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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, #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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Matter on Ground
My show Matter on Ground opened at SoFo yesterday, Saturday 9/9/23. I thank Parrish Art Museum for inviting me for this year’s Road Show, their annual off-site exhibition. And I also thank SoFo for hosting this show on their ground. The show is up till October 10, 2023.
PARRISH ROAD SHOW 2023
HIROYUKI HAMADA:
MATTER ON GROUNDSeptember 9 to October 10, 2023
OFFSITE EXHIBITION
South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center
377 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, Bridgehampton, NY 11932For the 2023 Parrish Road Show, Hiroyuki Hamada (Japanese, born 1968) was invited to create a site-specific exhibition at the South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center in Bridgehampton, NY. Now in its twelfth year, Parrish Road Show is the Museum’s off-site project designed to encourage engagement and interaction between artists and the communities beyond the Museum’s walls. Each year, selected artists work with the Parrish and partner venues to create new work and to provide unique opportunities for visitors to see and experience art in unexpected places, from public parks and highways to historical sites and community centers.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Our presence on the planet is a minuscule phenomenon before countless galaxies and an infinite time span. From such a standpoint, nature is undoubtedly an existential matter to us. We, the artists do operate within the social formation, fully subjected to the imperatives of our time and space, but just as nature often defies human attempts to contain and domesticate, art does reach out beyond the social framework in addressing what it is to be human.
I think there is a parallel between nature and art if we position both in the framework of our social formation. We might not generally regard nature as having much to do with social imperatives compared with the legal codes, political environment, and prevalent beliefs among us. But if we see our species from a larger perspective of the geological timeframe, for example, nature does guide us in essential ways. And art does have the potential to reflect where we all come from: nature.
I have worked in my studio for the last three decades or so as an artist. My pursuit in two-dimensional surfaces has turned to three-dimensional ones. The materials have shifted from charcoal and paper, paint and panel, plaster, resin and so on and so forth. I’ve worked with venues of varying sizes and shapes with varying missions in different places. But this is my first attempt in making works intended for an exhibition in an open space with the sky as a ceiling and the ground as a floor. How does the work look under the natural light with the wind, the rain, the smell of soil and plants, the presence of animals, or under the moonlight?
To me, making a work involves intimate observations and intense dialogues with the elements involved. When matter collides with matter, unexpected things happen, and the dialogue becomes a part of the structure. In the process, I strive to capture the mystery and the essence of the unknown in recognizable and meaningful ways. I attempt to feel what is in front of me as the material for expressing what is not obvious in our daily routines in the social framework.
Nature operates according to its own rules and the material tendencies and realities of a given environment. It does not follow our beliefs, norms, and values in manifesting what it manifests. In that sense, my practice always has been about finding some sort of connection to the process of nature. This opportunity to work with the open space at SoFo is certainly a relevant one which I approach with seriousness and excitement.
Parrish Road Show 2023: Matter on Ground is organized by Kaitlin Halloran, Assistant Curator and Publications Coordinator, and Brianna L. Hernández, Assistant Curator, with support from Corinne Erni, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs. This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the generous support of Jane Wesman and Donald Savelson. Public Funding provided by Suffolk County.Opening reception at SOFO: September 9, 2023 at 3pm
Guided Outdoor Sculpture Tour at SOFO: September 16, 2023 at 1pm
Artist Talk at Parrish Art Museum: September 29, 2023 at 6pm
Closing: October 10, 2023
Parrish Art Museum site: https://parrishart.org/exhibitions/road-show-2023/
The South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center site: https://sofo.org/calendar/hiroyuki-hamada-─-2023-parrish-art-museum-road-show-artist-at-sofo─-guided-outdoor-sculpture-tour-with-hamada/
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Patricia Ayres at Mendes Wood DM New York
I’ve been fascinated by the sculpture of Patricia Ayres for some time. I finally saw them in person in NYC. They are shockingly good. They capture presences enduring tremendous forces with relentlessness and resilience resulting in graceful expression of life. There is nothing sentimental or wishful about the expression. They are simply being there as they are, with all bruises and peacefulness. A highly recommended show.
Mendes Wood DM New York
June 23 – August 5, 202347 Walker Street
New York NY 10013
+1 212 220 9943
newyork@mendeswooddm.comTue – Sat, 10am – 6pm
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New Print, B18-01
Here is my tenth Piezography print. For those who are not familiar with Piezography, it is a black and white photography printing method. It utilizes color inkjet printers, but the method uses black inks in the color heads, expressing varying degrees of grays instead of grays expressed with black dots. You load a special software to your computer which controls appropriate actions of the heads to produce black and white prints. It sounds complicated, but once your equipment is set up, it continues to work reliably. In fact, to me, one of the best things about it is its solidness in producing consistent results. It allows me to concentrate on the making part instead of getting bogged down with the technical part. A photographer friend of mine, Brian Miller, told me about it years ago, praising its exceptional print quality.
I start from a scanned drawing. Then I work on the image on the screen. After a meticulous and long editing process, back and forth from screen to paper, and vice verse, I arrive at a finished print. So the prints are not reproductions; there are multiples but each of them is an original.
For those interested in the prints, please take a look at the print section of the site. The new one will be added shortly.
