
Additionally, gallery 176 has been proactively expanding its reach beyond its gallery space, both domestically and in to Asian countries. Gallery members have also taken active roles in the world of photography outside the gallery, including running photo galleries and teaching classes.
Website