Press Release

Hiroyuki Hamada: Recent Work
January 9 – February 15, 2020
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 9th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm


Bookstein Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent work by Hiroyuki Hamada. This is the artist’s fourth show with Lori Bookstein and the first at Bookstein Projects.

Hiroyuki Hamada: Recent Work will feature two paintings and three sculptures which were made over the last three years. In the two-dimensional and three-dimensional work alike, the artist combines geometric and biomorphic abstractions to create compositions that are unidentifiable yet deeply felt. Utilizing a nuanced mixture of acrylic, charcoal, enamel, graphite and oil to create finely-textured surfaces, Hamada’s work is executed in a strict palette of black and white with touches of umber, which  he achieves through oxidizing metals in the medium.

The artist writes:

”Each artist forms an operating framework in which we liberate our imagination. Material and method affect the process, which in turn affects our expression. Our circumstances, world views, making processes and resulting expressions are interconnected.

Going back to paintings after working on sculptures for over two decades has given me clearer perspectives in facing new sets of sculptures. I feel my understanding of both painting and sculpture has deepened through broadening my operational framework.

We the artists and those who appreciate art should be able to recognize the implication in a larger context.  Without being able to free our imagination based on what we observe, we can not embrace the vastness of reality lying beyond the existing framework.”

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. Hamada has been included in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States including his previous exhibitions, Hiroyuki Hamada, Hiroyuki Hamada: Two Sculptures and Hiroyuki Hamada: Paintings at Lori Bookstein Fine Art. He was the recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2009 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: 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: Recent Work will be on view from January 9 – February 15, 2020. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 9th from 6:00-8:00pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 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.