Los Angeles-based artist Shingo Yamazaki is set to make his Middle East debut with a solo exhibition titled Mauka to Makai at Dubai’s Volery Gallery. Running from 26 June to 1 September, the collection presents a dreamlike exploration of memory, migration, and the complex nature of identity, marking the artist’s first collaboration with the gallery.
From Mountains to the Sea
The exhibition’s title, Mauka to Makai, is a Hawaiian phrase meaning “from the mountains to the sea”. This serves as a powerful metaphor for Yamazaki’s personal journey, deeply influenced by his upbringing in Hawai‘i and his Korean-Japanese American heritage. His paintings often bridge the natural world with architectural spaces, creating imagined landscapes that feel both familiar and ethereal. These works explore the emotional topography of home and the inner landscapes shaped by cultural shifts.
A Journey Through Memory
Yamazaki employs delicate, translucent layers of paint to create liminal worlds where interior scenes merge with wild terrain. Ghostlike figures often appear within his compositions, captured in moments of quiet reflection or memory, seemingly unresolved. These pieces act as portals into states of transition and longing, inviting viewers to peer through layered recollections and reflect on the experience of living between different worlds. The exhibition, running through the peak summer months, offers a contemplative indoor experience for art lovers in the city, a welcome alternative for those looking to escape the heat with Ski Dubai and Snow Abu Dhabi summer deals.
About the Artist
Born in Honolulu, Shingo Yamazaki now works from his base in Los Angeles. His atmospheric paintings are recognised for blurring the lines between place, memory, and personal mythology. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and has previously exhibited with prominent galleries such as Steve Turner, Sow & Tailor, and Richard Heller Gallery. Located in the Dubai International Financial Centre, the Volery Gallery provides a cultural stop for visitors exploring the district, which is also known for some of the top brunches in Dubai this weekend. Yamazaki’s work has also been featured in publications including New American Paintings and BOOOOOOOM. This autumn, he will begin a residency at the prestigious Headlands Center for the Arts in California.
Mauka to Makai is a meditation on the beauty and dissonance of migration. The collection captures the psychological landscape of a home that is constantly in flux, offering a poignant reflection on cultural displacement. The exhibition is open to the public at the Volery Gallery in DIFC until 1 September 2025.
