Exhibitions 2024: Tamotsu "Tommy" Yamamoto: You Have No Choice 

October 1 – November 23, 2024

Curated by Dr. Rose Botti-Salitsky, Associate Professor of Interior Architecture + Design

Reception: Thursday, October 17, 4.30 PM to 7 PM

For more information contact: Viera Levitt, Gallery Director
Email: gallery@umassd.edu, Ph: 508.999.8555
All events are free and open to the public

Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday 10 AM – 5 PM, Thursdays open until 7 PM, Saturdays 12–4 PM 
Also open on October 14 (Indigenous Peoples’ Day) and November 11 (Veteran’s Day Holiday) following regular gallery hours.

The exhibition titled ‘You Have No Choice’ presents the work of the world-renowned architectural illustrator and Professor of Interior Architecture + Design, Tamotsu “Tommy” Yamamoto (Kyoto, 1946 – Boston, 2012) at UMass Dartmouth CVPA Campus Gallery, including a collection of his artworks and architectural renderings, from process to completion. Open to the public through November 23, 2024, with the reception on Thursday, October 17, 4.30 PM to 7 PM at the gallery on the 1st floor of the CVPA building at 285 Old Westport Road in Dartmouth, MA 02747. Visitor parking is available in lots 5, 14 and 18.

The newly established Tamotsu Yamamoto Scholarship is awarded to outstanding students who demonstrate strong potential in interior design. Originally started at Mount Ida College in 1999 and came to UMass Dartmouth with the Interior Architecture + Design program. The endowed scholarship now has just over $500,000.00 that can begin to distribute scholarships annually. Marking this significant occasion, Associate Professor of Interior Architecture + Design Dr. Rose Botti-Salitsky curated an exhibition of Professor Yamamoto’s architectural renderings and artwork including watercolor gouache, pen and ink, airbrush, colored pencil, markers, and other drawing media. The exhibition includes examples of his process and sketches to final commissioned pieces.

According to Dr. Rose Botti-Salitsky, Professor Yamamoto was an exceptional educator who deeply cared about his students and their success. “Clearly the legacy scholarship exhibits his passion to his students. Tommy was a prolific visual thinker, and sketching was his tool of communication,” she adds. "He sketched at meetings, on vacations, while explaining concepts.”

Often the process is just as valuable as the final product. This is true for the way that Professor Yamamoto taught and how he worked. This is why the exhibition includes process sketches, exploratory drawings, and ideas on trace paper.

The show also features large-scale landscape drawings, such as the series that includes the American flag. Yamamoto came to the US in the early 1970s as a young idealistic artist. This was during the last years of the Vietnam War which ended in 1975. He was very moved by what the flag stood for and the freedom that the United States of America embodied. He also loved the landscape of the USA, which was quite different from his hometown of Kyoto, Japan. The drawings represent independence and his love for the country he chose as his home. He became a US citizen in 2007.

About Tamotsu "Tommy" Yamamoto

Tamotsu "Tommy" Yamamoto (Kyoto, 1946 – Boston, 2012) was a world-renowned architectural illustrator and Professor of Interior Architecture + Design.

Yamamoto maintained a private practice as a design consultant serving local and international clients since 1973. Adept at working with architects, developers, and interior designers in the preliminary stages of design conceptualization, Yamamoto created quick sketches in any medium through final presentation renderings.

Since 1979, he taught in the School of Design at Mount Ida College, in Newton MA. He also taught at Boston Architectural College, Mass College of Art & Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University, and University of Idaho as a guest professor for their summer school in Europe. Professor Yamamoto taught perspective theory, rendering, furniture design and design communication techniques from 1979 to 2012. He was a past president of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators in Boston, and an honorary member of the Japan Architectural Renderers Association.

2024 marks the inaugural distribution of the Yamamoto endowed scholarship of $500,000.00 at UMass Dartmouth, which can now begin to distribute scholarships annually to Interior Architecture + Design students.