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In Solidarity: Interview with Hiroyuki Hamada
In Art, Artist, Capitalism, colonialism, Culture, empire, imperialism, Interview, News, Painting, Print, Sculpture onI have an interview out from Collectors. They have been building an online art presence aiming to create an open community free of propaganda and oppression.
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The final day for the Bookstein show, 6/13/25
It’s the last day to check out the Bookstein show. To me sharing the work is a part of making the work. We are social as a species. My work doesn’t come out of a vacuum. It sits in the flow of time and space reflecting something which keeps us going. It’s just a drop in the ocean just like we are, but I’m happy how it turned out. Thank you Bookstein Projects for making the show possible. The full photo-set is here.
#88, 29 x 47 x 41 inches, painted resin, 2016-20
#100, 38 x 63 x 27 inches (base: 35 x 46 x 26.5 inches), painted resin, 2023
#101, 24.5 x 40 x 15 inches, painted resin, 2024
#103, 8 x 10 x 3 inches, painted resin, 2024
#105, 12 x 24 x 2.75 inches, painted resin, 2024
#106, 14 x 18 x 2.25 inches, painted resin, 2025
#107, 54 x 64 x 10 inches, painted and pigmented resin, 2025
#104, 41.5 x 60 x 7 inches, painted resin, 2024
#108, 36.5 x 55 x 13 inches, painted and pigmented resin, 2025
#97, 54 x 29 x 5.5 inches, pigmented resin and wood, 2022
#102, 9x 12 x 2 inches, painted resin, 2024 -
Images From Bookstein Projects Show 2025 Are Up
Sadly, it’s the last week of my show at Bookstein Projects. Thank you all who went to see the show. And I thank the team at Bookstein Projects for yet again putting up a show, which we can be proud of. Here is a link to the photos from the show for those who can’t make it to the gallery.
PRESS RELEASE
Hiroyuki Hamada: New Sculpture
May 6 – June 13, 2025
Reception: Tuesday, May 6th from 6:00 – 8:00 PMBookstein Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent sculpture by Hiroyuki Hamada. This is the artist’s sixth show with the gallery.
“I don’t really consider myself a ‘creator’ in a strict sense. It’s more like finding the work by letting things happen, struggling through trials and errors, or simply by accidents. It’s humbling and reassuring at the same time. As if art is a path to encounter the mystery of the Universe itself: As if to show us a glimpse of life itself, which finds a home in the most adverse conditions: As if to liberate us from social imperatives which can bind us to a point of impossibility.” – Hiroyuki Hamada, East Hampton, NY, 2025
Executed over the last five years, the sculptures in this exhibition are created from layers of plaster that are built-up then shaved down and built up again. The phenomenological volumes are largely biomorphic and most often an amalgamation of geometric solids that invite the viewer to walk around the works. Closer inspection reveals surfaces that show the marks of human labor – indented drill marks, inlayed resin and painted bands – and attest to the artists’ origins as a painter.
Hamada’s work often presents itself to the viewer in seemingly opposing dualities: archaic and futuristic, natural and industrial, austere and inviting. Indeed, the sculptures are as evocative as they are otherworldly, and yet, it is this seemingly polemic relationship that drives the artist’s practice. Hamada explains that within his studio he strives “to find fine balance in elements to see things being harmonized, opposing elements coexisting in meaningful ways, richness and warmth being born out of raw materials.”
Hiroyuki Hamada was born in 1968 in Tokyo, Japan. He moved to the United States at the age of 18. Hamada studied at West Liberty State College, WV before receiving his MFA from the University of Maryland. He was the recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2009 and 2017 and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1998, and most recently, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2018. Recent institutional exhibitions include Hiroyuki Hamada at the Parrish Art Museum Road Show (2023), Hiroyuki Hamada: Recent Works at ‘T’ Space, Rhinebeck, NY (2020), Hiroyuki Hamada: Paintings at the Duck Creek Arts Center, East Hampton, NY (2019) and Hiroyuki Hamada: Sculptures and Prints at Guild Hall Center for Visual and Performing Arts, East Hampton, NY (2018). Hamada has been profiled in numerous publications including Tristan Manco’s Raw + Material = Art (Thames & Hudson). The artist lives and works in East Hampton, NY.
Hiroyuki Hamada: New Sculpture will be on view from May 6 – June 13, 2025. An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, May 6th from 6:00 – 8:00 PM. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or by email at info@booksteinprojects.com.
#88, 29 x 47 x 41 inches, painted resin, 2016-20 (L), #107, 54 x 64 x 10 inches, painted and pigmented resin, 2025 (C) and #101, 24.5 x 40 x 15 inches, painted resin, 2024 (R) -
Hiroyuki Hamada: New Sculpture at Bookstein Projects 2025
I’ll be showing a group of new work at Bookstein Projects in NYC soon. I’ve had great time working on the pieces. Each piece reminds me of the memories of the struggles, the discoveries and excitements in the making process. I’m grateful and happy to share the work with you. Thank you Lori and Joseph at Bookstein Projects for working with me. The show opens on May 6th 2025. It will run through June 13th 2025. The gallery is open Monday to Friday, 11am to 6pm.
