Sumi Hayashi

Curator
Kobe, Japan

Based in Kobe, Japan, Sumi Hayashi is a curator with extensive experience in modern and contemporary art. She began her career at the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art in 1989, where she organized exhibitions featuring artists such as Mark Rothko, Robert Ryman, and Gerhard Richter.

Since becoming an independent curator in 2012, she has contributed to major art events, including the Yokohama Triennale (2014, 2020), Gerhard Richter: Toyoshima Project (2015), and Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown (2018, National Museum of Art, Osaka). She also teaches curatorial studies at Kobe University and serves as a judge for the Tokyo Midtown Art Award. Currently, she is preparing her third Mark Rothko exhibition in Japan.

 

Hitori(bocchi)

Hitoribocchi – Japanese for “solitude” – captures the evolving meaning of loneliness in a world transformed by pandemics, conflict, and artificial intelligence. As human connection and identity become increasingly complex, this project offers a contemplative perspective on what it means to exist in uncertain times. Through artistic exploration, Hitori(bocchi) invites reflection on isolation not as absence, but as a space for resilience, adaptation, and redefinition.