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New additions to the site, Nov 3, 2022
6 pieces have been added to the site in the sculpture section under 1995-2005.
I moved to eastern Long Island in 1999 to be with my future wife. Those pieces were finished either in 2001 or 2002. Some were brought over not yet finished from a sweatshop building in Union City, NJ, where I lived and worked. I lived in my art studio where a tiny area for my bed was symbolically separated from the studio fumes and dusts with a plastic sheet. I was young and all I thought about was working in my studio.
Then I loaded my 1995 Toyota T100 pickup with all I had and moved to where I am now.
I was always in search of a studio space when I arrived in Long Island. I tried working in a small shed at the house where we lived and still live. I purchased a horse trailer with a for sale sign to be converted into a studio. I rented a friend’s basement as a studio. Nothing really worked too well, but the works somehow found their way out. One of the reasons why I worked primarily on wall pieces at the time was the space constraint, although I had my beginning as a painter and I do have affinity toward wall pieces.
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Gana Art Bogwang Show 2022
I am not religious at all in a traditional sense. But being in my studio struggling to make work has taught me that there are incomprehensible mechanisms operating beyond our perceptions. The glimpses of the vastness show up as “uncanny coincidences”, “unexplainable perceptions”, “overwhelming emotions of unknown origins” and so on.
So when I felt an unexplainable familiarity in being in Korea, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and extreme sadness in leaving the country, I was not too puzzled, but still the sensation was new and palpable. All I can say is that things connect in some unknown ways and I humbly feel it as it is.
This is one of the bigger shows I have had, with 17 art works in a large venue with 2 floors.
The pieces were selected by Jung Lee the director of Gana Art and his curators. The set certainly has a cohesive theme of some sort, but I couldn’t pin point it initially. The director basically said that he thought about the taste of the Korean audience. The pieces filled up the venue like they were made for it. They certainly made selections which are cogent and very effective as a whole.
Having been in Korea looking at its art, new and old, working with people there and breathing the air in Seoul, I came to speculate on an intuitive level that the theme has something to do with some sort of faceless force of nature which grips hearts of the people in the region. And grips hearts of people in surrounding regions just as the Japanese centuries ago were so passionately fascinated by their ceramics in a narrowly defined context of “wabi sabi” sensibility. In reality, though, what I am trying to describe exists in more fundamental and ubiquitous ways, which can manifest in countless ways. It’s the resigned harmony with the unknown vastness, which I also feel as a basis of my studio practice. To me, being in studio is to be a listener, a keen observer, a channeler, who reflects dynamics surrounding us as patterns which resonate with us with visceral significance.
And this somehow relates back to my feeling about being in Seoul—my familiarity and affinity toward it. I am deeply drawn to the land, food and its people without knowing exactly how or why. My attempt in articulating it seems to remain circular as words go around the essence.
In any case, I thank the wonderful people I met there and I look forward to our future collaborations.
Here are some images from the show. Some detail images have been added, which were photographed previously in my studio.
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‘T’Space Rhinebeck Show
I am having a show at ‘T’Space in Rhinebeck, NY. It’s a beautiful venue surrounded by trees and the fresh air of Hudson, NY. The orchestration of the light and space in the compact venue creates a shrine-like serenity and harmony.
Lori and Joseph from Bookstein Projects have done an excellent job installing my work. The show will be presented at the ’T’Space website along with a poetry reading by Arthur Sze, and a musical performance by String Noise. I thank Susan Wides at ’T’Space for her hard work in putting everything together. We will also have a video production by Jack of Diamond LLC, which includes an interview between myself and Robert C Morgan. Notes on the making process with images from my studio are also presented. Read more about it at ‘T’Space site.
I’m excited and happy that our collaborative efforts have been going very well, and the show will be presented in an online livestream opening August 22, 2020 at 3PM. Register here.
Here are some 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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A New Piece, #87
Here are images of a new piece, #87. After going through many stages for two 1/2 years, it finally presents itself with a cogent presence of its own. The piece will be in a solo show opening on January 9th, 2020 at Bookstein Projects in NYC. The reception is on January 9th, 6-8pm.