B18-01, Piezography on archival cotton paper, variable sizes, 2019-22
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Three Painters at Duck Creek
I curated a painting show titled Three Painters at Duck Creek for the Arts Center at Duck Creek. The show went up on August 8th, 2020. It will be on view through August 30th, 2020.
Last year, there was an exhibition of my own paintings at the barn at Duck Creek. It was challenging, but it was also very rewarding. The warmth of wood, the irregular elements of patched walls and the natural elements of the historic site define this attractive venue. I live seven minutes away from there. I care about the place and I wanted to organize a show that people in the community could truly enjoy.
To me, the process of painting involves honesty, dedication and patience. It allows us tremendous freedom, but it also forces us to work with all elements with fairness, keen observation and a broad view to grasp the wholeness. We become one with the momentums, dynamics and mechanisms within the visual structure, which is built by our dialogues with the visual elements. Our paths become the work. The work therefore is authentic in a way, and it can capture a profound something that can resonate with our soul.
The work of the three painters that I selected for the show somehow share the above quality. They can be complex but they also convey solid cohesiveness. These three artists are versed with their own visual languages and they all speak to us in their own ways: but as they harmonize colors, shapes, lines, and layers, they reveal profoundness that goes beyond the framework that binds us as “civilized” beings, yet often as alienated beings. Their paintings have the power to move us unconditionally if we care to listen.
I thank Duck Creek for giving me an opportunity to organize this show. It has been rewarding on many grounds.
In order to introduce the artists to the Duck Creek audience, I interviewed the three painters. We talked about how they get started, their processes, their philosophy on art, and more.
Conversation with Elliott Green
Conversation with Sean Sullivan
At the Duck Creek barn, the interviews are available in a booklet format.
Read the booklet in a pdf format. You can also print your own booklet.
Elliott Green (b. 1960 Detroit, Michigan – eg@elliottgreen.com). He attended the University of Michigan, where he studied World literature and Art history. He moved to New York City in 1981 and has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Jules Guerin Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Residency, a The Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, a residency at the BAU Institute, Cassis, France, a MacDowell Colony Residency, and three residencies at Yaddo.
Eric Banks (b. 1954 Brooklyn, NY – ericbanks54@gmail.com) Brooklyn-native, Banks lives and works in Rhinebeck, NY. In 1977, he obtained his B.A. from Queens College of the City University of New York, NY. After receiving his M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting in 1981, Banks was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Edward Albee Foundation Grant, and Walters Fellowship. Banks has exhibited nationally; most-recently, his work has been on view at NYC galleries, such as Amos Eno Gallery and Sideshow Gallery.
Sean Sullivan (b. 1975 Bronx, NY – paradepimlicopearl@gmail.com) lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY. He received the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts Grant in 2017. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, NY; the Markus Luttgen Gallery, Cologne, Germany; and the Museum for Drawing, Huningen, Belgium.
Here are images from the show.
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Images from Drive By Art
Here are some images from Drive By Art.
#89, painted resin and wood, 48” x 20 ½” x 27”, 2020
#89, painted resin and wood, 48” x 20 ½” x 27”, 2020
#87, 54” x 40” x 11 3/4”, pigmented resin, 2019
#87, 54” x 40” x 11 3/4”, pigmented resin, 2019
#87, 54” x 40” x 11 3/4”, pigmented resin, 2019
#72, painted resin, 28″ x 53″ x 39″, 2011-13
#72, painted resin, 28″ x 53″ x 39″, 2011-13
#72, painted resin, 28″ x 53″ x 39″, 2011-13
#88, painted resin, 47” x 29” x 41”, 2016-20
#88, painted resin, 47” x 29” x 41”, 2016-20
#88, painted resin, 47” x 29” x 41”, 2016-20More info for Drive by Art, an art event organized by Warren Neidich
My recent essay was made available during the event:
Lockdown Therapy for Capitalism
by Hiroyuki Hamada / April 28th, 2020 -
Drive By Art
In Art, Artist, Capitalism, creative process, Culture, Exhibition, Installation, new work, News, Sculpture onI’ve been asked to participate in an outdoor exhibition titled Drive By Art organized by Warren Neidich. It takes place on the eastern end of Long Island where I’m located. Artists come up with unorthodox ways to show art, and hopefully the event generates constructive discussions on the extraordinary situation we are in. This gives me an opportunity to try placing three of my sculptures outside, which I haven’t done before. Yesterday, my wife and I looked around the woods by our house and discussed how we go about it. We went ahead and placed one of the pieces at a spot my wife noticed. It was eye-opening to see the piece liberate itself at the spot. What a way to interact with nature. Of course, this is hardly new—countless artists prefer to show their work outside—but it’s better late than never. Oh well. We plan to place one right by the road,and we haven’t decided about the last one yet. Pretty exciting. The event takes place on May 9th and 10th, Noon to 5pm. Around 50 artists will participate. I will also make my recent essay available hoping that it will generate some discussions among us.
Please go to the website for more info:
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Images from Bookstein Projects show
Here are some images from the Bookstein Projects show. The show is up till February 15, 2020.
Bookstein Projects60 East 66th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10065Tel (212) 750-0949info@booksteinprojects.com.
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