A lot of us expect to see art in certain places like museums or galleries, but perhaps we forget that oftentimes it’s right in front of our eyes in day-to-day life. That idea sits at the heart of the Roadside Art Exhibition at the Niigata City Art Museum.
This special exhibition is set to bring together sculptures, murals, signs, posters, paintings, and everyday visual expressions that have long existed across Niigata's streets, schools, bathhouses, service areas, and underground spaces. Created by anonymous locals, self-taught artists, shop owners, children, and sign painters, these works were never intended for white walls, and yet they've shaped the city's collective memory for decades.
Among the highlights is a tile mural from Midori-yu public bath, alongside hand-painted shop signs produced by Matsuda Pet in Nagaoka, each one crafted by a sign artist and deeply rooted in local life. The exhibition also presents a rare collection of woodblock prints drawn by elementary school children after the 1964 Niigata earthquake, offering an unfiltered and deeply human record of disaster and recovery.
Other sections explore sento culture through bathhouse ephemera, vividly detailed hand-drawn posters created over 30 years at an expressway service area, cement sculptures once found in schoolyards, and a massive underground parking mural designed to brighten daily commutes. Visitors will also encounter film posters from 1970s Kanazawa, calligraphic restaurant menus turned into art, and illustrated street tales of Echigo dating back to the Edo period.
