-
New Sculpture #83
Our visual perception relies heavily on inputs from our brains. Our eyes are physically a part of the brains from their proximity and connections. Our memories, expectations, preconceptions and so on play big roles in making us see what we see. In a long stretch of studio practice we cultivate our own trajectories filled with those filters which can push us forward while also potentially preventing us from seeing other things. Sometimes our eyes guide us to imagine how the piece can turn out. Sometimes they prevent us from seeing an obvious until we can face it constructively. In the process, the time and space bend each other and allow us to experience the essence of our being stretching beyond the framework of corporatism, colonialism and militarism.
This piece took a few years to finish, but I’m finally done with it.
-
Guild Hall Show Opens Today
I am very happy about how the show turned out. The new piece (pictured below) was safely brought into the museum. It is surrounded by five of my Piezography prints. Scroll down for some images from the show…
82, 78 x 61 x 26 inches, pigmented resin, 2017-18
Hiroyuki Hamada: Sculptures and Prints
February 24, 2018 – March 25, 2018
Reception: February 25, 2018, 2:00pm- 4:00pmGallery Talk with Hiroyuki Hamada: March 10, 2018 2:00pm
Guild Hall
Address: 158 Main Street, East Hampton, NY 11937
Phone: 631.324.0806Click to enlarge
-
Laid, Placed, and Arranged: A Panel Discussion at The Phillips Collection
There will be a panel discussion on the show at the University of Maryland Gallery on November 9th. 6:30pm at the Phillips Collection. If you know anyone in the area who might be interested, please let them know.
Event details from the Phillips Collection site: “Join artists Hiroyuki Hamada, Francie Hester, Ellington Robinson, and Wilfredo Valladares, along with exhibition curator and moderator Taras W. Matla, as they discuss their contributions to the exhibition Laid, Placed, and Arranged, on view now through December 8, 2017, at the University of Maryland Art Gallery.
This exhibition and panel discussion is in partnership with The Phillips Collection and its ongoing series Creative Voices DC. Financial support provided by the Dorothy and Nicholas Orem Exhibition Fund and a generous grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.”
-
Recollections: Selections from the Permanent Collection at the Guild Hall of East Hampton
One of my pieces is added to a permanent collection at the Guild Hall of East Hampton. The piece will be in a group show titled Recollections: Selections from the Permanent Collection, curated by Jess Frost. It opens on Saturday, October 21 along with two other shows at the venue. The opening is 5-7pm. See you at the opening if you are in the area!
-
University of Maryland Art Gallery show
Four of my sculptures and two of my paintings will be in a show at the University of Maryland Art Gallery. There will be a catalog with my interview as well.
I’m looking forward to seeing the new paintings with the sculptures. The show opens on September 6th, 2017 and runs through December 8th, 2017.
Here is the info from the gallery:
“The University of Maryland Art Gallery invites you to an evening reception for Laid, Placed, and Arranged. This exhibition explores recent work made by six University of Maryland MFA alumni — Laurel Farrin, Hiroyuki Hamada, Francie Hester, Meg Mitchell, Ellington Robinson, and Wilfredo Valladares — who have gone on to become significant voices in the realm of contemporary art and academia.
Laid, Placed, and Arranged will be on view September 6-December 8, 2017, and is supported in part by a generous grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. Complimentary table hors d’oeuvres along with a selection of wine, beer, and soft drinks will be served.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Opening Reception
Wednesday, September 6, 2017, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.Location
University of Maryland Art Gallery
1202 Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Bldg.Parking
After 4:00 p.m. parking is free in Lots JJ2, JJ3, and 1b.
(At the intersection of Mowatt Lane and Campus Drive.)Also On View
A series of smaller exhibitions — some rotating, others permanent — round out the visitor experience at the Gallery. Make sure to check out In Memoriam: Andy Dunnill and Recent Gifts.” -
New Website
In News onI’ve procrastinated years rebuilding my website but I finally started to work on it a few weeks ago, which includes learning about WordPress from scratch, finding the original photo files and reprocessing countless images in larger sizes.
It’s pretty daunting but I’ve come across quite a few nice images that I’ve either forgotten or didn’t notice before. Here is one from 2009. #54 and my son Cosmo at Salomon Contemporary in East Hampton.
