September 26 – December 20
Exhibition Update: Due to an installation delay, this artwork will now be on view at St. George TTC Station from the week of September 28 until the week of December 20, 2026. In addition, Yamada’s work will be on view for a limited 4-week run at Spadina TTC Station (Yonge Subway Line, Southbound Platform) starting September 26.
Artwork Description:
The series of interchangeable statements that comprise this work—tomorrow is today, today is tomorrow, yesterday is today, today is yesterday, what are we going to do—provokes dialogue around what we can learn from history and how to move forward to build a better society for the future. Tetsuya Yamada’s work began from an inquiry into how to deal with climate change and evolved into what it is now: a call to action. Installed across various sites in Toronto, including in the public transit system, this accessible and open-ended query invites the viewer’s subjectivity into the dialogue, allowing for practical, personal, global, or philosophical interpretations. As a public text installation, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO (2026) subverts a temporal disconnection between the present moment and future implications, opening the possibilities of what the artist has described as “future thinking.” This simple yet profound question has many interpretations.
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of Eleanor and Francis Shen
Bio
Bio
Tetsuya Yamada
Tetsuya Yamada (b. 1968) was born in postwar Tokyo, where he began studying traditional Japanese ceramics. He subsequently received his MFA from Alfred University in 1997 and is currently a Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Through his ceramic-centered multimedia work, Yamada examines nature to explore fundamental truths about human nature. His recent exhibitions include 7 Sculptures and Paintings in Ceramic at Paula Cooper Gallery, NY, in 2025, a Mid-Career Survey, Listening, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in 2024, and Shallow River at Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, in 2022. Yamada has participated in numerous residency programs, including Kohler Arts/Industry in 2002 and 2009, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, in 2004, and the European Ceramic Work Center in Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, in 2010. He is a recipient of the 2001 Tiffany Award, the 2005 McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists administered by The Northern Clay Center, the 2014 and 2019 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Visual Artists administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Grand Prize (the highest prize) at the Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale in South Korea in 2011, and Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023.
Location
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Accessibility
St. George TTC Station
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Getting There
St. George TTC Station