#Japan #Tokyo #tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU #KAREZMAD #RAW WALLS

KAREZMAD's Solo Exhibition: 'THE RAW WALLS'

Starting from March 19, 2026, the exhibition 'THE RAW WALLS' featuring KAREZMAD will be held at tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU, curated by Yasumasa Yonehara. This exhibition encapsulates the essence of street culture and the fluidity of expression as reflected in KAREZMAD's art.

The Manifesto

The driving force behind KAREZMAD's collage works is rooted in his personal memories and experiences from the streets. In the 2000s, his daily routine revolved around designing flyers for club events. He and his peers would even host parties, creating flyers that they would then copy at convenience stores and plaster around the city. Back in those days, the streets were alive with graffiti and posters, with no social media in sight. These flyers and posters served as media through which information was shared.

Young and inexperienced, KAREZMAD and his friends were unaware of how to enter the industry or art galleries. Yet, city walls and graffiti became their canvas for expression. There was no Instagram to showcase their work; instead, they found solace in the vibrancy of the walls. Layers of posters and graffiti created a space where information and expression coexisted, always being updated in real time.

His memories of tagging walls, frequenting clubs, and making the next flyer encapsulated a lifestyle, a job, and a cultural phenomenon. The process of collage, which he learned from seasoned street artists, reflects a state of constant layering—posters being applied, torn off, and overwritten. This ongoing condition strongly influences his current work, where he’s able to channel that feeling, along with its accompanying energy, into his pieces.

About KAREZMAD

KAREZMAD is an artist who creates mixed media works that intersect reality and digital expression, heavily influenced by graffiti and street culture. In 2024825, he undertook the main visual design for XGAMES China and has displayed his work in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Rome. His artistry has also been featured in publications like Rolling Stone Japan and MAPS Korea, where he has been highlighted as a promising artist.

Follow him on Instagram: @karezmad
Follow him on X: @karezmad

Curator Yasumasa Yonehara's Thoughts

Reflecting on street culture in the 2000s, Yonehara notes that the walls of the city served as a means of communication. There existed a cycle where individuals would affix flyers, graffiti, and tags, layering over one another. The walls became a living tapestry, simultaneously conveying information and artistic expression. Unlike the current era characterized by social media, those artists utilized the very landscape of the city as their mouthpiece.

KAREZMAD stands as a representative of that era, producing flyers and posters that were stuck around town as part of that artistic progression. The repetition of this process inevitably transformed city walls into a collage in themselves. Historical street art, from New York’s graffiti to poster art, has always been about layering images on urban surfaces, where paper gets pasted, removed, and re-pasted to create new narratives.

KAREZMAD's current works reconstruct that layering of the urban environment into art. Though paper and images stack, so does time—preserving that very spirit of street culture from the 2000s. This exhibition makes a bold attempt to bring those once natural street behaviors into the gallery space, presenting 2000s street culture in its original form as art.

Exhibition Details

• - Venue: tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU
• - Duration: March 19 (Thursday) to March 26 (Thursday)
• - Hours: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Opening Reception

• - Date: March 19 (Thursday), 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
• - Place: tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU

About tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU

tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU was established with the intent to provide aspiring artists with their first step towards selling their art. The gallery is frequented by the curator, Yasumasa Yonehara, who actively searches for talented artists, engaging with them regardless of follower counts or exhibition history. The driving principle is Yonehara's genuine curiosity to witness an artist's work in person. This intuitive approach sets the foundation for what Yonehara describes as the 'beginning of zero to one' in the art world.

Location: 1F-C, Bellwood Harajuku, 3-20-21 Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0001
Website: tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU
Instagram: @the_gallery_harajuku
Curator & Producer: Yasumasa Yonehara