October 1, 2006 - December 31, 2008
Coney Island Library, Lobby (branch info)

click images to enlarge

© 2006, Time Out New York

Museum of World Wonders: Cabinet of Curiosities

Takeshi Yamada's "Museum of World Wonders: Cabinet of Curiosities" is an exhibition of breathtaking taxidermy artworks from the collection of Takeshi Yamada's Museum of World Wonders in Coney Island. Many of them have been exhibited at sideshow exhibitions on the midway (of the fair grounds) throughout the United States since 1983.

Takeshi Yamada states that these artworks do not exist only for scholars and scientists living in academic communities, but that this art is a vehicle for all people to please the eyes, uplift the spirit, stir the imagination and open the door to let them enter the undiscovered world full of mysteries and wonders.

This exhibition is a 15-month-long solo show by Takeshi Yamada and will change monthly. Featured displays will include a cabinet of Halloween curiosities, carnivorous plants and mushrooms, monsters of the Arctic Sea and many other rare marine animals.

Within each display the viewer will see a menagerie of fantastical creatures including a Canadian hairy trout, a sea elephant, carnivorous snails and three-foot-long alligator clams, in addition to many other items.

Artist, educator and author Takeshi Yamada has won numerous prestigious awards and honors such as the "International Man of the Year," "Outstanding Artists and Designers of the 20th Century," "2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century," "Who's Who in America" and "Who's Who in the World". In addition, the mayors of New Orleans, Louisiana and Gary, Indiana have awarded him the "Key to the City". Yamada, as a visual anthropologist, has had over 350 fine art exhibitions including 36 solo shows internationally in Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States. Yamada has also published 21 books. His artwork has been chosen for inclusion in the collections of numerous museums and corporations internationally.

Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Yamada was an international exchange student at the Osaka Art University and moved to the U.S. in 1983. Yamada earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD and obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Michigan, School of Art in Ann Arbor, MI. Takeshi Yamada now resides in Brooklyn.