Hiroyuki Hamada: New Sculpture
Bookstein Projects
39 East 78th Street
10075 New York City
United States
https://www.booksteinprojects.com/exhibitions/hiroyuki-hamada-new-sculptureOpening
Tue 06 May 2025
18:00 – 20:00Date
06 May 2025 – 13 Jun 2025
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A New Piece, #107
My studio is in woods. Sometimes, when I walk back to our house at night, the darkness erases traces of “civilization” and confronts me with an uncanny feeling of being in nature alone.
The other night, on the freshly snowed ground, I spotted the foot prints of a creature. From the size and shape, it must have been a fox. I’ve only seen two of them around. One time, the circle of my flashlight revealed a small owl on the ground. It must have been startled by the light, it was frozen. It was a rare sighting of the unusually shaped bird at a close range.
My mind struggles to imagine their lives but it only ends in feeling a sense of awe toward them and their habitat.
Working in my studio sort of mirrors those experiences. Sometimes I get to encounter something that I want to share with you. Thank you for seeing my work.
#107, 54 x 64 x 10 inches, pigmented resin, 2025
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New photos of #101
In News onThings change, people die, and your dog might die too, but you are still there. Your physical surroundings remain the same but your heart feels like a winter garden—the naked branches, the frozen ground and the cold wind.
But the naked branches are full of buds, frozen ground holds seeds and the cold wind ensures that the life stays protected underground until the spring comes.
#101, 40”x24 1-2”x15”, painted resin, 2024” -
A new piece, #106
In Art, Artist, creative process, From the Studio, making process, new work, News, Painting, Sculpture onIn the series of smaller works I recently started, I use the by-products of the pigmented resin sheets which cover the surfaces of the larger pieces. I have a big pile of those bits and pieces. It’s interesting that a process for other pieces leads to a starting point for something else. When materials are processed, it gives me glimpses of possibilities beyond established rules and frameworks. Very fascinating.
Also, I enjoyed (struggled) with some paintery stuff with this one, which I appreciated since I probably miss the flexibility of working on 2D surfaces.
#106, 14”x18”x2 1/4”, paint and pigmented resin on wood, 2025
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A New Piece, #105
In News onI’ve been working on some smaller pieces in addition to a few larger ones. I’ve sort of resisted smaller pieces since I tend to be comfortable working on a human scale. I like how the pieces relate to you and it’s natural to work on them for me. Also, as anyone who works in the field would know, you are often asked “do you have anything smaller?” So perhaps I’ve been intentionally cautious since I tend to value what comes naturally in the studio as opposed to responding to the outside pressure.
The way I work with resin produces byproducts—bits and pieces of resin material when I cut out sheets to cover the surfaces. I have a pile of them. Some of them are sort of interesting, echoing the shapes of cutouts and reflecting the process in natural ways. So when I was asked to give a couple of small pieces for a benefit, I tried using them for making small pieces.
I actually had fun working with the handheld size. It’s faster and less strenuous in terms of the process. It takes a bit in switching the gear in being intuitive about it, but it’s allowing me to develop an interesting path.
#105, 12”x24”x2 3/4”, painted resin, 2024
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New Additions to the site, November 4, 2024
4 new pieces have been added to the sculpture section.
#104, 60” x 41 1/2” x 7”, painted resin, 2024
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Hiroyuki Hamada at Bookstein Projects, April 2024
Years ago I watched Agnes Martin’s interview. She was describing how ideas we take for granted get in the way of her perceptions while she paints. Emptying those ideas can be a challenge. She was saying that she was struggling with Darwinism. At the time, this really didn’t hit me, but over the years this idea has become clearer to me.
In order for a work of art to affect us viscerally to our core, the elements we deal with must be observed for what they are, and the dynamics among them must not be dictated by external imperatives which can suffocate our perceptions and prevent the relations among the elements to be restricted within the artificial framework of the social formation.
As we grow from a baby to an adult, we learn rules to be a good citizen. We are conditioned to adjust our thoughts and behaviors to fit within the norms of workers who prop up “democracy”, “freedom”, “humanity”, “justice” and so on. And we are taught what those words mean by those who use those words to profit and secure their positions high above us.
It is a challenge for us to really feel and act so that our feelings and actions do contribute for us in meaningful ways—something we learn to forget to be a good citizen. But I believe this is a must for my studio activities to make a work which resonates in a profound way.
My next show in NYC opens in April of 2025 at Bookstein Projects. @booksteinprojects
Have a wonderful day my friends.
#101, 15 x 40 x 24 inches, painted resin, 2024
