Jacob Hashimoto

Jacob Hashimoto (born 1973) is an American artist based in New York City.

Using sculpture, painting, and installation, Hashimoto creates complex worlds from a range of modular components: Bamboo-and-paper kites, model boats, even astroturf-covered blocks.

His accretive, layered compositions reference video games, virtual environments, and cosmology, while also remaining deeply rooted in art-historical traditions notably, landscape-based abstraction, modernism, and handcraft.

Hashimoto was born in Greeley, Colorado.

Much of his work materials reflect traditional Japanese culture.

Despite his strong ties to the culture, however, he has not been to Japan and does not speak the language.

His connection instead comes from his Japanese-American father.

His mother, on the other hand, is Irish-American.

Hashimoto grew up in Walla Walla, Washington, where his mother, who had studied art as a college student, had her own studio.

Although he enjoyed drawing and creating art in her studio, he did not plan to pursue an art degree in college.

During his second year at Carleton College, he took a printmaking class, changed his mind about his career, and decided to send an application to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

After his acceptance, he returned home to paint and work in the studio of Keiko Hara for a year before returning to school.

It was during his senior year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago that he began to make the kites that would appear in much of his later work.

This initial experience with the kites created a means for him to shift from his position as a college student to a real-world artist.

Hashimoto’s career began with exhibitions designed for galleries and has since shown work internationally in many exhibitions including The Nature of Objects at Studio la Città in Verona, Black Sea at XIV Quadriennale di Roma at Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, Made in California NOW at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York and has had The Dark Isn't The Thing To Worry About and In the Cosmic Fugue at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago.

After graduating college, Hashimoto began working as a preparator in the Ann Nathan Gallery which allowed him to continue pursuing his personal art at night.

On Thanksgiving weekend, he was allowed to set up his first kite exhibit in the gallery in order for the piece to be photographed.

After which, Nathan encouraged him to leave it up as a public exhibit.

Upon viewing the installation, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Richard Francis, approached Hashimoto with an offer to display works in the cafe at the MoCA.

Hashimoto completed the exhibition with the aid of many family members and friends.

The massive collection of 15,000 kites was displayed for 18 months.

In 2013 the installation Superabundant Atmosphere was presented at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden, to run from June 2, 2013 until October 13, 2013.

Because his pieces are produced from a vast number of kites, Hashimoto enlists the help of various assistants from friends to employed workers.

When it comes to the designs these assistants collage each kite, he places little restrictions on their creativity.

Hashimoto must then find a way to incorporate each kite into his piece in a way that still speaks to his personal style and artistic values.

This method of construction often forces him to solve unexpected formal issues and to explore ideas he would not normally encounter.

As far as idealizing his installations is concerned, Hashimoto relates his methods to those of a painter.

He mainly follows his Intuition, allowing the paper to respond to the ideas he generates in his head and the emotions he wishes to communicate through his work.

The paper Hashimoto uses for his kites is manufactured in Japan by four or five specific paper mills.

Without this paper, it would be difficult to produce the effects he strives to create in his work (such as opacity, transparency, and diverse color) as paper made in the United States does not exhibit the same qualities.

When collaging with this paper, he uses a variety of papers such as natural fiber paper, rayon, traditional rice paper, and Washi paper.

Waterblocks is the name Hashimoto has given to his 3-D wave-like sculptures.

Using a 3-D computer program, he creates these acrylic glass sculptures by altering, layering, and combining different blocks.

The blocks are then arranged on the floor in a grid format, replicating the movement of water that has been frozen in this seemingly fragile form.

The way in which he layers and arranges the forms is similar to how he works with his kites and also resembles the manipulation of clay.

Hashimoto's exhibits display his numerous paper kites and sometimes other mediums as well.

The paper kites hang from the ceiling and vary in layers, anywhere from six kites deep to the entire length of the gallery.

His collections of hundreds to thousands of kites are made from both colored and white paper.

Although Hashimoto claims his work to be abstract and without narrative, he admits that his installations often reference various landscapes.

This exhibit is a large collection of pieces that all represent nature, some intentionally more abstract than others.