And I would like to thank Ed Brandt for tips and suggestions on site building. Thank you Ed!
-
Good Bye to Bill King
I’ve been feeling numb and broken over the passing of my friend Bill King.
The objective reality is that he was a rare human who defied the absurdity and cruelty of our time by relentlessly motivating us to see what we are through playfulness, mystery, wonder, warmth, fragility and strength in his work. He proved to us that it is indeed possible to live with dignity and humanity even in a time like ours. He was 90 years old. Knowing how he was, he probably worked till the very end. Ending of his life should be celebrated as a great achievement.
But I selfishly wish that he still calls me to say hi, that we still exchange studio visits and chat about how things are.
Not feeling like saying good bye to him at all.
Bill, where did you go?
0 -
Pechakucha Night Hamptons Video
In News onHere is a clip of a short talk I did about making sculpture last year.
Thank you Andrea Grover and Parrish Art Museum for putting it together.
Transcript:
Thank you for inviting me today. I would like to talk about making sculptures. The first step is to come up with the basic idea for it. This is a tricky process because I am interested in an experience without words, stories or symbols. What I am interested in is to make you feel like you belong to the vast universe that is within the tiny cells we are made of reaching out to the edge of the space out there. It can be a scary feeling. You are all alone just floating in the unknown vastness. You might be stuck with something you don’t understand. Or you might feel like you are nothing. You might be lonely and afraid. But I believe good art can let you feel the vastness and the mystery without the fear. It welcomes you with open arms. And remind you that you belong to that reality. It can be a moment when you look at a painting you love. Or it can last for a whole song when you listen to a great song. Or it can last for a whole chapter of a book. What it does is that it can become a bridge between that part of you and you buried in our everyday life. It gives us the courage to go on and it gives us the courage to embrace the unknown with curiosity and excitement.
Making process is a weird thing. You open yourself in certain ways at the same time you let go of other things. It’s not like solving a math problem where you add a fixed number to a fixed number for instance. Most of the time you can’t even see all the numbers you are adding. And the missing numbers can only be seen with your heart and soul. For an average man in mid 40s, jaded, cynical and disillusioned, it is not easy. As soon as I think I caught something, it’s gone. It’s like building something with my eyes closed. The things I can count on the most in this complicated process are persistence and time. Good work requires breaking rules that I have cultivated over the years. It requires additional trials and errors that allow me to see the new possibilities. I have to be patient in sticking to the goal.
The process is very slow and it’s done with my tiny brain with yet smaller art window looking out where the work sits. I go around the work so many times trying to look through the window mostly failing to see what’s out there. But eventually I succeed in mapping the area. I slowly build the work. I try to feel my way through every inch of the surface. In fact, it’s much less than an inch. Sometimes a tiny dot might make a big difference, like a tiny sparkle in somebody’s eye that can make him come alive. But it gets complicated when the work doesn’t even have an eye or a face. It’s a very time consuming process. But when the work is done. It’s very obvious. I am at a special place only with my work and myself. Nothing else matters and I am completely at peace, or completely excited.
So how do I go about it? My approach is to start from drawings. That’s my map to guide me to where I will be struggling. The lines, subtle shades of tones, shapes, these things can imply the vast process that I will be going through. I keep my sketchbook with me all the time. I try to brain storm on papers and come up with recurring shapes that literally ask me to work on as it starts to appear as a three dimensional piece in my imagination. Or sometime it just pops right on the page and I’m certain that I have to work on it.
I started out as a painter so building structures can be rather crude with lots of trials and errors. I mostly use materials you can find at a hardware store: Wood, insulation foam, burlap, plaster, roofing tar, spray paint, and so on. And using newer, more exotic materials has been an interesting challenge today.
The surface treatment brings up the characters of the piece, It defines the shape, it gives a static object movements, rhythm, surprises, and visual narratives. Or it can even tell you an imaginary history of a catastrophic event, reconciliation, or just endless calmness and richness of unbroken cycle of nature. I have fun going along with the flow. I take chances. I try to see things I didn’t see before. The result, when it works, always surprises me with a fresh presence of its own.