#87, 54” x 40” x 11 3/4”, pigmented resin, 2019
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Images from Paul Bowen’s Wood Light at The Putney School
I was fortunate to catch the last day of Paul Bowen’s exquisite, yet bold and expansive, wood sculpture show last week. I’ve known Paul since 1995. I was a fellow at The Fine Arts Work Center, where Paul served as visual coordinator. I remember being immediately drawn to his sculptures. He is a generation or two older than I am. As both of us grew up in foreign countries and became sculptors after working with paintings, I feel an affinity to his path as an artist. He generously accepts nature, history and the physicality of found materials in seeing through an essence that conveys what it is to live. The human quality he assembles through his practice shines with the dignity and gracefulness of a survivor. When he came into the building to take down the show, he saw me and broke into a big smile. I was as happy to see him as seeing his fantastic show. We confirmed the passage of time in how we both aged. We laughed together. It always warms my heart to feel connected to someone through art.
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HERE + NOW at Pablo’s Birthday
One of my pieces is in a group show at Pablo’s Birthday, NYC. Please read what the show is all about below.
#53, 2005-08, ENAMEL, OIL, PLASTER, TAR AND WAX, 96 DIAMETER X 37 CM, 38 DIAMETER X 14.5 IN
From Pablo’s Birthday and OFFICE IMPART:
“Press release
HERE + NOW
Exhibition dates: June 26th – July 3rd, 2019
Press preview: Wednesday, June 26th, 5-7pm
Opening reception: Thursday, June 27th, 6-9pm
Pablo’s Birthday and OFFICE IMPART are pleased to present “HERE+NOW”, a 7-day exhibition project which aims to raise awareness about how today’s digital age is changing the traditional art gallery model with the increase of online platforms or other examples of digital presence within the arts.
Following a conviction in the necessity to create new collaborative models, a selection of the most distinguished online art platforms currently operating in the market have been invited to showcase their artists at Pablo’s Birthday gallery space.
Participating platforms: Daily Collector, Isthisit?, This Ain’t Art School, ARTPIQ, hiato projects, AXS Art, Freud Monk Gallery will present compelling works as well as a selection of events which will revolve around this topic, “the new digital era”. We are pleased to announce ARTLAND, Daily Plinth and New Art Academy as our media partners. ARTLAND will create and provide a virtual 3D tour of the exhibition, Daily Plinth will showcase a selection of video vignettes from the project, and New Art Academy will include the digital art exhibited in their newborn marketplace for digital art.
Full list of participant platforms and artists includes: ISTHISIT?, Stine Deja (London, UK) and Joshua Citarella (New York, US); Daily Collector, Jenny Brosinski (Berlin, Germany) and Jonathan Todryk (Dallas, US); ARTPIQ, Sooyoung Chung (Seoul, South Korea) and Ant Hamlyn (Northampton, UK); hiato projects, Paul Weiner (Denver, US) and Irati Inoriza (Balmaseda, Spain), THIS AIN´T ART SCHOOL, Anna Ehrenstein (Tirana, Berlin) and Tara Wray (Kansas, US); AXSART, Tahnee Lonsdale (West Sussex, UK) and Lisette van Hoogenhuyze (The Hague, Netherlands); Freud Monk Gallery, Johan Deckmann (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Hiroyuki Hamada (New York, US); OFFICE IMPART, Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg (Berlin, Germany) and Tristan Schulze (Leipzig, Germany); and PABLO’S BIRTHDAY with Carla Gannis (Oxford, US) and Liz Naiden (New York, US).
Recently new innovative models have arisen that look on how to mediate art today. It is a reaction to the changing society due to new technologies, more possibilities, and a broader visual art market. The art scene opens up and is trying to reach a wider audience. The next generation is eager to try out new, more contemporary solutions that are fun, in demand for different formats and other means to present art.
We are interested in the diversity that new mediums present for showing art, through online galleries, pop-ups, social media based platforms exposing and gathering artists, and young emerging galleries that are vivid, hybrid and engage in this new online-based trend.
How do these different models work, what are their aims, what drives them? This is what we want to ask. How do these new models change and adapt to the art world? What happens with the reception of art? How and where to reach an audience in the digital era?
We believe in collaboration and want to group these new ways and create a vibrant exchange by opening a space for it. For one week a group show will develop with a range of diverse players and will be completed by a dynamic program of discussions, performance, and thematization of these changes in the art world.”
You can see images of the pieces in the show at Pablo’s Birthday website.
